After our splendid time with the Iversons, we continued trekking on our merry way. Griff, Sam and Ellis dropped us off at the bus station and we hopped on the Lucky Star which whisked us away to Manhattan. I've never driven into Manhattan before and it's kind of a crazy experience. It just gets more and more...More! The bus dropped us off in Chinatown as planned and we made our way to the YMCA on the West Side of Central Park.
The location was perfect and it was about 8 million times less expensive than any other option we found. We were pretty stoked about it. Here is our quaint little bungalow suite on the 10th floor.
Ah yes, the good life. Since it didn't take long to settle in, we grabbed our handy map and were on our way.
Every time I go on vacation, I never want to spend any money on food, so we end up eating granola that we brought from home or stale bread that we find along the way. Before we left I made the decision to be more willing to try lots of food while we were vacationing. Our first stop was this lovely food cart. I think Paul found a hot dog and I found a gyro! Love it. Then we pattered around the Natural History Museum for about 3 seconds before it closed.
I think we spent that night on a hunt for some ice cream that I had marked on my map before leaving home. We ended up getting a shake somewhere in the village and watched a very scary waitress chase down a customer who left without paying. Then the very scary waitress returned, cradling her hand, and explained how the lady had refused to pay and then hit her, so of course the very scary waitress had to punch her in the face. She thought she broke her hand. We quietly paid our bill and were on our way.
We had fun riding the subway. It always reminds of trundling along in Paris, being a loud and obnoxious group of about 80 American girls on the metro. Good times.
We went to Wicked, which Griff assured me was the story of us in college. She excitedly told me how her whole family watched it and immediately said it was totally about us. Pretty funny. We (I) had a great time and thought of my theatrical Young Women the whole time and how they love it. Paul said, "That seems like something girls would like."
We walked home after Wicked through Times Square.
So then the next night we went to see Blue Man Group. It was in a tiny tiny tiny venue which was super fun. It was interesting to note the difference in the audience before the show even started. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. We had seats in the back back back, of course, but the nice seating lady scooted us right up front before it began.
We went to see the site of the Twin Towers. They're doing a lot of construction, rebuilding on a different site, and have made a really nice memorial there. There was SUPER intense security. Every 4 feet (not exagerating!) there were security cameras. And we got our passes checked about every 12 feet (exagerating a little.)
Paul enjoyed walking around the financial district. We thought of doing a gold tour at the Fed, but I guess you need reservations a month in advance or something. So we looked at Ben's old workplace. (Iverson, not Bernanke)
Paul thought this inredibly long line of people waiting to take their picture with "The Bull" on Wall Street was Hilarious! So he took a picture of the line, and got quite an interesting view of The Bull.
What's that park down there called? Battery Park or something? Well, we were hanging out there when we saw this huge group of students take out their sandwiches in COMPLETE UNISION. It was amazing!
As we were gawking at the Statue of Liberty this coast guard ship rolled in, looking all fancy, trailed by 7 or 8 Battleships. It was quite striking.
We liked all the little sailors standing on the deck.
We visited Katz's Deli. It's been there forever, since 1888. I guess you used to be able to send a salami to someone serving during the World Wars.
We didn't get any salami, but we did indulge in some pastrami.
We also enjoyed the food in Chinatown. This may have been my favorite NYC dish.
We enjoyed milling about with all the people and found ourselves a nice cleaver for a souvenir. I love that thing but am still a little worried I'm going to chop off my finger.
So many people.
We spent a lot of time in Central Park as it was so close to our hostel. It was a nice place to eat our breakfast. Paul loved the people walking their crazy dogs. Those are definitely not Alaska dogs.
We also got to go to the temple while we were there which was awesome!
What else did we do? We really just walked around a lot which was nice. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of all the gelato we ate. We were on a mission to find the best gelato in town and we think we did. Except Paul and I will never be true gourmands because we simply cannot appreciate little tiny portions. The more, the better!
We left in the middle of a thunderstorm and got SOAKED on our way to the airport. We laid out all our stuff in the middle of the airport to try to dry out and made quite the scene. Ah well.
Fun place to visit. Definitely a different tempo than good ol' AK.
And now we start our real summer!
The location was perfect and it was about 8 million times less expensive than any other option we found. We were pretty stoked about it. Here is our quaint little bungalow suite on the 10th floor.
Ah yes, the good life. Since it didn't take long to settle in, we grabbed our handy map and were on our way.
