Sorry I'm terrible at keeping this up...I have lots to blog about since the trip, but I have to get the trip details out there first (I can't handle things out of order like that!).
Day 4 was my favorite day. I got to run in Central Park around the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. It is a beautiful loop around this reservoir and the view the whole way around it is gorgeous. The loop is a little over a mile & a half, so twice around is a good 5K training run. Missy & Laury laid out on the Great Lawn while I was running. I ran for 35 minutes, then ran back to them and got my camera to take some pictures. Only I took almost an hour to do the picture taking, so when I got back, Missy & Laury were a little frantic worrying that something was wrong. Of course, I guess if they were worried enough, they could have come looking for me, but they didn't. Anyway, we headed back to the hotel after that. We ate across the street at PAX, a sandwich and soup shop. We all got different sandwiches and tasted them...all good. It was very busy with people in dressy work clothes, so we stood out like sore thumbs in our clothes for the trek to Central Park.
That afternoon, we went to Times Square to get our half-price tickets for a show. We had to be flexible since you never know what you're going to get. We ended up getting our first choice...Chicago. The whole ticket-buying thing is crazy to me. If you wait until the day of the show, you get half-price tickets if they're available. I don't understand this concept...why are they suddenly so cheap? And why would anyone pay full price if they could get them for half-price? I guess I should just reap the benefits and not question it. The line was really long, but moved fast. What made me laugh about it was that they were very strict (one might say "Nazi") about moving the line through towards the end of the line. But, once you got close to the ticket windows, it was a complete free-for-all, including pushing people out of the way. We saw two men get into an argument because one pushed the other. Which is fine, it just was very different from the end of the line, where it was very organized. So, we got our tickets and went on our merry way...
...to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. Let me say that we had "free" tickets to this through our New York Pass. If we hadn't, we probably wouldn't have gone to it anyway. And especially not paid the $30 to go in. And we would have been very disappointed if we had paid the $$. This place wasn't all that great. It was kind of cool to see the life-like figures of people. And it was pretty funny because we kept thinking there were more people in the room than there actually were because you have all these wax figures standing around. However, we were maybe there 30 minutes. It was just OK...nothing special. We did take a lot of pictures with the figures. My favorite is a tie between Jon Bon Jovi and Jesse Owens...I took pictures with both of them. Bon Jovi doesn't look like him at all, but I took the picture anyway...it's my favorite band ever!
Wednesday night, we got dressed up to go the show. However, we ate at Burger Heaven on the way. It's a chain of diners around town. We looked very funny in our black dresses sitting in a booth eating burgers and fries! For some reason, we took lots of pictures in Burger Heaven...I don't really remember why, though. Laury's feet were killing her, but there wasn't any easy transportation to the theatre, so we kept walking. Missy and I offered to switch shoes with her, but she didn't want to. And we never found a drugstore to buy band-aids on the way, so the poor thing just had to suffer through. I think her feet were actually bleeding!
We got to the show and sat down. There was a lady seating people who was a little too into her job...she would yell at anyone who accidentally sat in the wrong seat. Fortunately ours were on the end, so we were very clear about where to sit and didn't get yelled at : ). The show was awesome! It was Chicago and Joey Lawrence (aka Joey from Blossom and Joey from Gimme A Break and Joey from that Brothers show he made with his brothers) played Billy Flynn. It was fantastic. The lead character (Roxie)was played by the understudy. It was her first night playing the lead, but she did great. The other main character (Velma) was great. Shortly after Act 2 started, the announcer came over the sound system and said "The role of Velma will now be played by..." like they do on daytime soaps when they change actors. It was odd, especially since the lady that stepped in had been in the show as another character...it was a little confusing to follow. Regardless, the show was awesome. At the end, they explained that the actress originally playing Velma threw out her back, so they had to sub someone in...crazy! I was quite impressed with the caliber of people they had singing and dancing...I really like musicals!
We took a taxi home to spare Laury's feet any more trouble. That was all for Wednesday.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
Day 3, Part 2
Whew...Tuesday was a busy day for us! Here's the rest of what we did...
Once we left Chinatown, we went to Little Italy to eat dinner. There ended up being a street fair on Mulberry, where all the restaurants are. And when I say street "fair", I mean fair...like with the games where you fish for ducks with a magnet on a string or throw darts at balloons to win prizes. There were several stands with funnel cakes...always the sign of a classy operation...and people trying to get you to see their booths. We made it through the street fair...pretty easy since there weren't any people there...and went to a little Italian restaurant, Il Fornaio, which I found in my Zagat's guide to NY restaurants. It was decent food. The funniest thing about this restaurant was that we had 2 waiters. One young guy who loved my sister and asked her if her name was Linda (it's not). He mostly refilled our water and maybe brought us bread? We nicknamed him Mario. Our other waiter was an older guy who did not speak to us the whole time we were there. When our table was ready, he pointed at us, then pointed at the table. When he came to take our order, he just walked up to the table and stood there until we told him what we wanted to eat, then walked away...weird! We saw him talking and laughing with other people, but apparently he did not like us! When we got ready to leave, my sister asked Mario what his name was (I don't remember his real name) and he kissed her on the cheek...hysterical!
