From the top of the Empire....to Rats!

Here we are recording the adventures of our last day in NYC. :(
We got up and got ready this morning and Ryan caught up with business and walked out to get a little fresh fruit for us in a grocery. We left about noon and walked to the subway station to take the train to the Empire State Building. The first thing we did there was to take a virtual ride, kinda like Disney Land, where we were flying over and around New York. Then we caught an elevator to the 88th floor and walked out on the observation deck. The view from the top was all it was cracked up to be, except that today was cold, cold and windy, cold-windy and rainy! I can't believe the difference in the temperature between yesterday, (balmy-in the 70's). Last night when we got home I didn't even have my coat on. And today was about twenty degrees cooler. Ryan and I had to eventually buy new scarves because we were cold.

We took plenty of pictures out on the observation deck. There is just no way my dinky camera will do justice to that kind of picture. But there will hopefully be a couple that give an idea of the perspective. After the Empire State building we walked through Bryant Park where they are setting up booths for art and craft sellers to use for the holidays. After the park we walked to the NYC Library. It is a beautiful building. It has two marble lions in front on the steps and is very roman greco looking. I know you have probably seen it in movies.

After the library we walked back to the Times Square area and found someplace for lunch. The Brooklyn Diner was our choice. Ryan had a Lamb Burger with tomato salad. Dan had a pizza (I know that may surprise none of you...it was the 5th he ordered on this trip). And I ordered the Brooklyn 15 Bite Hot Dog. You will have to see the pictures on facebook. It was great.

After lunch we walked to get tickets for a show tonight. Well, Dan stood in line and Ryan and I hid in the lobby of the Marriot that is right there cause we were frozen. We found a little place to have a little sweet bite and a drink and wait someplace warm until it was time to go to the show.
We saw Mary Poppins tonight. It was quite good, but not my favorite. Promises,Promises was way better.

I can't believe we were able to see four shows while we were here. So many more shows to see. Ryan better be here for awhile so we can come back.

We took our last train back to China Town and while walking out of the station we saw our first rat running in the gutter. We had been talking about how many rats you could see and hadn't seen any of them before that. So, we kicked at the garbage cans and garbage bags on the way home to count the rats we could chase out. We laughed like crazy and it was the cheapest amusing thing we found to do this whole trip.

We had a great time with Luke.
Ryan spent the whole time making sure we were well taken care of.
We have very fond memories of this trip.
We are really sad to leave.:( That makes it a good trip. :)
We love you all.

I don't get why!

Just a quick P.S. to let you know that the internet connection won't let me upload pictures to the blog. But Ryan showed me how to make a facebook album of the photos and the connection is fine with that. So pictures are on facebook. I hope you enjoy them.

LYL!

Coney Island Hot Dogs

Today will be a simple little blog. Because of tiredness (mine) we had a late morning. Ryan and Dan took a little walk about noon. Actually Dan put on his running gear and they went across the Manhattan Bridge and back. Ryan took his scooter and zipped along side. Dan took several pictures of the view, and of Ryans Apt. If you look hard enough in the picture you can see my arm in the window. Six floors up and the second building from the right.

We left for a late lunch in one of Ryans favorite places to eat, "Tasty Hand Pulled Noodle". Yum!

A little walk to the subway and we took the train out to Coney Island. We were a little later than we thought we would be today and the ride is more than half an hour long. Just before our stop a guy on the train started to talk to Dan and Ryan and said he wouldn't be out there after dark. We didn't think it looked bad, but we didn't hang around much either.

We had dinner at "Nathans'", THE place for hotdogs on the Boardwalk and took the train home.

This is the earliest evening we have had this whole trip. Ryan says we are wearing him out, but he can rest next week when we are home. That is what we are planning to do.

Love you all!!!!!!!

Wednesday Post Disclaimer

OK... so the disclaimer is this. After a long, long day I came back and worked a long time on the blog, because that was my goal-to blog daily, and there were some technical problems.

