OK...where were we? Ah yes, fighting our way through the festival to get back to Broadway. The sights you see in NYC! It was great though...I love that kind of thing.
Once we caught our breath on Broadway we started hoofing it south. We weren't 100% sure as to how many blocks it was to Macy's, but we figured we could always cab it back if needed. We stopped to grab a cold drink and some lunch at another cute place on one of the side streets. There our 12-year-old looking bartender spoke with a Scottish accent. We came to realize that no one we asked is from New York. Everyone is a transplant from somewhere else. The true melting pot!
Macy's was a zoo! You see, they have what's called "tax free week" around Labor Day weekend every year. It's supposed to be an aid for the back-to-school shoppers. The massive size of the store, aside, there are all these nooks and crannies and levels within the same floor, etc. The bank of elevators were packed non-stop. I kept thinking of a Jerry Lewis movie where there's a mad rush onto and off of the elevators. Everyone is of the belief that you can always fit 'one more' person. The store itself was, in my opinion, run down and old. Escalators weren't working, it smelled musty, and was in serious need of updating. I, honestly, was not impressed. Except for the very nice salesman who helped me with my boot purchase. He was great! Very accomodating and patient and happy. KB was successful in finding things that fit her petite size so it was a worthwhile spree for her.
With an early show time at the comedy club, we started our walk back to the hotel. We actually walked a block or two out of our way to avoid some of the festival crowd. We went to our room and managed to sit down for only five or ten minutes before we had to get ready to go out again. We, fortunately, took the outside crowd into account when planning how long it would take to get back over to Broadway. Our 8-minute walk took us closer to 20 minutes instead.
Caroline's Comedy Club was not exactly what I expected. It's smaller than I envisioned...and it's located completely underground! But what a riot!! We laughed so hard at the host, the two amateurs, and then the headliner. We definitely enjoyed our time there! If only I could remember the jokes --- I'm so bad at that. I just remember laughing A LOT!
Call us crazy, but our post-show dinner was at the Olive Garden, one block down. We just craved their salad and breadsticks so badly! It did not disappoint. And, of course, this being New York City, we HAD to have some cheesecake before we left town. We found a great deli and sat and indulged ourselves. When we walked out the door, satisfied, we came the closest to experiencing any violence on our trip. Policemen were hustling all around and took off running in one direction. Even in NYC everyone stops to look and see if they can find out what's going on. Two of New York's finest came running back and headed down into the Subway. That was it. No idea what the commotion was all about. No idea where they all headed. It was back to "calm" after those few moments.
Walking a different way back to the hotel we happened across Radio City Music Hall, I almost got run down by a speeding cab, and the festival folks were gone...but their nasty mess remained. For whatever reason, there were no extra garbage cans put out for this huge gathering. So all the trash and half-eaten food and cups and wrappers, etc, were just piled up alongside the buildings. Blech! The street sweeper was moving through though, and you could see that progress was being made.
We got up to our room and felt "complete." We had done it! We had survived the city. We had seen all we wanted to see and done all we wanted to do, with the exception of playing cribbage in Central Park. Next time...
Monday morning we woke plenty early, showered, packed up, ate our bagel with cream cheese, and jumped in the cab that happened to be waiting right out front for us. We caught our last glimpses of the city on the way to the airport. Love that skyline!
One more laugh in the city...our cab driver appeared to be from a far eastern country. He said he lives 6 months in NYC and 6 months "over there." We were, obviously, in the back seat, chatting about our adventures and now the trip home. The driver had seemed friendly and was somewhat conversational at the beginning of the ride. We were nearing the airport when he looked in the rearview mirror and asked, in his heavy accent, if KB was my "friend" or my "lady." I laughed!! I said she was my friend and I was going home to my husband. He laughed too. I should have told him he could find himself in a world of hurt if he asked the wrong people that question! LOL It was funny to me because before we ever left I had commented that I wondered if people would think we were a lesbian couple!
Two minutes before we were to board our plane they announced a delay and we ended up on a plane that went to Minneapolis first, and then to Milwaukee. We were fearful our luggage wouldn't follow us. Much to our dismay, it turned out that our original flight left an hour and a half late with some of the original passengers on it. They beat us to Milw, but we had their luggage on OUR flight. Inconvenient for all, but we still got home at a reasonable hour...and I was still able to have supper with my family.
