Gawk at the Lights and Get the Hell Out and other New York City, NY Tourist Trap Tips

I admit it, I had my picture taken in Times Square. It is a great visual spectacle, like a twenty-story, six block long version of the Las Vegas Strip. It's worth a walk through. But it's worthless to spend any substantial time there. There's nothing except places to drop cash doing things that are a watered-down, Disneyfied version of New York. It was a flashier version of the stupidest place I had ever been in my life: Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

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I walked past the site of the worst event that has ever happened to my country. Where the World Trade Center once stood there is now an empty hole, and a huge one at that. There's a 40-story building shrouded in black tarp. I initially thought that this was intended as a sign of respect, until I peered up under the tarp and saw the entire facade of this giant building was torn up; pieces of metal, twisted, boarded up windows. It looked like the trailer parks you see on the news after a tornado hit. But this was a 40 story building.

I saw some moronic tourist getting her picture taken in front of the site, smiling and all. I thought to myself, "what are you going to do with this picture when you get it developed?" You might as well blow it up poster size, and frame it with a caption "I am an idiot." It's like having a picture of yourself smiling in front of a grandparent's or parent's casket.

Ground zero was not a "destination" on our New York itinerary. But it's in the middle of Lower Manhattan, so you will see it when you're there. For me it brought home in a very visceral way the events of one of the saddest days of my life: September 11, 2001.

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