NYC Day TWO

Hello NEW YORK!!   Welcome to DAY TWO.  

It was our first night in the apartment and we all slept fairly comfortably.   Have to ask BP and Becki how the fold out bed went….   Our goal today was to go to see the Today Show, and see Kenny Chesney do some songs.   But we didn’t really want to be there at like 3-4am like the super fanatics – so we were aiming for 6am, or whenever we got up.  J    So by the time we leave the apartment it’s about 8am – that’s still not bad for vacation time to be up and at ‘em.   We walk over to Rockefeller Center, it’s only about 3-4 blocks from where we’re staying.  It’s early but it’s already muggy (It’s CLOSE, very CLOSE – that’s for Patti) – we are moist.   That’s the word of the day.  MOIST.  Becki *hates* that word – she’s cringing as you read this…  We walk up to where they film and we see crowds, but not as big as it was for Justin Beiber 2 years ago, and we see where they put up the Christmas tree and where they have the ice skating rink in the winter…. We’re at the back of the stage, we can see the lights set up and we thought we had heard music as we walked up, but then we over hear someone say that he hasn’t played any songs yet.   And then we see this guy walk by that looks VERY familiar.   Becki points out that its Lester Holt of NBC news – very tall!   Hey, it’s LESTER HOLT – famous person number two.   We’re two for two.   McKay is counting, she was certain, IS certain, that will we tons of famous walking freely amongst us.

We’re not really sure what we’re supposed to do or where we can be, but there are a lot of barricades – we send BMc up to ask security about the scoop, and we learn that we need to enter from the other side of the plaza.  We head around the block and come in facing the stage and now we really can’t see ANYTHING – just crowds of people and backs of people’s signs.  Some guy drives by and shakes a rubber chicken at McKay…  hmmm.  

Our view from the front of the stage

 We were better off before – so we head *back* around the block and Dana and BMc stand close to the back of the stage where we can see a bald guy playing keyboard (I thought it was him),  and not much else.   Dana has a picture of a glimpse of cowboy hat through the lights that were the background of the stage.   Meanwhile BP, Becki and I are sitting on a bench in the shade just near where they put the Christmas tree every year, and we’re very pleased.

And from the back of the stage...

Matt, our friend Matt Lauer, announces that Kenny, Dana’s boyfriend Kenny Chesney, will sit down with Ann, the beleaguered and possibly fired Ann Curry, for an interview when they come back, so we decide to move on and cool off in the NBC store.  We got pics with a cut out of Matt Lauer, and come cute pics of BMc and Dana in a chair from The Voice.  

BMc was pretending she was Celo and Dana was being Adam.  This is one of my favorite shops in NYC, it has obscure shirts and items from just about every show they own – something for every fan for sure, AND they own part of BBC, so there is also a Doctor Who section of the store!!   Yay!!   While we’re looking at stuff BP sees that one of the store clerks is dressed as the 11^th Doctor!   We’re geeking out JUST a bit – and we decide to ask him for a picture with us.  We get Becki, our trusty photographer to snap some pics.  She’s darn good.   He even has “psychic paper” and a sonic screw driver that he lets us hold while we pose.   For a few of them we signed “WHO” – and then for about 30 minutes we chatted with him about the show and why they let him wear the outfit here.  He was super nice – and he had a story about meeting Karen and Arthur (Amy and Rory) when they were filming here in NYC a few months ago.   He tracked them down to a pub and found them pretty indisposed – chatted with Arthur for a bit and then they headed off.    Dana comes back in and says “I’m back!”…. ummm we were so engrossed in DW that we didn’t even notice that she had gone back out to see Kenny sing another song.  Oops.

We’re walking, we’re walking, and we see the “hole in the wall” that we spotted on the way to the Today show earlier.  It’s really cool looking – just an alley way with a water wall and a “hole” through it.   We got a few pictures there and then headed to Madame Tussaud’s to check in for our double decker bus tour.   On the way we go through Time Square again and we find our new favorite store.   Wal-Greens on Time Square – it’s 3 stories and has one of those super cool drink machines that has a billion flavor drink combinations.  It’s our favorite because we can re-fill our water there.  It’s a very bling Wal-Greens…    

We get checked in with the bus and decide to take the uptown tour first – we get a lot with this ticket.   48 hours of bus tours; Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, and night tours – plus a harbor cruise.   We think that today we’re going to do the Uptown and Downtown and then tmw do the cruise first thing, and then Brooklyn – and somewhere in there do the night tour.  Ambitious.