From there we took the subway up to the area near the Empire State Building and went in the Manhattan Mall. Missy & Laury shopped some, but I just sat. Then we went to H&M. I'll be honest, I wasn't too keen on going to this store. It looks a little messy in there (I never go in Abercrombie and Fitch because I want to straighten everything up in there). But, I am very glad that I did. I bought 5 tops and a skirt for $47.90. And they are totally cute tops! I've worn almost all of them already! We had a totally slow cashier named Jude who desparately needed braces. Like the older guy at Il Fornaio, Jude also pretty much ignored us except to take our money.
From there we went to the Empire State Building. Our NY Pass got us in the Express line, so it only took about half an hour to get up to the top. It was after 10:00 by the time we were there and it was a great, clear night. I got some good pictures of the views, but it was so crowded, we didn't stay out there too long. We left, then went to get some dessert at this place next door, Heartland Brewery and Grill (or something like that). They had heavenly key lime pie. Took the subway back to the hotel and crashed after our very long day!
Once we left Chinatown, we went to Little Italy to eat dinner. There ended up being a street fair on Mulberry, where all the restaurants are. And when I say street "fair", I mean fair...like with the games where you fish for ducks with a magnet on a string or throw darts at balloons to win prizes. There were several stands with funnel cakes...always the sign of a classy operation...and people trying to get you to see their booths. We made it through the street fair...pretty easy since there weren't any people there...and went to a little Italian restaurant, Il Fornaio, which I found in my Zagat's guide to NY restaurants. It was decent food. The funniest thing about this restaurant was that we had 2 waiters. One young guy who loved my sister and asked her if her name was Linda (it's not). He mostly refilled our water and maybe brought us bread? We nicknamed him Mario. Our other waiter was an older guy who did not speak to us the whole time we were there. When our table was ready, he pointed at us, then pointed at the table. When he came to take our order, he just walked up to the table and stood there until we told him what we wanted to eat, then walked away...weird! We saw him talking and laughing with other people, but apparently he did not like us! When we got ready to leave, my sister asked Mario what his name was (I don't remember his real name) and he kissed her on the cheek...hysterical!
From there we took the subway up to the area near the Empire State Building and went in the Manhattan Mall. Missy & Laury shopped some, but I just sat. Then we went to H&M. I'll be honest, I wasn't too keen on going to this store. It looks a little messy in there (I never go in Abercrombie and Fitch because I want to straighten everything up in there). But, I am very glad that I did. I bought 5 tops and a skirt for $47.90. And they are totally cute tops! I've worn almost all of them already! We had a totally slow cashier named Jude who desparately needed braces. Like the older guy at Il Fornaio, Jude also pretty much ignored us except to take our money.
From there we went to the Empire State Building. Our NY Pass got us in the Express line, so it only took about half an hour to get up to the top. It was after 10:00 by the time we were there and it was a great, clear night. I got some good pictures of the views, but it was so crowded, we didn't stay out there too long. We left, then went to get some dessert at this place next door, Heartland Brewery and Grill (or something like that). They had heavenly key lime pie. Took the subway back to the hotel and crashed after our very long day!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Day 3, Part 1
This was the longest day, by far, but the most fruitful. Here is the list of things we did:
-Statue of Liberty
-Battery Park
-Wall Street
-South Street Seaport (museum and shopping)
-World Trade Center site
-Chinatown
-Dinner in Little Italy
-Manhattan Mall
-H&M
-Empire State Building
-Dessert
The Statue of Liberty was cool. We ate on Liberty island. It was quite hot and both my sisters got sunburned. It would be great if I could say that I didn't get sunburned because I was smart and put on sunscreen. However, that is not the case. I don't own sunscreen...I didn't get sunburned because I'm already tan from being in the sun so much (bring on the skin cancer...I know!). We took mucho pics on the island of lady Liberty and of Manhattan from the boat. I felt more comfortable because we were just amongst a bunch of tourists so we didn't stand out like sore thumbs! We took the boat on to Ellis Island, but we didn't get off...we didn't even look at Ellis Island. I know, I know, it's some historical place with all this stuff, but we were hot and tired! After we got back to Manhattan, we ate popsicles in Battery Park while sitting on a bench. This are the things that I love on vacations...just chillin' wherever you are and enjoying beautiful weather and scenery. Battery Park is OK. I've been there before. It's just a park with a bunch of tourists in it. There is this cool sculpture (I forget the name) that was at the World Trade Center before 9/11 and was put in the park after it "survived" the attacks. It's really beat up, but supposed to be a globe, I think.
