The lights on Broadway.

When you visit New York, and are in the city, you quickly realize that it is a 24-hour-a-day town. Frank Sinatra sang it, and New Yorkers live it---“this town never sleeps.” What’s interesting is, when you are in an area like Times Square, it’s not just adults who are milling about; you have families, with strollers, and young children who should be in bed. This was not a spring break trip these kids are on---these are their parents having fun and they are with them.

The theater district is big time in New York; after 10 PM you will see hundreds of people walking with Playbill Magazines in their hands. What’s really amazing to me is, even though it’s nearing 11PM, there are lines outside restaurants with people who are not there for dessert. That’s New York for you.

One surprise to me was how friendly people are in New York; yes you read that right, they must have taken their “friendly pills” because since I have been travelling to New York, the ones who are truly out of line are the visitors. You will find the police posing for pictures, talking to people atop their horses, and actually helping you with directions; they want to make sure your experience in New York is one you will tell your friends about. They call it word of mouth---at one point, it was the opposite of what it is today, but today it’s the way they want you to remember their city.

While I was in Times Square I saw a police officer take off his hat, and put it on the head of another person for a picture. I don’t know if I ever would have believed this had I not seen it. I know in Chicago, there is absolutely no way an officer would do this for his own Mother, yet alone a tourist. Combine these actions with the number of tourist friendly stops found around this 12-block area, and it’s no surprise so many people are out at this hour of the evening.

The photo above is on 41^st Street right off Broadway. How do I know the location? It’s where I stayed while I was in New York. Just like the policeman who I met, and the construction workers who posed for pictures that evening, it’s no wonder why the lights are truly back on Broadway and all around the town.

Thanks for stopping by.