We start walking to the first stop – on 8^th street – but it’s not until we get to 6^th street that we realize that we’ve been walking the wrong way.   Ooops.   I always get turned around in the city, never know which way is “UP”.   It’s frustrating, but we’re only 2 block off – we can do this.  It’s only about 10am – we feel pretty accomplished.   After a brief stop for smoothies and bathrooms (you had to buy something to use the bathroom), we start heading back to 8^th street.   We have declared Becki in charge of navigation.   And she has felt the need to bash us publically, behind our backs, in front of us, on facebook.   It’s nice to be standing next to someone and getting a facebook update about you.

We find the stop and see that about 100 of our close friends have also found the stop.  There is a looooong line to wait for the bus, and it’s not until the 3^rd bus that we get to board.  In the meantime there is like a SWAT team that pulls up in full gear and heads down into the subway stop near us – complete with dog  and big guns (not even hand guns, BMc says… it was true biz serious)– we’re beginning to wonder if we’re going to be on the news tonight.  They’re so casual about it; Just another day in the city.  We never figured out what was happening – but we were very happy to have a seat and a breeze.  

SWAT!

Our tour guide is a little German lady with a pretty thick accent.  Its difficult to understand what she’s saying through the mic – you really have to listen.  She’s entertaining because she also doesn’t seem to know a lot about the things she brings up.  When we can understand her, she’s often saying, “But I don’t know what that is… no one does… oh well… “   Makes me chuckle.   She does warn us not to stand up on the bus, (turn on your inner German voice now), “You get up on the bus.  You are DEAD!”   There are signs and street lights that hang dangerously close to the bus, and if you stand up, you are DEAD!   We start up and almost immediately we are having flashbacks to the DC tour bus because we’re being attacked by trees!   She sees us get hit and says, “Oh yah, and watch out for trees. They should hang signs on the trees, they bite.”… I think that if they hung signs on the trees that we would just get hit by the signs and not the trees.   Not sure which is better.    She talks about the animals… which in her accent sounds exactly like “enemas”… Enemas or animals... You decide.  And sometimes “the enemas are dangerous... Be careful.”   Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

We have gone all around Central Park and back down through Harlem on the bus – and we decide that we want to get off near 5^th Ave and the Park to go to the Mac Store.    It’s super cool looking, because at street level it just looks like a big clear box – the whole store is below ground.   Becki is shopping for a back up battery pack for the phone (a juice box).  Dana and I have really cheap-o versions of charging phone cases that we got off ebay for like $12 – but Becki wants the real deal.   We find one and she checks out – its cool because you don’t stand in lines to check out there, all the people that work there can check you out with their iphones, so it’s really fast.

FAO Schwartz is right next to the Mac Store and we want to see the big piano from “Big”.  They’re very wise, these people, because they set up the piano in the deepest part of the store, and it’s a maze, to make you pass every possible toy before you get to the piano.  On the way we see sections for Harry Potter (Becki and I try on hats later), Legos (very impressive life sized representations of Captain Jack Sparrow, Batman and Lady Liberty) – I tried to get the Batman’s attention to tell him that Superman could kick his butt, but he refused to even look at me!   We get back to the piano and it’s a photo opp for the kids, you have to want a picture from the store to get on it, and it’s really for kids, so adults would look like bozos on it (even though the kids have probably never seen Big, and only know Tom Hanks as the guy that sounds like “Woody”).    And if you want your own Big Piano to play with in the privacy of your own home (and create your own photo opportunities), it can be yours for the low, low price of $250,000.   Mere peanuts!  

We see Captain America in there (flesh and blood, not Lego) but he’s a little on the scrawny side.  Dana gets a picture, but then gets reprimanded – no pictures unless you pay for them.  Oh well.   We find some Star Wars and superhero stuff – but nothing that we need to take home with us.   As we head out, Becki gets a pick with the toy soldier door man. 