OK....so I don't always know what I am doing so much that is maybe wasn't the computer lacking technical skills....but me. Either way it was, I lost last nights blog and said too bad at 1:15 in the morning and went to bed. So this blog is going to be written as if it were last night. Sooooo.....



Today we got up and said goodbye to Luke who is going to Myrtle Beach to visit with his cute little wife. Whom he misses. I am glad he gets a break. He has been so generous and gracious letting us stay with him in his one bedroom apartment and house in the country. We feel like family after this great visit.



After getting ready to go and having a bite to eat we hit the road and took a train (subway, both terms are interchanged and mean the same thing here)to Grand Central Station. It is a magnificent building. There is a domed roof and beautiful white marble arches and stairways. Everything you have seen in the movies and then some. It began operating in 1871, and today half a million (yep...500,000) commuters a day, still use these trains to commute in and out of NYC.



We stopped in the Oyster Bar and Restaurant for a bite because it is mentioned in so many books and movies. It is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the station. Ryan had Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham. Dan had New England Clam Chowder with fresh rolls and biscuit. And I had Oysters (of course in an oyster bar) Rockefeller. We argued about who had the best lunch (I won even though they still won't admit it).



We headed out along 42nd. street and walked to the Guggenheim Museum. It is so interesting looking. Built with a big spiral on one side that is the balconies on the inside that go from floor to floor. What is there on display you may ask??? Why I will tell you, "Art in France, Italy, and Germany 1918-1936". As exciting as that sounded we did not go into the museum but spent a few minutes in the lobby and looking around the museum store..



Ryan had gone ahead, while we were exploring, to work out a little with weights (two 8 lb. dumbells--which he carried with him in his backpack all day long) and a brisk walk around the Lake in Central Park. We met up and wandered along the paths south ward past the Turtle Pond till we reached the Museum of Natural History (think of "Night in the Museum").



It was fabulous! We stoked up with a quick dessert in the cafe and headed into the tiny bit of it we could cover in 2 hours before closing. If we make it back I would definitely plan to spend most of a day there at least.The museum covers 4 square city blocks and there are 4 floors to it, so you see that many hours could be spent wandering around. We saw maybe 5% of what was there.



There was a subway stop right in the museum that we used to get to Times Square where we stopped at TKTS for tickets to another show and bought tickets for Promises, Promises.



We stopped for another quick bite in a Europa Deli before the show. Ryan ordered a Pasta Alfredo. I had Penne with Putenesca, (I was afraid when I saw how many anchovies they added to it--and yet I ate it all!). And Dan had a Turkey sandwich with chips.



We saw the theatre on the next street where David Letterman tapes the Late Show and next time (you see how I am already thinking-eh?) we will try to get tickets to a taping there.



The show was a musical adaptation of the movie "The Apartment" (which was adapted from the play by Neil Simon) with Jack Lemon, Shirley McLain, and Fred McMurray. This one had Sean Hayes (Just Jack from Will and Grace) and Kristin Chenoweth as the leads with Tony Goldwyn (the bad friend from Ghost) and Molly Shannon in a great part in the second act. The play was funny, well done, and I would totally recommend it to anyone getting a chance to see it. After the play we bought a poster with everyones signature on it as a souvinir.



Another craZy NYC cab ride and we were back in the apartment. Did any of you wonder about the weights Ryan carried around all day in his backpack? We went in and out of a couple of bag searches during the day and no-one even said anything about his having them in there. He says his neck feels way better after the workout, but his shoulders are pretty tired.



I hope you are enjoying this update, even though pictures won't upload through this connection.



We love you all!

The Bronx is up and the Battery's down.

