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...