Every time I go on vacation, I never want to spend any money on food, so we end up eating granola that we brought from home or stale bread that we find along the way. Before we left I made the decision to be more willing to try lots of food while we were vacationing. Our first stop was this lovely food cart. I think Paul found a hot dog and I found a gyro! Love it. Then we pattered around the Natural History Museum for about 3 seconds before it closed.
I think we spent that night on a hunt for some ice cream that I had marked on my map before leaving home. We ended up getting a shake somewhere in the village and watched a very scary waitress chase down a customer who left without paying. Then the very scary waitress returned, cradling her hand, and explained how the lady had refused to pay and then hit her, so of course the very scary waitress had to punch her in the face. She thought she broke her hand. We quietly paid our bill and were on our way.
We had fun riding the subway. It always reminds of trundling along in Paris, being a loud and obnoxious group of about 80 American girls on the metro. Good times.
We went to Wicked, which Griff assured me was the story of us in college. She excitedly told me how her whole family watched it and immediately said it was totally about us. Pretty funny. We (I) had a great time and thought of my theatrical Young Women the whole time and how they love it. Paul said, "That seems like something girls would like."
We walked home after Wicked through Times Square.
So then the next night we went to see Blue Man Group. It was in a tiny tiny tiny venue which was super fun. It was interesting to note the difference in the audience before the show even started. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. We had seats in the back back back, of course, but the nice seating lady scooted us right up front before it began.
We went to see the site of the Twin Towers. They're doing a lot of construction, rebuilding on a different site, and have made a really nice memorial there. There was SUPER intense security. Every 4 feet (not exagerating!) there were security cameras. And we got our passes checked about every 12 feet (exagerating a little.)
Paul enjoyed walking around the financial district. We thought of doing a gold tour at the Fed, but I guess you need reservations a month in advance or something. So we looked at Ben's old workplace. (Iverson, not Bernanke)
Paul thought this inredibly long line of people waiting to take their picture with "The Bull" on Wall Street was Hilarious! So he took a picture of the line, and got quite an interesting view of The Bull.
What's that park down there called? Battery Park or something? Well, we were hanging out there when we saw this huge group of students take out their sandwiches in COMPLETE UNISION. It was amazing!
As we were gawking at the Statue of Liberty this coast guard ship rolled in, looking all fancy, trailed by 7 or 8 Battleships. It was quite striking.
We liked all the little sailors standing on the deck.
We visited Katz's Deli. It's been there forever, since 1888. I guess you used to be able to send a salami to someone serving during the World Wars.
We didn't get any salami, but we did indulge in some pastrami.
We also enjoyed the food in Chinatown. This may have been my favorite NYC dish.
We enjoyed milling about with all the people and found ourselves a nice cleaver for a souvenir. I love that thing but am still a little worried I'm going to chop off my finger.
So many people.
We spent a lot of time in Central Park as it was so close to our hostel. It was a nice place to eat our breakfast. Paul loved the people walking their crazy dogs. Those are definitely not Alaska dogs.
We also got to go to the temple while we were there which was awesome!
What else did we do? We really just walked around a lot which was nice. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of all the gelato we ate. We were on a mission to find the best gelato in town and we think we did. Except Paul and I will never be true gourmands because we simply cannot appreciate little tiny portions. The more, the better!
We left in the middle of a thunderstorm and got SOAKED on our way to the airport. We laid out all our stuff in the middle of the airport to try to dry out and made quite the scene. Ah well.
Fun place to visit. Definitely a different tempo than good ol' AK.
And now we start our real summer!
5 comments:
Reservations a month in advance? Wow, the Fed's gotten a lot more popular than when I was there.
Love the picture of the bull.
Remember how I was just there? It seems like you gave yourselves the same tour we gave our little kids (with maybe the exception of the temple). Central Park is still my favorite place in all of NYC. It is such a good idea.
Omgoodness! Wicked in NYC?!!!! I don't know if you knew this but that is my ultimate DREAM.
Fun! Katz is definately on my list for If I Ever Go Back To New York. That pastrami looks sooo good!
There are SO many PEOPLE in New York. Just looking at these pictures make me tired!
And could you at least kind of see the resemblance between those Wicked girls and us? Not a complete resemblance, but kind of?
And I'm really glad you guys stayed at the YMCA. That is the best idea ever. Oh, and I'm also glad you vowed to eat so much good food. And that you were unsatisfied with the gelato because it will never quite be Kimball Farms' ice cream.
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