New York City!

That's right. I just got back from a five day trip to New York City. This was my first time, unless you count the many times I have been through the airports there on my way to France. It was a great trip. I flew out late Thursday night, and arrived in New York at 10:00 Friday morning. Darcy came up from Baltimore on the train, and Kim and Carrie Eagar, and Carrie's friend Paula, all came to meet me too. It was so fun to see the city. I took a bus into Grand Central station, which is beautiful! It has gorgeous architecture, and I felt like I was in France being at an old train station. I met up with everyone there, and we headed over to Times Square. It was neat to see, but a little bit of an overload for me! It is huge, with bright billboards everywhere . . and tons of people walking up and down the streets. Darcy took us over towards Central Park to her favorite pizza place, Angelo's. It was delicious, despite the heat in the restaurant! That afternoon, we went and waited in line at the TKTS booth, where you can get half price Broadway tickets. The line was pretty long, but moved maybe a little faster than we would have liked, because by the time we got to the front, we still weren't quite sure which show we wanted to see. None of the huge ones that were top on our list were available. We designated Kim as our "representative" to speak to the agent and get a recommendation of which of the three we should see, to which the ticket agent curtly replied that she doesn't give recommendations. Kim hurried and threw out the first one on our list, and it ended up that we made our decision based on which one had four seats together. We got tickets to Curtains with David Hyde Pierce.

By then it was about 3:00, and I was exhausted. We decided to do the bus tour of lower Manhattan. It was great. We hopped on the top of one of those cheezy double decker buses and immediately knew we had made a good choice as our tired legs relaxed. It was great to see the city from the top of the bus as we learned more about the city from our tour guide. We saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the United Nations building. We got off at Battery Park, where you can look out to see the Statue of Liberty. There were surprisingly several "Statue of Liberties" on the walk down to the real one as we saw people dressed up as the statue standing around for money.

We finished our bus ride back at Times Square, hurried and ate some dinner, and headed for our theater. After walking for awhile, we realized we were headed in the wrong direction and were running out of time, so we got a cab and relaxed as we drove to the theater. I guess one of us wasn't really relaxing though, because before we knew it Kim was paying the driver and telling us to hurry and hop out. We were only a couple of blocks away from the theater. Kim told us she just couldn't stand to see that little meter ticking up the price when we could just walk! :)

The play, although not amazing, was entertaining, and we all enjoyed the story and the songs. We took the train out to White Plains where my training was and our hotel. By the time we got to the hotel, it was after midnight.

Saturday, after my training, I took the train into town to meet Kim, Carrie, and Paula. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Maya. It was delicious! The best part was a three-sampler dessert that had bread pudding, chocolate flan, and caramel crepes. It was delicious! Afterwards, we met up with Darcy and walked over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the "Top of the Rock" as all of the signs advertise. We would have gone to the top of the Empire State Building, but the lines were very long, and we didn't have enough time to wait. There was no line to the top, so we went straight up. It was gorgeous on top! We could see all around the city, with everything all lit up. It was a great final activity for New York!

Eating at Angelo's.

Riding on the tour bus.

Me, Paula, and Kim in front of the Statue of Liberty.

On top of the GE building (Rockefeller Center)

The view of New York City and the Empire State Building from the top.

Carrie, Kim, me, and Darcy on the top looking down.