JEANNE BRAGG, Post Columnist
Posted: Sunday, July 25, 2010 4:16 am

Mrs. Murfreesboro – on vacation as she types in one of her favorite places – New York City.

I started to ask boss Michelle for a “vacation day,” but decided instead to chronicle one (very hot) day in the life of a visitor here.

You have read that grandbaby Jeanne’s mother and father live in Manhattan.

When they say, “Mom, our apartment will be empty … want to stay?” Who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Being offered “first refusal,” we rarely say no.

Anne, Chris and Jeanne went to summer camp in Vermont (www.campwinape.com) with Chris’ whole family so Tommy and I used our airline miles to get here.

Southwest flies to LaGuardia but they only have one gate. If the plane before you is late (which ALWAYS seems to be the case), you’re doomed.

We left Nashville at 4:30 p.m., flew through Chicago and arrived at midnight. The flight over Manhattan at night is absolutely breathtaking.

We then took a short taxi ride to Anne’s apartment where all were asleep.

At 5 a.m. the next day Tommy awoke baby Jeanne.

She could tell her parents were leaving. Once she realized she was going with them, she started chatting.

They left early and made it to Vermont as planned.

We are now on our own.

We’ve been fortunate to have explored NYC many times, and this time we decided to explore Anne’s neighborhood, the Upper West Side and nearby parks.

Yesterday we had a fun time walking down Amsterdam Avenue (between 93rd and 100th streets), taking menus from several restaurants that looked appealing (Ozen and Pearl’s, among others) and found Joon’s, a clean very reasonable fish market we’ll visit when we cook in.

We ate at Cafe Con Leche, a Cuban restaurant with food that was to die for. Tommy had breakfast special (scrambled eggs, chorizo and fried plantains – $6.95).

I settled on a Cuban sandwich ($6.95). It was the best I’ve EVER had.

We’ll go back there.

Then we made a trek to Morningside Park, a 17-block walk from the apartment. On foot (arthritically challenged sore feet) in 90-degree heat, it took about 30 minutes to get there.

The walk was torture.

Tommy had planned to read his book once there, but despite the descriptions of how accommodating Morningside is, we saw very few – if any – seats in the shade.

The park was in a valley, surrounded by rocks, and if one wanted to go to the West side to see the view, it required a minimum of 80 steps up a long, rocky staircase.

Tommy quickly realized why they call the residential area above them Morningside Heights!

We exited via the east side and planned to take a bus ($2.25 each) back to Anne’s apartment, but when we went into the subway to buy a ticket (subway passes and bus passes are the same) we decided to ride the B subway to Bryant Park (just behind the New York Public Library on 42nd and Fifth).

There we enjoyed the shade, numerous chairs and people watching. And what a fun time we had.

On the agenda for the rest of the trip is to explore the other parks close by (Central and Riverside) and find other sandwich and hole-in-the-wall places.

I managed to bring a few fresh tomatoes from home, so we’ll eat in and relax, doing the things you don’t feel you can do when you spend $200+ a night for a hotel room.

You, too, can explore Amsterdam Avenue and other Manhattan locations via internet.

Go to Google Maps, type in 726 Amsterdam Ave, NY, NY and when the “balloon” pops up on the map, click on it and “Street View” will show. Click on Street View option; then slide the white arrow to the right. You can take a virtual tour. You can also get the address of other locations of interest and follow them, too, as above. Not the same as being in NYC, but fun anyway.

Click on Street View option; then slide the white arrow to the right and viola, you can take a virtual tour. You can also get the address of other locations of interest (i.e., Bryant Park) and follow them, too, as above.

Not the same as being in NYC, but fun anyway.

I hope you’ll enjoy the viewing as we have.

‘Til next week.