Friday, May 28, 2010

NYC Day 2

Friday morning we woke up and took a walk over to the financial district. We wandered around, noticed CNN reporting from City Hall, checked out the NY Stock Exchange, watched all the power businessmen/women doing their thing, and wandered over to the TKTS ticket office to see what broadway shows they had that night.  We decided to check back on Saturday for a show because we had a few other ideas up our sleeve for that night.

At the seaport with the financial district in the background.

From there, we wandered over to the seaport.  It was really cool, but so similar to Seattle, we decided to take a walk over to Little Italy, passing through Chinatown first.  We felt like idiots since we had no idea which where we were going, so we kept trying to look at our map on the sly, but still a couple men on different occassions asked us if we needed help.  So embarrassing!  We walked a long, long way and before we'd arrived in Little Italy, I had blisters all over my feet and was desparate for some moleskin, which I happened to have back at the hotel.  We had come too far to turn around, so G told me to suck it up.  We searched high and low for a pharmacy, but I guess accupuncture is much more common than Walgreens in Chinatown.  Go figure.  We did, however, find a lady selling cherries on the sidewalk for $3.00 for 2 pounds.  We got some but only ate a few right then because I'm super paranoid about washing things and didn't want to spoil my entire vacation with diarrhea.  I figured there had to be a reason they were so cheap.  But boy were they good! (We washed them later at the hotel.)

Eventually we made it to Little Italy and found a place to eat.  I had raviolis and G had chicken parmegiana and he hasn't stopped talking about it since.  After lunch we stopped and got a canoli which we agreed was OK -- not as good as the lunch we just enjoyed.  We also got a kick out of the Italian "police equipment" store right there along the main drag.  From there, we started walking again and walked, and walked, and walked.  I still hadn't remedied my blister situation and was on the verge of another bad mood. 

 John Jovino's Police Equipment in Little Italy.  If I don't get some moleskin I'm going to need some of that police equipment.

We took the subway up to Rockefeller Center and walked around the shops there.  Low and behold:  a pharmacy!  It was perfect timing because we had an appointment in a few minutes for a tour of some of the NBC studios and I really wanted to be on my "A-Game" for that.  I got some fancy tape, wrapped up my feet, and in a few minutes was as good as new. 

Next stop:  NBC Tour.  It was done by two NBC pages, and right away after meeting them and hearing some of their stories, I started really regretting never pursuing my broadcasting career.  The tour was a lot of fun and we got to see a few smaller studios, but the highlight was definitly visitng the SNL set.  It is so much smaller than it appears on TV.  They use super wide-angle lenses, so you'd never realize how small it is.  And yeah-after the tour G and I were strategizing how he could take/pass the Bar in New York and how I could get at a job at NBC. 

After NBC, we walked around and poked our heads in Saks 5th Avenue.  We felt like idiots in there, although 95% of the shoppers were young 20-something women that I'm sure couldn't afford the shoes they were buying.  It was interesting to see, at the very least.  We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was just gorgeous.  I had been in it briefly one other time, but we actually spent awhile in there that evening. 

 Time's Square

We walked back to Time's Square, went in a few stores, then eventually decided to take the subway down to Brooklyn to eat at a highly recommended pizza joint, Grimaldi's. 

We arrived at the pizza place to realize there was a super long line -- like all-the-way-down-the-road line.  Luckily, the guy in front of us in line was a "local" showing his visiting friend around the city.  So we eavesdropped on his conversation, learning that this place is known by most as the best pizza in NYC.  So we decided to suck it up, and wait in line, although by that point our feet were so sore from walking that we could hardly endure the 90-minute wait.  Finally we got seated after 11:00 PM.

Have I mentioned yet that we never adjusted to NYC time?  We ate lunch around 4 every day and ate dinner every night at 10 or later.  It sure made it nice transitioning back to PST when we came home!

So anyway, the pizza was fabulous!  We were seated right by the oven, so it was cool to see and TASTE how a coal-burning fire turns out pizza.  Very good, to say the least.

 A happy G after some fabulous pizza

We headed from Brooklyn back to our hotel, called our boys, then changed our shoes and headed back out to wander around the World Trade Center site.  We walked around the entire perimater of the fenced area, then walked through a few buildings that were still open, and walked around Battery Park City.  Even in the dark, we could tell it was really pretty down there, especially seeing the Statue of Liberty off in the distance. 

By then we were totally spent and walked back to our hotel at about 2:00 AM.  Another very exciting day!

2 comments:

Emma said...

I'll have to refer to your posts if we ever make it to NYC!

Myndi said...

Was one of your NBC Page Tour Guide's name Kenneth?

If you don't get that joke you should start watching 30 Rock ASAP