And today I think we walked most of it.
Not really, the Bronx is north of Manhattan and you cross water to get to it. But the Battery is South Manhattan and close to Chinatown.
When we left this morning we walked along the East River to Southport. It is the place where the ferries to Staten Island is and a lot of shopping and boardwalk activities are.
We took the Staten Island Ferry ....to, of course.....Staten Island. It was fun going past the Statue of Liberty and taking pictures. It was a beautiful day and we had some incredible views of Manhattan, Jersey City, and Staten Island.
After the Ferry Ride we walked along the water through Battery Park. We saw a statue commemorating the Merchant Marines, a World War 2 Memorial, and the Castle Clinton Museum is where immigrants used to come into New York and before that it was a battery where over 100 cannon used to protect the harbor.
We walked up to the financial district and saw the bronze bull. Saw the stock exchange, and Ground Zero. And we went through St. Paul's Church where George Washington worshipped. It was also the major place of support for the people that worked in the 9-11 collapse of the Twin Towers. There were pictures of the event there. A touching place to visit.
We walked to the Bridge Cafe to have a late lunch. It is the oldest restaurant still serving food. Built in the 1760's it has a long history and has had many different businesses there, including a brothel, a boarding house and the restaurant. It it also supposed to be haunted. Many people have been involved in paranormal events and tell about it. It is a location Luke and Ryan are working on for the Haunted New York Tours.
We took a short break at the apartment to rest and I was exhausted! I had a faceplant on the bed and didn't move for an hour. Having fun is hard, hard, work!
We picked up tickets to a play, off Broadway, called The Fantastics. It was interesting. It was in the Jerry Orbach theatre that is very small, the seats were in a u shape so the stage area was between the side audience. And the actors would come out into the audience in the aisles and perform or talk to us. It was not something I envision coming to the 5th, but it was interesting and fun to see.
A quick cab ride home, a little sandwich for dinner, a blog and I am going to get ready for bed. We will have another fun filled day tomorrow.
Love you and miss you all.

Travel Day: CT to NY

Another easy morning in the countryside. We slept in until about 8:30. Luke didn't get up until after 11:00. We showered, had breakfast (meat loaf and potatoes) and packed to travel back to New York City. It took us awhile to clean and get ready to go, but we were able to leave by about 1:30. Ryan had ordered us tickets online to the NBC Studios Tour, and we needed to be there by 5:00. It normally takes 2 to 2 1/2 hours to drive back to the city, but we made a couple of stops along the way.

We arrived back at Luke's apartment at 4:35...only 25 minutes to unpack the car, go to the bathroom, walk several blocks to the subway, take the train to the Rockefeller Center, and walk to the NBC Studios from the subway station. We almost made it on time...only 15 minutes late, but the tour hadn't started yet. We were last in line, but we got on the tour.

It was an interesting tour. We sat through a brief film history of NBC. We saw clips of several shows that had been filmed there. Then we had to go through security, similar to airport security. We had to give up all food and drink and "all weapons". At the end of the tour, they returned all weapons...but not the food and drink...only in New York. We visited several studio sets; including The Today Show, Dr. Oz, Sunday Night Football, Saturday Night Live, etc. A lot of NBC shows are now being taped in Los Angeles.

After the tour, we headed back to Luke's apartment for meat loaf sandwiches. Ryan and Luke headed back out to scout for shooting locations for a new tour centered around "haunted areas of NYC". They are excited about offering this as an option to people visiting NYC. It will be a night tour of city places with a haunted history, with Ryan showing video images on buildings, in ally ways, etc. If they are not back in five hours, we are to go looking for them...fat chance!

Nicolle and I just read, did email and went to bed early. We have a whole list of things to do, places to see, and food to eat, to be done in the next four days. We will be busy and need our rest.

Love you all and wish you could all be with us.

Lazy Country Sunday

Today is an easy blog.
We got up late, had a little eggs marinara for lunch took a nap, ran into town to see "Hereafter" with Matt Damon, had a little leftover dinner, get ready for bed.
That is pretty much all there is to today.
Luke kept the fire going, it is so nice to lay on the couch and watch the fire burn. He also did a couple of little projects around the cabin. Ryan helped a bit, but mostly we enjoyed watching him work things out and finish on his own.
For those of you that would like me to have an opinion on the show--I won't say much so you can make up your own minds. It wasn't what I expected to see from the commercials.
Dan and Ryan did a couple of loads of wash so we have clean clothes for next week.
Luke is doing his wash now.
Pretty much that is it. A great, lazy country Sunday.
Love you all!