Years ago, to celebrate my younger sister’s birthday, I thought of an unusual gift. Why not get her out of the house for a while and let her enjoy some of her favorite spots.
I had been racking up many miles on my American Airlines card; I bought a travel pass from San Diego to Buffalo, NY and surprised her with a vacation to one of her dream places: FAO Schwarz, the toy store in New York City.
Buffalo? The toy store is not in Buffalo, she said. So, the surprise continued.
I picked her up at the Buffalo airport one afternoon and went to lunch at an outdoor creamery; she was happy but confused, going along for the ride. The next morning, I had arranged tickets for the trolley to Niagara Falls in both the US and Canada; we took part of the most beautiful scenery on a sunny day. My sister was totally engrossed with the water, the immensity of the falls, and the opportunity to walk down the path and get rained on by the magnificent falls. It was a day to remember and keep in our memory forever.
After Niagara Falls, the next morning we travelled to New York City via train, which took most of the daylight hours, being 375 miles southeast; upon our arrival, a taxi took us from the train station to our hotel in the New Jersey shore.
We traveled from New Jersey across New York Bay to the City via the Duck Boat and spent the next three days walking around the city. The highlight of the vacation was visiting all the sites every tourist long for: 42nd street, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Macy’s department store, etc. making FAO Schwarz the highlight of her vacation. We spent one evening taking the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway; and best of all, she stood in front of NBC Studios for a photo op with a hand-made sign reading: “To New York City for my 60thbirthday”.
It was the best vacation we’d had in a long time; not to make less of another vacation we shared with one of our elderly aunts through every Catholic Mission in California long ago. We had no idea how we were going to visit them all, starting in San Diego, going north through all 21 missions, but we made it.
At the first few Missions, we enjoyed going through the history, stopped and enjoyed the scenery, bought a few touristy items and continued on to the next one. By the time we reached the 21stMission, we were tired of the sameness, and we looked at the map, stared through the car window, looked at each other, waved and continued on our way. Our aunt was giggling all the time while we were mocking ourselves with yet another wave goodbye.
I’ve asked my sister many times to visit us here in our small town, but she refuses; “there is nothing to do”, she says, “you live a very boring life”. She may be right, but here in the country, it’s the best!