I heart NY! I thought I would, but I heart it even more than I imagined.
BUT...I believe it's a city to which you must travel with the right person. KB and I were incredibly compatable and had the same agenda. It worked out sooo very well for us!
There were a lot of other places that were pointed out to us...homes of stars, TV and movie locations, etc. But I can't give you all the details (even though it would seem like it from the length of this thing).
I decided that this account is as much for me as it is for those of you who are reading it. It's my diary of the memories we made, me and my dear friend, in New York City. I hope it gives you some sense of our experiences. I'm happy to have it all written down to be able to come back to time and time again.
And now, my fatigued body will hopefully do some catching up.
It's good to be home.
It's good to be back where I belong.
It's all good...
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
33,150
Now THERE'S a number to be proud of! That's how many steps KB and I logged on the trusty pedometer on Sunday. We walked miles and miles every day, but Sunday was the record.
New York was FANTASTIC! We loved every minute of our time in the Big Apple. The sights and sounds and languages and buildings and restaurants and stores and people and music and food and lights and...and...and EVERYTHING!!
We ended up flying to NYC on a tiny plane. 12 rows, 2 seats on each side. But, you figure you're flying into a large airport in a huge city, things will be overwhelming from the moment you step off that plane. Boy was that a misconception. We exited the plane, down the steps, right onto the tarmac! At first I thought we were in the wrong place. We grabbed our luggage off a cart and proceeded through a hole/door into an unpleasant stairwell where we had to carry our luggage up a flight of steps into the terminal. Welcome to New York! It was so unexpected that it was just funny.
By the time we caught a shuttle, drove into the city, dropped a few other travelers off and checked into our hotel it was about 11:30pm NY time. I called home to let Brian know we had arrived safely and then it was off to Broadway! We were only 1 1/2 blocks from Times Square. It was a perfect, central location. And extremely well lit, to say the least. WOW! Times Square at midnight on a Thursday is a bustling place. But KB couldn't find anyplace to eat so she grabbed a cheeseburger at McD's! LOL---I never did ask her what she paid for that. We strolled a little way down Broadway and saw the only famous people we would see during our stay. The folks from Entertainment Tonight were doing some filming of some sort so we saw a number of their stars, including "Cojo."
By the time we bought our two drinks each ($34, not including tip!!) we decided it was time to hit the mattresses so we could get moving in the morning. We managed about 4 hours of sleep that night.
I highly, highly recommend the Grayline double-decker bus. We hopped on board and went right to the upper deck. We decided to do the entire downtown loop first and learn all we could about where things were located. It was entertaining and educational and we learned a lot of NY trivia and history. Our tour guide's name was Dominick so we knew he would treat us right. By the time we started going around the second time though, his jokes were getting old and, of course, he was repeating himself. But we hopped off in Greenwich Village and started roaming the streets on foot. By this point in the day it was getting hot (89 degrees) and we were thirsty so we had lunch at the Caliente Cab Co Mexican Cafe, along with a tasty, frozen margarita. It was the perfect answer to our thirst. We were refreshed and ready to carry on! We wandered the streets of Greenwich Village a little longer, but never really found the cute little shops we were in search of.
Our next hop off point was at Ground Zero. We went through St Paul's Chapel where so many of the firefighters found rest and nourishment during the terrible events of 9/11. It was somber and reverent and quite touching. It has become a museum of sorts and really tells the tale of that awful day. The chapel sustained no damage as a result of the Twin Towers coming down. Miraculous! The site of Ground Zero itself is huge and there's much work to be done there yet. But life goes on all around there with many pedestrians and constant traffic.
We walked from there down to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance. By that time we were wearing down and it was time to head back to our hotel before the tour bus stopped running. We rested briefly, freshened up, and headed over to Broadway for dinner (at Bubba Gump Fish Co.)---but first we stopped and both bought new watches at the Swatch store on Times Square! After dinner we bought a few souveniers and made reservations for Sunday at Caroline's Comedy Club. By the time we hit the hay that night, we had logged 25,550 steps for Friday!
