TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

For Dan and Ann Darnell, the idea of subway-riding, cab-taking and

shoulder-bumping on 5th Avenue doesn’t yet shine with the ironic urban

glitz that the Big Apple is known for.

They loved visiting New York -- the hot dogs bought from street

vendors were tasty, the Statue of Liberty stood tall and their table at

Windows on the World in the World Trade Center gave them a heavenly view.

But the Newport Beach children are happy to be back on the Balboa

Peninsula, away from the cold, the bustle, the impersonal proximity of

strangers that, for some, make NYC special.

Dan, 12, and Ann, 11, agree that while the city grew on them during

their seven-day trip last month, they wouldn’t live there for very long.

“I don’t think I really like being really crowded,” Ann said. “And I

never really got used to the coldness.”

The children stayed with their parents, Margaret and Hank Darnell, at

the Doubletree Hotel in Times Square. ABC studios was adjacent to them.

The studios where MTV’s “Total Request Live” is taped were across the

street. They spent time with sister Katie Darnell, a graduate student at

Columbia University, and hit all the sights.

“[New York] is so famous and stuff, but it seemed better than I

thought it would seem,” Dan said.

They visited the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Empire

State Building, Madison Square Garden, Grand Central Station, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Stock Exchange, the Frick Museum

and, of course, FAO Schwartz.

They watched “The Lion King” at the New Amsterdam and “Kiss Me Kate”

in a venue they can’t quite remember.

They even ate venison for the first time and concluded it “wasn’t that

bad.”

“My favorite was the Statue of Liberty,” said Ann, who recently

studied the history of Ellis Island in school. “Because you never really

get to go to a Statue of Liberty here.”

Dan recognized the obelisks in Central Park. He had learned about

Egyptian history in class and knew the significance behind the four-sided

granite pillars.

Both said they loved the zoo. Glass windows separated the animals from

visitors, and Dan and Ann got to lean up as close as they wanted. The

polar bears were cute and swam with buckets they used as toys.

“It’s really different there,” Ann said. “Here it’s not as crowded.

It’s colder there. Here it’s less expensive.”

Dan offered a sharp observation of his own.

“In movies, it seemed like they only had cabs in New York, but I saw a

lot more cars that I thought there’d be.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail [email protected]; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.