We are getting super hungry – blood sugar is running LOW – and BMc is DETERMINED to find a food truck.  Dear lord please let us find a food truck!!   We pass up other food... So hungry and there is no food truck.  But the App that we have to find the food trucks is cutting in and out, and we feel like we’re on a wild good chase.   No luck with the food truck, but I remember that Serendipity3 is just a few blocks from where we are, so we walk a little further.   We pass by Bloomingdales and the Brittanys squeal just a BIT.    And then we pass “Dylan’s Candy Bar” which we have been on the lookout for since Becki has a directive from Olivia (Becki’s daughter) that we must enter and make purchases – so Becki is excited that we’ve found it!    It’s a half a block from Serendipity (home of famously decandent desserts and the original frozen hot chocolate, they also have a “gold” sundae that costs like thousands of dollars.. ), but when we get there, we see that it’s going to be more of a wait than we are willing to invest at this point in our day.  We are beat, we are hungry, and we just want food.  Now.   We circle back and hit Patsy’s Pizzeria that was just across the street.   It’s food.   We are all getting a little irritable – but it just makes us laugh.   BMc is trying to order a salad with ranch – they have no ranch… how about house dressing?  Well there is a dressing called “Patsy’s dressing” – oh what’s in that?   Well, they’re not allowed to tell us – it’s a secret recipe – even the wait staff doesn’t know what’s in it.   What?  You can’t tell us what it’s like, what it tastes like?   Well, it has mayo in it.   Ahhh… well then that’s clear… hmmm….     

I get spaghetti with meat balls (yum!), Becki gets a penne with tomato sauce and mozzarella (super stringy!), BP gets chicken marsala, BMc gets a panninni, and Dana gets chicken parmesan (that’s Chicken: 3 for Dana if you’re counting at home).   We all clean our plates except for BP.  I say, “Well you can’t join the clean plate club”  - She miss-heard me and says, "The pancake club??"   Good times.   We are giddy and slap happy.   We charged our phones for a bit at the Apple store and we joke that now this is our “charging station”.  We were so low on energy, but the food is really helping.  We hadn’t eaten since our little bagels that we had at 7am – and we’ve been expending a lot of energy running after phantom food trucks.   I feel the energy creeping up – the brains are the last to engage and I feel about 75% charged.    BP on the other hand has had two sodas and is now about to bounce off the walls.   Her face hurts from laughing so much and she says that she “can’t make it go down” (yes, I really put that in the blog).    Becki has already decided that she will be having tiramisu – so the rest of us consider dessert.   I get the black and white mousse cake (creamy chocolate goodness) and BMc gets a cannoli that she isn’t too pleased with ( I just asked how to spell “cannolli” which I still don’t think I have right and spell check isn’t helping; and BM says, “It ends in an “I” – thanks Britt).  Becki is VERY pleased with her dessert -   She’s off in Tiramisu land and we don’t exist.

While we’ve been sitting here the sky is starting to get darker… we hear rumbling… and we’re dreading being caught in a downpour.   But no worries, it's just supposed to be "isolated showers"...yah, isolated right over our heads.  We’re watching it POUR down outside and we’re really glad that we’ve decided to have dessert because by the time we’re done, the rain has cleared up.  Of course now it’s nasty and muggy feeling outside (we feel as the door opens as people enter).  We’re sitting right near the front door, just in front of the check in – not really IN the restaurant.  We joke that maybe they sized us up as riff raff and this is where they put people like us.

Once we’ve had sugar it just gets worse.   I have very little idea what happened in the ensuing conversation.   “Wet rain” turned in “ret” as a slip of the tongue, which turned into “rhet butler”, which turned in “Brett butler”, and somewhere in there we were asking “do you know the way to San Jose?”  (or Sante Fe?)  It was just pure silliness, and I got a bit of it on video just to document it.   We’re getting ready to leave and BMc wonders, “Do you think they'll let us pee here?” (We have places to pee!! ) … Dana goes and tests the waters, so to speak, Becki and BM had just been saying they should go... sp Dana gets back and Becki asks where the bathroom is..Upstairs.   And I wish I had a pic of BMc’s face in this moment.   Its like she just smelled rotten eggs mixed with rotten milk.  Suddenly she doesn’t have to go so badly.  “No.  I don't see myself going UP stairs.  I'll wait til Bloomingdales where they have escalators.”