Saturday morning we were back on the tour bus, but this time we were headed in the opposite direction. We toured the upper west side, Harlem, and the upper east side. Gorgeous buildings and churches and museums. It was a little chillier on the upper deck that morning so we grabbed a cup of coffee and got back on the downtown tour bus we had ridden the day before. We hopped off and shopped on the "Ladie's Mile" --- it had to be done! Then we went to SoHo and eventually wandered into Little Italy where we had lunch at an outdoor Italian cafe. It was great fun! We walked and walked some more and finally found a place where we could hop back on the bus.
Now it was time to head back to the hotel again because we had tickets to see Stomp that night at the Orpheum Theatre in the east Village. We decided to be adventurous and take the Subway! So we actually ate at Grand Central Station (Ha!) and then hopped on the train. (Good thing we had enough sense of direction to know the concierge at our hotel had told us to get on the wrong train!!) There was a certain sense of relief when we hit our stop. Not because we felt un-safe, but because we were hoping to get to the right location. We were plenty early for the show and went to this really dim, artsy, cozy bar and restaurant where all the employees were speaking French to each other. Stomp was wonderful!! It was a small theatre and we were in the 3rd row (translation: we were practically sitting on the stage). Amazing show! Because of the late hour, we opted to take a cab back to the hotel. 25,400 steps on Saturday!
Sunday was to be our biggest shopping day. We did shop a lot, but, by NY standards, we bought very little. Stores didn't open until 11 or noon though, so we first went to Central Park and took a horse drawn carriage ride. Our driver's name was Antonio and he was a lot of fun. We picked him because he looked like he had personality. He was singing and dancing on the sidewalk. He also quoted us 6 bucks less than the first, dull guy we asked! Antonio is a 3rd generation driver, he's married off two of his three daughters and he was all too happy to tell us about their suitors. He had a thick Italian accent and made us laugh a lot.
From Central Park we went to Bloomingdales and shook our heads at the outlandish prices on things. We had wandered too far into the store and it literally took us several minutes to find our way back out! We decided to go in the direction of Macy's next. Our hotel was on the way and we were going to drop some things off there. A VERY large Brazilian festival was going on with block after block of stands in the streets selling food and drinks and sunglasses and purses and toys and, you name it, they were selling it. So we shopped in the streets a little bit too. Soooo many people! It was difficult to get into our hotel's front door!
I have more to tell...to be sure...but this is wearing me out all over again! I have to go to bed now. But I promise to continue with the adventures of Carol and KB tomorrow. My apologies, but I'm still worn out from this wonderfully busy trip. (even though I "only" put on 11,250 steps today)
to be continued...
New York was FANTASTIC! We loved every minute of our time in the Big Apple. The sights and sounds and languages and buildings and restaurants and stores and people and music and food and lights and...and...and EVERYTHING!!
We ended up flying to NYC on a tiny plane. 12 rows, 2 seats on each side. But, you figure you're flying into a large airport in a huge city, things will be overwhelming from the moment you step off that plane. Boy was that a misconception. We exited the plane, down the steps, right onto the tarmac! At first I thought we were in the wrong place. We grabbed our luggage off a cart and proceeded through a hole/door into an unpleasant stairwell where we had to carry our luggage up a flight of steps into the terminal. Welcome to New York! It was so unexpected that it was just funny.
By the time we caught a shuttle, drove into the city, dropped a few other travelers off and checked into our hotel it was about 11:30pm NY time. I called home to let Brian know we had arrived safely and then it was off to Broadway! We were only 1 1/2 blocks from Times Square. It was a perfect, central location. And extremely well lit, to say the least. WOW! Times Square at midnight on a Thursday is a bustling place. But KB couldn't find anyplace to eat so she grabbed a cheeseburger at McD's! LOL---I never did ask her what she paid for that. We strolled a little way down Broadway and saw the only famous people we would see during our stay. The folks from Entertainment Tonight were doing some filming of some sort so we saw a number of their stars, including "Cojo."
By the time we bought our two drinks each ($34, not including tip!!) we decided it was time to hit the mattresses so we could get moving in the morning. We managed about 4 hours of sleep that night.