From there, we walked up to Wall Street and by the NYSE, then onto the South Street Seaport. My sister, Missy, just graduated from nursing school and really wanted to see the Bodies exhibit (a gross exhibit that was in Houston for a while showing what dead bodies look like with disease) at the museum. We thought our New York Pass would get us in for free, but it didn't. Since the exhibit was $26, we dedided that she would enjoy the exhibit while Laury and I shopped. Which is what we did. I ended up buying a skirt and 3 shirts at Benetton and Ann Taylor. Missy & Laury had quite a bit of fun making fun of me for buying clothes at stores that we have in Houston, but there was a sale!!! I really liked this area...it made me feel like we were in San Francisco.
From there we went to the World Trade Center. I think there might be a tour, but we just looked at the stuff they have up at the subway spot. Very moving, still, 5-1/2 years later. I was at the site a couple of years ago and was able to look down into it, but we couldn't get that close this time. We did go into St Paul's Chapel, which is an Episcopalian church that was completely undamaged during 9/11. It ended up being a soup kitchen and place for workers to rest during the recovery efforts after the attacks. It is a beautiful church and has some awesome memorials. Oh, and it was where George Washington went to church. I took pictures of the church pew he prayed in.
By this time, the sun was going down. Laury was kind of looking for a new purse, so we took the subway up to Chinatown. One of the things we had already noticed was how different the different parts of the city are, and Chinatown is definitely different than where we had just come from. We did not particularly care for the ladies that chase you down the street saying "You like a bag? Coach? Chanel? Miss? Miss?" It was a little disconcerting (almost as annoying as the guys in Times Square that keep trying to get you to go to a comedy club...more on that later). But, we survived. Laury ended up not buying a purse.
OK, this is getting too long. I'll finish up with Part 2 of Day 3 later.
-Statue of Liberty
-Battery Park
-Wall Street
-South Street Seaport (museum and shopping)
-World Trade Center site
-Chinatown
-Dinner in Little Italy
-Manhattan Mall
-H&M
-Empire State Building
-Dessert
The Statue of Liberty was cool. We ate on Liberty island. It was quite hot and both my sisters got sunburned. It would be great if I could say that I didn't get sunburned because I was smart and put on sunscreen. However, that is not the case. I don't own sunscreen...I didn't get sunburned because I'm already tan from being in the sun so much (bring on the skin cancer...I know!). We took mucho pics on the island of lady Liberty and of Manhattan from the boat. I felt more comfortable because we were just amongst a bunch of tourists so we didn't stand out like sore thumbs! We took the boat on to Ellis Island, but we didn't get off...we didn't even look at Ellis Island. I know, I know, it's some historical place with all this stuff, but we were hot and tired! After we got back to Manhattan, we ate popsicles in Battery Park while sitting on a bench. This are the things that I love on vacations...just chillin' wherever you are and enjoying beautiful weather and scenery. Battery Park is OK. I've been there before. It's just a park with a bunch of tourists in it. There is this cool sculpture (I forget the name) that was at the World Trade Center before 9/11 and was put in the park after it "survived" the attacks. It's really beat up, but supposed to be a globe, I think.
From there, we walked up to Wall Street and by the NYSE, then onto the South Street Seaport. My sister, Missy, just graduated from nursing school and really wanted to see the Bodies exhibit (a gross exhibit that was in Houston for a while showing what dead bodies look like with disease) at the museum. We thought our New York Pass would get us in for free, but it didn't. Since the exhibit was $26, we dedided that she would enjoy the exhibit while Laury and I shopped. Which is what we did. I ended up buying a skirt and 3 shirts at Benetton and Ann Taylor. Missy & Laury had quite a bit of fun making fun of me for buying clothes at stores that we have in Houston, but there was a sale!!! I really liked this area...it made me feel like we were in San Francisco.
From there we went to the World Trade Center. I think there might be a tour, but we just looked at the stuff they have up at the subway spot. Very moving, still, 5-1/2 years later. I was at the site a couple of years ago and was able to look down into it, but we couldn't get that close this time. We did go into St Paul's Chapel, which is an Episcopalian church that was completely undamaged during 9/11. It ended up being a soup kitchen and place for workers to rest during the recovery efforts after the attacks. It is a beautiful church and has some awesome memorials. Oh, and it was where George Washington went to church. I took pictures of the church pew he prayed in.
By this time, the sun was going down. Laury was kind of looking for a new purse, so we took the subway up to Chinatown. One of the things we had already noticed was how different the different parts of the city are, and Chinatown is definitely different than where we had just come from. We did not particularly care for the ladies that chase you down the street saying "You like a bag? Coach? Chanel? Miss? Miss?" It was a little disconcerting (almost as annoying as the guys in Times Square that keep trying to get you to go to a comedy club...more on that later). But, we survived. Laury ended up not buying a purse.
