Tuesday, September 25, 2007

There's No Place Like Home Vol. 1

I'm Baaaaaack!

The vacation to NYC was awesome. So much to do, so much to tell. Let's start off with when we left Saturday. We drove to Kansas City and stayed with Josh's brother. Our flight was scheduled to leave around 9 am, so we got to the airport around 7:45. Our direct flight landed us at LaGuardia around 1 pm. We then took a shuttle to our hotel. It was packed in that van! Crowded! We got to our hotel in about 15 minutes, tipped the nice driver and checked in. We stayed at the Roosevelt. It was okay. The room was very small, not your average hotel room in the rest of the country, but for NYC, I guess it was okay, considering space is pretty valuable there.

The first thing we noticed getting out of that van was the noise. It was sooooo loud there! Black cars and cabby's driving like freakin' maniacs and the buses coming and going down the busy streets. Whew! I felt like I needed earplugs.

So, we check in. We are literally a block away from Grand Central Station. I instantly thought of Rich and wondered which building was his. Perhaps he was in the MetLife Building? Who knows. Anyway, it was pretty exciting. We threw our luggage down and left hurriedly to go down and start exploring. We walked around our block and down some streets. We found a little pub called McAnn's and headed in for a little appetizer and something to drink so we could catch the football game. I loved that little bar. We had an appetizer plate and Josh had a couple of beers. The bartender sounded Irish, but I could be mistaken. It was nice listening to him talk though. We then headed over to Lexington and took a right and ran into the Grand Central entrance. Walked around there, looked at the little market. We found the trains, but couldn't figure out where the subway was. We ate at Juniors for dinner (Big pickles, huge burgers, and yummy steak fries) and then went back outside and walked up and down several streets near our hotel. With our tummies full and our bodies and minds completely overwhelmed, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

On Monday we decided to try our luck with the subway. I looked out of the window of our hotel room and was amazed at how many people I saw at 7 am walking the streets. Many suits walking in and out of doors, coming in and out of cars. Everyone looked like black ants on a big ant hill. Cool. First, we headed over to Times Square and Rockefeller Center. That was okay. We ate breakfast on the corner of Broadway and 49th? It was a diner that had singing wait staff. And sing they did! We headed over Central Park and walked around there for awhile. We then got on the subway and headed for Bleeker street. We got off and looked around. This was close to Greenwich Village, which we were going to see on Tuesday. We got back on the subway, headed back to the hotel and arrived around 3:30, just in time for a nap. I was exhausted!

Got up and had dinner at Naples in the MetLife Building. Had an awesome Vegetarian pizza there. We sat outside and people watched for about an hour. Headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Well, this is all for now. I need to read up on every one's week to see how you all are doing. I will write about Tuesday and Wednesday tomorrow.

5 comments:

Cheryl said...

Welcome back! I've been waiting all week to hear from you. I love what you've written so far. Isn't NY unlike anywhere else? It's such a great place to visit. I've only been there at Christmas and it's always been freezing. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. Will you be crazy busy at work now?

Andfre said...

I'm sold! Love the way you just bummed around doing whatever you wanted to do.

Hyde said...

Awesome. You were actually in my neighborhood. (I can tell you exactly where in an email if you want.) Too bad we didn't get to meet up. I love reading your impressions of the city though!

love,
h

austere said...

Welcome back!
Your descriptions have the NY city buzz.. MORE!

Jamie said...

Welcome back----we missed you! I want to hear each and every detail when you have time,,,,