We head out and it’s about 3:00 – but we feel like we’ve done a lot already.    We hit Dylan’s Candy Bar (the daughter of Ralph Lauren) – she has started a “fashionable” chocolate shop.  It’s a nice shop – unique flavors of chocolate… like bacon.   Becki makes a few purchases, but we’re sworn to secrecy (sorry Olivia), and the Brittanys bought a sample of chocolate bars to share later.

We walk back to Bloomingdales – and it’s big.  Lots of floors, and many stuff on each floor.  We see people getting their hair done, lots of designer bags… just tons of things that none of us are going to buy, but BMc’s head is going to pop off from the excitement of being there.   Becki and I start playing a little game of “and how much do you think this one costs?” – oh my.   I guessed $600 for one, and thought that might be high – but it was $1500.   Another lady is buying a little wallet for about $675.    BMc buys a little “brown bag” for her Bloomies buy (it’s a little vinyl bag that looks like a paper bag and says on it “little brown bag”) – and she talks to one of the sale associates that tells her that as a first time visitor, she can get a 10% off voucher.   Just think, she could save $150 off of that leather bag….  Becki, Dana and I find a seat in the visitor’s center.  We totally feel like the husbands that sit around and wait for their wives to finish shopping.   We are fading faster than our iphone batteries… and mine is down to 5% battery.   The girls are ready to go – and we hear from Facebook friends that we must get the chocolate chip cookies – and then I do remember that story that goes around on the internet about the story of the cookie recipe…  so now just as we were ready to go we’re off on another mission.   BMc find out that they’re on the 6^th floor – and we eventually find them.   I get one (and they are very good) – and others get some other baked goods, before we are finally out the door.  BMc and BP report that some of the sales people sized them up as tourists and were rude to them – BMc is offended because she has her 10% off voucher burning a hole in her purse – I say that it’s like the scene from Pretty Woman…. “Big mistake.  Big, big mistake”…

We’re now walking back the way that we came, and we don’t really have a plan – should we get a cab, should we walk back to the red bus… There are 5 of us so there aren’t many cabs that will fit all of us.   We think about the subway, but with my limited battery life, we don’t really have the juice to run the subway app and know where we’re going… so I just keep walking toward the tour bus.   We get to the stop and ride it around – one of the stops on the tour is just a couple of blocks from our apt, so it’s really convenient.    This time around our tour guide has an even thicker Russian accent – makes our German tour guide sound like a native.  It’s seriously like Yakov Smirnoff is giving the tour.

It’s about 5:30 by this point and we have just done the Uptown tour, and the buses stop for the night.  We thought we were going to do the night tour today, but that starts at 6:30 and it is just not going to happen.   We’ll have to leave as soon as we get  back to the apt, and we need some down time.  So we decide that we’ll cram in all the remaining bus tours (and the harbor cruise) in tomorrow – and tonight we’ll go see RENT.   Our friend Judy Larson got us a code for $40 tickets, and BONUS, the theatre is literally the building right next to our apartment building, so we think we can make it even in our current state of exhaustion. 

We get back and naps happen.  I purchase the tickets – and about 7:45 we walk over.   We’ve all seen some rendition of the show before, whether at the Fox or the movie (or all of the above) – but seeing it in New York in their intimate settings, it’s a completely new vibe.   We’re really surprised by how many young children are in there – like kids age 8 or younger behind us, and kids about 12-15 in front of us (that didn’t really get it).   Anyway – great cast, great show – I cried as usual, and we all thought of people at home at the Relay for Life and what they’re going through right now.

Show’s over – and we can’t really wait by the stage door tonight because this theatre is set up differently,   It’s like a movie complex.  There are 5 stages with 5 different shows going on at the same time – this one building has RENT, Ave Q, and 3 other shows, as well as a night club. It’s all on levels below ground level – RENT was two long flights down…   so we’re hungry after the show and decide to do street food.   We get chicken kabobs and hot dogs.   Dana, who now feels us counting the chicken that she consumes is the only one of us who doesn’t get the chicken and she’s sorry for it later.  It was very good – and especially with the “white sauce” that BMc was a little suspicious of.  

Back at the apt and we chat and talk about how silly our plans for tmw seem given that we were able to just complete one bus tour today, and we think that we’re going to do 3 plus a boat tour tmw… we’ll see.   I may add more from our chat – there were quite a few quotes.  But for now I need to get some shut eye so I’m charged up for day 3.