NYC the conclusion

Forewarning some of my pictures didn't get posted. So what you are seeing is what the internet gods are allowing. :) Enjoy!

The last few days in New York were hot. Yes I am from Florida, but I’m not used to walking around in the heat. We Floridians typically go from one air-conditioned location to another without much walking or sitting in an airless subway.

Memorial day we slept in and decided to take on the wild world of mid and uptown. We started our day with a quick trip over to the metro with a quick stop at a BOA; however being it was a holiday the doors were locked (even to get to the ATM). I was a bit annoyed but when it came time to get in the subway… burning up. We mostly traveled in the R train and after riding on a couple others I’ve declared it the slowest train in the city.  Not only was it slow but it also didn’t run very often and had 1970’s gold and yellow interior. I don’t know if I ever got a picture at night but I can tell you after standing around for a bit we realized that the N and the R are basically the same until you get off Manhattan and that discovery really made life better. Anyway after the BOA we took a long walk to Patsy’s Pizzeria. It had pretty good reviews and I couldn’t leave NY without having some goo pizza. Lucky for us they actually had air conditioning. The pizza was good, the service was good but best of all was their music. It was kind of eerie, like someone stole my iPod. Jason even commented. We heard Tori Amos, Madonna, and a bunch others but now as I type I’ve gone brain dead and since I’m on a plane and Jason’s sleeping I’ll just leave it at that.  Following our Pizza we walked a bit to find a yogurt place, as we all know I love the yogurt fixins places… just so happens we hit 2 while in NYC. One with Mike the night before and this one… the one with Mike had 16 handles and it was WAY better. Anyway, we sat and figured out our action plan and it was this time of sitting that we decided we needed to give the buses a go. We both couldn’t take much more heat… Let me just say it was the best decision we’ve made so far. What a world of difference to be able to see the city passing by, get dropped off close to where you want to go and never have to do without

It isn't so healthy after I put all that junk in there.

This is my  "It's hot and I'm in the Subway, face".

The magical bus took us to the UN. What a disappointment. I guess because of the holiday all the flags were down but to top it off the building was just ugly. From there we headed to FAO Schwartz. I have ALWAYS wanted to go there. I think it was because of BIG; actually I’m sure it was, but the desire continued when more movies showed it. When we arrived I was actually surprised at how not so amazing the outside was… but I wasn’t disappointed with the interior. I will say I came VERY close to designing a Muppet. Perhaps the coolest thing in the whole store was the design your own Muppet station… I just didn’t have the money. I worried if this was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I inquired and I can do it online and have it shipped. So… we know where my money will be going after I pay of this insane trip. ;) As we all know I’m a candy addict and I totally fell for the FOA Schwartz candy bar. Total rip off… but totally worth it. Lol we were very happy with our candy and I’m still munching on some Lego candy now. From three we hit up the very edge of central park deciding I’d rather die than walk much further in the heat we started heading back the other direction to see some of the other sites I wanted to see like the Radio City Music Hall, and Times Square. My favorite stop was the M & M store in Times Square. I didn’t fall for the mix your own M & M’s. I am sure you are wondering but I did come close to buying chopsticks. It’s so hard not being able to buy anything… We headed home to shower before meeting Mike and Danny for dinner.

 

Flag poles at the UN.

Made of Jelly Beans.

 

 

I didn't get on because I was too hot and lazy to take my shoes off. Please excuse my tank.. it was too hot for a shirt.

Our FOA Schwartz baby.

 

A LOVE statue with a New York Flare, a homeless mand sleeping. The Philli one was nicer.

Times Square is sensory overload.

I hear teen pregnancy is 100% preventable. 

An out take version. Red closed his eyes and Jason looked away.

We met them at Shake Shack close to Madison Square… or perhaps in Madison Square.. I’m a bit foggy. Anyway, it was great. The food was good; the company was good… sadly we were all tired and didn’t have tons to say and ended up calling it an early night. Or so we though. I was dying to see the city skyline at night and somehow talked Jason into going on the Statin Island Ferry at 23:00. I must have taken like 100 pictures but none of them do it justice. Jason always says to me “take a picture with your mind” and honestly, that ‘s what I have to do with these. Maybe you can get a glimpse of the experience but it really is something you just have to do. It was a great experience and I mean really you can’t beat free!  The problem was our return Ferry didn’t come until midnight so we had to sit and wait for 30mins and then our return R/N train didn’t come for 20 mins so we ended up getting in VERY late and we still had to plan our last day and pack up.

