New York City Vacation # 01
Some People I want to recognize
Written
by Dan McDonald
Towards
the end of the year 2013 I made the decision to begin trying to take one
special time of vacation each year. It was something of a fifty-something life
crisis decision. In June of 2014 I went to California, saw Redwoods, put my
hands on a Giant Sequoia, saw the baseball Giants play, and walked the Golden
Gate Bridge. I so loved the experience that in December I took a mini-vacation
to New York City, which mostly taught me that I needed to immediately come back
when I could spend more time in the city. So that is where I recently went for
two weeks. This is the first of what I expect will be several blogs on my
experiencing New York City.
In
this first blog I want to recognize some of the people who helped my visit to
New York City be one of the finer experiences of my life.
First
I want to mention Vivienne Gucwa. She is a photographer, who had some of her
New York City photographs and some of her personal story told in a book
entitled NY through the Lens. Her photographs drew me to wish to see the
city she had photographed, and her story inspired me in many ways. She tells
how she took up photography during a rough patch in her life. She found walking
to be a way of relieving stress during this difficult time. She bought an
inexpensive point and shoot camera over the internet, and began taking her
camera with her on her walks. She would walk a street until she saw something
she would photograph and then she had a collection of photographs she began to
share with others in a blog. Her book has become a best seller and so her story
is a beautiful story of life unfolding in a wonderful way. I happen to be a
type II diabetic trying to control his diabetes through exercise and diet. The
idea of taking a camera along on walks was perfect for me, and I am not sure I
would have thought of that except how Vivienne Gucwa told her story. There are
plenty of things that one should plan on seeing in New York City, but some of
the most precious discoveries take place when walking down a street you
discover a scene you had no idea existed. I have to thank Vivienne Gucwa for telling
of how she discovered so much in this way. You can follow her on Twitter, just
search “Vivienne Gucwa @traveling lens, or like her Facebook page (there aren’t
a lot people under the name of Vivienne Gucwa to seek through. Or you might
purchase her book.
A group of people I also want to recognize
is the staff at the Hyatt Herald Square Hotel at 30 W. 31st Street. I
don’t generally stay at the higher priced hotels and decided to book at the
Hyatt when I couldn’t book at some of the hotels I had thought about before
them. I certainly understand that co$t is one of the big concerns for tourists.
But as it turned out I am grateful for being able to experience what the Hyatt
offered to me once I was there. There is a difference between nice hotels and
what you experience in an upper tier hotel. The difference is the difference
between a staff that is employed to do a job, and a staff that has decided to
have careers in the hotel and tourism industry. The staff at the Hyatt Herald
Square served the customer’s need with expertise. They approach their work with
a sense of how their mission is to aid customers in their stay in New York City
and not only in their booking a room at the hotel. I have to admit that as I
think of their approach to their serving their customers I am encouraged to
realize that this is the sort of approach and attitude I need to cultivate on
my job that also deals with meeting and helping customers. It didn’t hurt that
I had a wonderful view when I looked out of my hotel room on the first night
and saw this scene.
Or this daytime view
The location was
fantastic
Another
group of people I want to commend is the staff at American Airlines, especially
the staffs at La Guardia Airport in New York, and O’Hare Airport in Chicago. In
recent years American has been saddled with a reputation of offering poor
service. If my flight experience is a gauge to their service then perhaps they
are making important strides in recovering their reputation as an airline
offering excellent service. Let me tell a little story of my experience with
American that tells me whatever their reputation is they have some wonderful
people who are doing what they need to do to help their passengers in their
journeys. The story is especially tied to my return from New York City to Tulsa
via Chicago.
I
had purchased quite a few books and souvenirs while in New York, so I had my
full capacity of two bags to check in, and two to carry on. But I made a
fateful mistake. I had one larger sized paperweight, the kind with snow flakes
and liquid inside the paperweight. The problem was that the paperweight
contained more than the legal amount of liquid for carry on. I had wanted to
carry it on the flight to insure it was not damaged. But it meant I failed to
get through security. I either had to leave it or get it sent through checked
in baggage. I already had my two bag limit of checked in baggage. I returned to
American and the person waiting on me quickly contacted her supervisor to see
if one of my already checked in bags could be brought back to them and then I
could repackage the paperweight into a checked in bag. They weighed the bag and
I passed and the gal who had helped me get this sorted out congratulated me
with a high five.
The
story did not end there. As our flight from La Guardia to Chicago O’Hare was
going towards the runway, a call to the tower from O’Hare said that storms in
the Chicago area were forcing them to delay flights going to Chicago. I was
scheduled to connect to the night’s last flight to Tulsa out of O’Hare. After
an hour or more delay I prepared myself for a long delay to Tulsa because of
the lateness of my flight. But when I got to Chicago the flight to Tulsa was
still boarding. It was close to being finished boarding. By the time I got off
my flight to Chicago and directly to the gate for my flight to Tulsa I was the
last person to board the Tulsa bound flight and the doors were closed moments
after I got to my seat and soon we were in flight. At that point seeing as I
only had five minutes between my getting off one plane and on to another, I
accepted that there was little likelihood for my baggage getting to Tulsa on
that flight. But lo and behold the baggage was on the carousel moments after
the baggage from our flight began to appear. So I want to say that especially
the American staff at La Guardia and O’Hare did a fantastic job. If this
service is duplicated throughout the company, then American Airlines will soon
rebuild its service reputation.
Thank
you Vivienne Gucwa, the staff at the Hyatt Herald Square Hotel, and to the American
Airline people whose work helped contribute to making my New York City vacation
a wonderful experience.
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