Ok, I know Part 2 of our trip to NYC should have been posted a while ago (you can see Part 1 here). What can I say, we have been unbelievably busy and we aren’t complaining about it. So, to pick up where we left off at with the first post ~ we started Sunday morning with breakfast at Tim Horton’s then headed to Grand Central Station to take the subway downtown. Our plan was to be at the South Street Seaport ticket booth when it opened to get Broadway tickets for that night. Well, we were not too happy with we arrived to find a hand-written sign saying they were closed on Sundays, even though their website says they are open on Sundays (very irritating). No tickets for us, so we walked over to Ground Zero. Although they are working on the Freedom towers and memorial it will not be open for another year and a half. Very moving to think of all that went on there just 9 years ago. We spent some time at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits the area.
.jpg "Grand Central Station in New York City by green screen and event photographer Albertex Photography")
.jpg "Ground Zero in New York City by green screen and event photographer Albertex Photography")
After visiting Ground Zero we walked through Chinatown on our way to Katz’s Deli, one of the more famous delis in NYC. It is the deli from When Harry met Sally where Meg Ryan’s character Sally, shows Harry how much she is enjoying “it” and the lady says, “ I’ll have what she’s having”. Classic scene. I had Pastrami, Tanya had a Rueben and we shared a bowl of matza ball soup. Everything was excellent.
.jpg "Lunch at Katz")
After lunch we headed back to midtown to wander through the area a little more. We got off at Grand Central Station again so we could walk past the Chrysler Building, then we headed back to Central Park and the huge Apple Store on Fifth Ave. Not only was it Easter Sunday bit it was the weekend of the launch of the iPad so we needless to say it was packed and we decided not go in. Instead we walked through FAO Swartz as seen in the movie “Big”.
We decided to brave the massive crowds of Times Square, which is a huge melting pot of things to see and do. After walking around for a while we popped into street side café in a hotel. We ordered some appetizers and cocktails and had some fun just sittine back and people watching – we were also quite surprised to notice the giant Lichtenstein that decorated the lobby of the office building across the street. Speaking of watches. We frequently saw “vendors” that had a bed sheet wrapped like Santa’s gift sack. They would stop, put the “sack” down, untie it and lay out a collection of “designer” purses or watches or tube socks to sell. Our favorite vendor to watch was the watch salesman who had his small briefcase of watches set on top of 2 milk cartons. Interesting to see how fast they could roll up their purses and hide their watches when the authorities came close. We sat there for a couple of hours.
We found a wonderful Italian restaurant and had dinner then walked to around a little more. We probably walked 5 to 8 miles a day (yay for sort-of fresh air and exercise!). It was my first time to not see a Broadway show while visiting New York which was kinda of a bummer – I guess we will have to buy tickets before we go next time.
Our last morning in New York we wanted bagels for breakfast – there’s nothing quite like a New York bagel loaded with cream cheese – yum! We bought a couple of bagels from a place near our hotel, picked up some coffee at a coffee place we had also been eyeballing, and we were off the Rockefeller Center to eat our bagels and drink our coffee. While we were there we had our first and only celebrity spotting – Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show walked out of 30 Rock and headed across the street. We finished our bagels and coffee and headed back to the hotel to finish packing and head home. We had a great time (and it is probably the closest we will get to a vacation this year), and can’t wait to go back!
Added by Tanya: We saw this sign and I had to get a pic of Bill in front of it. Anyone who knows Bill has probably heard him at some point say the work “luscious” – in a very sarcastic tone, of course 🙂