 

9am came EARLY. We got dressed and started heading out but sadly I wasn’t feeling so well. If you would like the TMI version feel free to e-mail me but for the general population I was pretty sure I was at the beginning stages of a UTI. So all the planning we did had to be altered a bit so I could find a walk-in clinic. Oddly, we found a Duane Read drug store (which I’d never seen until NYC) only a couple blocks off of the bus we were currently on. The visit was quick but not so painless, they charged me the Urgent Care co-pay ($50).  While we waited for the prescription we decided to grab lunch and low and behold we were in the same exactly location as yesterday lunch so we ate at Patsy’s again. We made a few other shopping stops including Macy’s, which I thought was almost stupid because I needed a map to get around and then we hopped on another bus and finally got to see the last couple things on my list including Lincoln Center and Julliard. I had big hopes of seeing a ballet but I wasn’t overly excited about the selection that was playing while we were in town and I was almost 100% sure Jason would be miserable. So anyway, as I said we decided we loved the bus so we took it all the way from uptown to downtown, it was nice to site see in the a/c for basically free (at this point).  

If you need a map, the store is too big.

Wooden escalator

 

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We booked it back to our Hotel to pick up our stuff and after a brief discussion about hiring a car vs. a cab we decided to look for a cab. We were unsuccessful for a good 5 minutes and I gave up and said lets just do it… and off we went in a huge black trail blazer with tented windows, cold a/c (which many cabs lack) and music. Jason promptly fell asleep. I was surprised it took so long but glad I allotted 2 hours for us to get there.  At some point during all this I FINALLY heard that Courage came through surgery fine. It’s been so stressful and I’m still worried about my little guy. They had to remove his meniscus and repair and ligament. The Dr. said it was way worse than they had suspected and that if we hadn’t done it he wouldn’t have ever been able to walk on it again due to the ruptured meniscus and dislocated patella. At least that is what I think I heard my mom tell me. It’s been a long day.

 

The JFK airport wasn’t so bad, but then again I wasn’t changing airlines there. Because of the way they’ve split up the terminals it made the airport seem really small. We flew out of terminal 7… but before I get to that Iceland air weighted our carry ons… or our backpacks, and said they weighted too much. I’d never heard a weight limit before. We carefully measured to make sure we were within all dimensions but we didn’t weight them. So we frantically removed our important stuff, medications, computer etc. and checked it. I’m still worried our flights within the country will be even stricter… and Easy Jet Charges for checked luggage.  Ugh, I guess when we get somewhere with Internet we’ll have to seriously look into it. They say if you get to the gate and have to check it they super charger you.:(  That was the whole point of carrying the backpacks so we didn’t have to pay for them to fly and we didn’t have to worry about lost luggage. Other than that Iceland Air is great. They’ve been very nice, the plane is in good shape, the blankets are nice and they gave us a free bottle of Iceland water as soon as we got on. The other fun thing is that all the stuff has “learn Icelandic” on it. So that’s really neat. We land in a couple more hours and have a brief layover in Iceland and then we’re off to Frankfurt Germany. I hope that I’ll be able to get some sleep at some point. So since I won’t have consistent Internet coverage from here on out the blogs will be fewer…  or maybe multiple ones in the same day. It’s just going to depend on how I feel. I want to be sure I spend plenty of time enjoying myself. It’s way easier to blog every night when you are in the same place and have Internet. Since we are limited on the amount of time we have in each location it makes it harder. Anyway, enjoy! J

 

Final thoughts on NYC:

·      I am so glad we went! It was well worth the money.

·      I wouldn’t suggest going during a holiday or any time that it’s hot. Because the lines and head reduced our fun a bit. Felt like Disney minus the cold rides.

·      I am super thankful I got to see Mike. I have missed him!

·      I didn’t find NYC to be any dirtier or scarier than any other city I’ve ever been in and I was actually disappointed with the lack of graffiti.

·      I didn’t like the subway… It was not only dirty but it lacked airflow, art, seating and a timely schedule… Paris spoiled me.

·      My top 3 picks for NYC: Wall Street (surprisingly), Satin Island Ferry and FAO Schwartz.

·      Jason’s top 3: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Statin Island Ferry.

·      I found the majority of people very nice. As a matter of fact it was the tourists that were the most obnoxious.

·      I loved listening to the NYC pride and realizing I can cross off yet another place on my “one day I’d like to live list”. I find it intriguing and amazing when people find “their place”.

·      I have confirmed that if I ever give up OT or go insane and run away I’m going to become a Ferry operator. No word on if that’ll be East or West but ferries (and fairies) are in.