I highly, highly recommend the Grayline double-decker bus. We hopped on board and went right to the upper deck. We decided to do the entire downtown loop first and learn all we could about where things were located. It was entertaining and educational and we learned a lot of NY trivia and history. Our tour guide's name was Dominick so we knew he would treat us right. By the time we started going around the second time though, his jokes were getting old and, of course, he was repeating himself. But we hopped off in Greenwich Village and started roaming the streets on foot. By this point in the day it was getting hot (89 degrees) and we were thirsty so we had lunch at the Caliente Cab Co Mexican Cafe, along with a tasty, frozen margarita. It was the perfect answer to our thirst. We were refreshed and ready to carry on! We wandered the streets of Greenwich Village a little longer, but never really found the cute little shops we were in search of.
Our next hop off point was at Ground Zero. We went through St Paul's Chapel where so many of the firefighters found rest and nourishment during the terrible events of 9/11. It was somber and reverent and quite touching. It has become a museum of sorts and really tells the tale of that awful day. The chapel sustained no damage as a result of the Twin Towers coming down. Miraculous! The site of Ground Zero itself is huge and there's much work to be done there yet. But life goes on all around there with many pedestrians and constant traffic.
We walked from there down to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance. By that time we were wearing down and it was time to head back to our hotel before the tour bus stopped running. We rested briefly, freshened up, and headed over to Broadway for dinner (at Bubba Gump Fish Co.)---but first we stopped and both bought new watches at the Swatch store on Times Square! After dinner we bought a few souveniers and made reservations for Sunday at Caroline's Comedy Club. By the time we hit the hay that night, we had logged 25,550 steps for Friday!
Saturday morning we were back on the tour bus, but this time we were headed in the opposite direction. We toured the upper west side, Harlem, and the upper east side. Gorgeous buildings and churches and museums. It was a little chillier on the upper deck that morning so we grabbed a cup of coffee and got back on the downtown tour bus we had ridden the day before. We hopped off and shopped on the "Ladie's Mile" --- it had to be done! Then we went to SoHo and eventually wandered into Little Italy where we had lunch at an outdoor Italian cafe. It was great fun! We walked and walked some more and finally found a place where we could hop back on the bus.
Now it was time to head back to the hotel again because we had tickets to see Stomp that night at the Orpheum Theatre in the east Village. We decided to be adventurous and take the Subway! So we actually ate at Grand Central Station (Ha!) and then hopped on the train. (Good thing we had enough sense of direction to know the concierge at our hotel had told us to get on the wrong train!!) There was a certain sense of relief when we hit our stop. Not because we felt un-safe, but because we were hoping to get to the right location. We were plenty early for the show and went to this really dim, artsy, cozy bar and restaurant where all the employees were speaking French to each other. Stomp was wonderful!! It was a small theatre and we were in the 3rd row (translation: we were practically sitting on the stage). Amazing show! Because of the late hour, we opted to take a cab back to the hotel. 25,400 steps on Saturday!
Sunday was to be our biggest shopping day. We did shop a lot, but, by NY standards, we bought very little. Stores didn't open until 11 or noon though, so we first went to Central Park and took a horse drawn carriage ride. Our driver's name was Antonio and he was a lot of fun. We picked him because he looked like he had personality. He was singing and dancing on the sidewalk. He also quoted us 6 bucks less than the first, dull guy we asked! Antonio is a 3rd generation driver, he's married off two of his three daughters and he was all too happy to tell us about their suitors. He had a thick Italian accent and made us laugh a lot.
From Central Park we went to Bloomingdales and shook our heads at the outlandish prices on things. We had wandered too far into the store and it literally took us several minutes to find our way back out! We decided to go in the direction of Macy's next. Our hotel was on the way and we were going to drop some things off there. A VERY large Brazilian festival was going on with block after block of stands in the streets selling food and drinks and sunglasses and purses and toys and, you name it, they were selling it. So we shopped in the streets a little bit too. Soooo many people! It was difficult to get into our hotel's front door!
I have more to tell...to be sure...but this is wearing me out all over again! I have to go to bed now. But I promise to continue with the adventures of Carol and KB tomorrow. My apologies, but I'm still worn out from this wonderfully busy trip. (even though I "only" put on 11,250 steps today)
to be continued...
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