OK, this is getting too long. I'll finish up with Part 2 of Day 3 later.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Monday in New York - We Are So Famous!
So, day two started off early. Maroon 5 was doing a concert on the Today show, so we got up and went down to Rockefeller Plaza to see them and try to get on TV. We got there right around 7:00 and there were so many people...mostly teenage girls. Maroon 5 came out around 8:30 and played a few songs. We were on TV in some crowd shots (thus the "We Are So Famous" title). It was pretty fun. Missy & Laury made fun of me because I kept saying "They sing this song?" I clearly know nothing about Maroon 5...and I'm OK with that!
After the Today show, we got some breakfast at Dean & Delucca (right next door). I had a really good empanada, even though I really wanted one of these great-looking cupcakes that were red velvet with cream cheese icing. Somehow, the empanada looked healthier : ). After some caloric intake, we went to the NBC Experience Store for a tour of the studios. While waiting on our tour, we were looking out at Rockefeller Plaza and could see Ann Curry (newswoman on the Today show) talking to people. She is very talkative and likes to touch peoples' faces, which we deemed odd. Still, I took a couple pictures. She's my favorite person on the Today show. So, on the tour, we ended up in a group with a bunch of girls from California. There seems to be an inordinate amount of school children here in NYC...don't know where they came from, but they are loud! So, this group of girls were like junior high age and they asked dumb questions. We really disliked this one girl and wanted to throw rocks at her, but there weren't any rocks to throw, so she survived : ). The tour was really cool. We saw the studios for Conan O'Brien (Missy's favorite), SNL, and NBC Nightly News. They are very small studios, which makes sense, but is still weird. The annoying girl stood up in front to do the weather in the news studio. She is so lucky there were no rocks lying around!
After leaving the tour, we went to have lunch in Times Square. We stumbled upon an Irish pub and grill called the Pig 'N Whistle, so we ate there. Uneventful, but good food. There was a family in there from Wisconsin who were talking really loudly. OK, the mom was talking really loudly. Apparently they had closed down the bar the night before...at 4:00am. We were very glad that we had not been with them. After eating, we went into Times Square to pick up our discount passes (we had ordered them online Saturday night) and by then we were exhausted. So, we went back to the hotel room and took a three-hour nap! I know, I know, here we are in New York City and we're napping! But, we were so tired!!
We decided that Monday night would be our night to eat at a nice restaurant, so we made reservations at Mesa Grill, which is a Bobby Flay (Food Network) restaurant. It was really good! We each had something different and it was all great. We walked a little after eating, then decided we were still tired, so we headed back to the hotel. Nothing exciting, but lots of picture taking!
After the Today show, we got some breakfast at Dean & Delucca (right next door). I had a really good empanada, even though I really wanted one of these great-looking cupcakes that were red velvet with cream cheese icing. Somehow, the empanada looked healthier : ). After some caloric intake, we went to the NBC Experience Store for a tour of the studios. While waiting on our tour, we were looking out at Rockefeller Plaza and could see Ann Curry (newswoman on the Today show) talking to people. She is very talkative and likes to touch peoples' faces, which we deemed odd. Still, I took a couple pictures. She's my favorite person on the Today show. So, on the tour, we ended up in a group with a bunch of girls from California. There seems to be an inordinate amount of school children here in NYC...don't know where they came from, but they are loud! So, this group of girls were like junior high age and they asked dumb questions. We really disliked this one girl and wanted to throw rocks at her, but there weren't any rocks to throw, so she survived : ). The tour was really cool. We saw the studios for Conan O'Brien (Missy's favorite), SNL, and NBC Nightly News. They are very small studios, which makes sense, but is still weird. The annoying girl stood up in front to do the weather in the news studio. She is so lucky there were no rocks lying around!
After leaving the tour, we went to have lunch in Times Square. We stumbled upon an Irish pub and grill called the Pig 'N Whistle, so we ate there. Uneventful, but good food. There was a family in there from Wisconsin who were talking really loudly. OK, the mom was talking really loudly. Apparently they had closed down the bar the night before...at 4:00am. We were very glad that we had not been with them. After eating, we went into Times Square to pick up our discount passes (we had ordered them online Saturday night) and by then we were exhausted. So, we went back to the hotel room and took a three-hour nap! I know, I know, here we are in New York City and we're napping! But, we were so tired!!
We decided that Monday night would be our night to eat at a nice restaurant, so we made reservations at Mesa Grill, which is a Bobby Flay (Food Network) restaurant. It was really good! We each had something different and it was all great. We walked a little after eating, then decided we were still tired, so we headed back to the hotel. Nothing exciting, but lots of picture taking!
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