Julie's comments are in BLACK and Judie's are in BLUE and italicized

Wednesday

Blue skies, bright sun and mild temperatures greeted us as we began a full day of New York city sight seeing. We started out among throngs of people, walking along Times Square. As a person from a small town (Population 35,000-ish), the sheer number of pedestrians never ceased to amaze me. People watching alone, would make for an interesting past time there.

The closest thing I had experienced that I could compare such masses of people to, would have to be Mardi Gras; specifically Bourbon Street. It was just amazing how many people were out. Doesn't anybody work?!

As we walked down the street, the first building that caught our attention was The Great American Chocolate Company. Just looking in the window made my sweet tooth ache!

We were very good, though - we only looked in the window.

Since Julie and I had a 48 hour bus pass, we decided to get on and see what we had missed by getting off early the day before.

We relaxed and listened to our guide (different than the day before) as he told us about the sights. Even though we sat through a good portion of the tour that we had already seen, we did learn some new things.

It was good hearing another tour guide give his spiel. We got an older gentleman that had traveled all over the world, but had lived in New York since the mid 60s. He could even remember when SoHo was populated with hippies and it was affordable to live there!

When Judie noticed a restaurant on a corner called Texas Texas, my eyes wandered over to the opposite corner where I noticed a popcorn store called Popcorn, Indiana! This was just too funny considering the fact that Judie lives in Texas, and I live in Indiana. Coincidence? I think not! Well ok, it probably was. ;o)

One of Julie's and my highest priorities for this trip to New York was to visit Ground Zero.

We got off the bus at the closest stop, and walked the few blocks to the area. Although neither of us really knew what to expect, I think we both got goose bumps when we first saw the huge 22 acre crater where the twin towers had once stood. The whole area was enclosed by a tall steel fence that made picture taking somewhat difficult. Plaques were attached along the fence in a sort of time line display of the tragedy.

People were lined up along the fence, some taking pictures, some reading the plaques, and some just looking at the crater, which is now a busy construction site. Here are some of the pictures we took...

The far right picture is of a skyscraper that was damaged during the attacks and is still being repaired...

Because the second anniversary of the attacks was only days before we came, there were many wreaths and flowers still lined up from the memorial service.

Next, we got back on the tour bus and rode the short distance to Pier 17.

One interesting thing that had happened on the bus as we rode towards the pier, was that the tour guide pointed out that this was the Five Points area, which was portrayed in the movie Gangs of New York. If you haven't seen that movie, you might want to check it out. It is amazing watching how it was in the early days of New York. Even though the movie is fiction, it is based on facts.

At the Pier, we grabbed a bite to eat in the food court, window shopped in the indoor mall and snapped a few pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, Brooklyn across the river and several old ships. We also enjoyed the fishy odor...

We thought that we would take advantage of our free ferry passes to Ellis Island. To do so, we were told that we would need to walk for about 10 minutes towards Battery Park. Once there, we would find the ferry ...

... but unfortunately when we got there, we learned that the last boat leaving for the island had left at 3:00. It was now 3:45. Oh well... Judie was able to snap a picture of the statue from the edge of the park...

As we were walking through the park on the way back to the tour bus stop, we passed the Bowling Green subway station. Seeing it from three sides, you would never guess that it wasn't just an ancient building on the edge of a park..

We got back on the bus again, briefly saw Central Park, and then headed back to Times Square. Since we had been walking most of the day, we were both starving. So, our last task of the day was to find some place different to eat. The cool thing about NYC is the wide variety of restaurants. Like our visit to Scotland this past spring, having such a selection of foods to try was one of the best parts of the trip.

It was almost as if we had too much selection, though. We would see so many different types of food that we had never tried, that it was hard to make a decision. We would be walking along starving, but not wanting to settle on just any old thing - we wanted to try something totally "out there".

We walked up and down the streets trying to find something different. We passed Italian, Chinese, and American restaurants...

Thai, Brazilian, and Japanese...

But they didn't really strike our fancy. As we were walking by one small store front, a person standing outside caught our attention by handing us a menu. We looked up to see that it was an Afghan restaurant. The menu listed different types of meat kabobs, which enticed us enough to give it a try. And wow, are we glad that we did! The music and decorations in the restaurant created a unique atmosphere which made us feel like we were even farther from home than NYC.

We started with the Sambossa, which are fried dumplings filled with seasoned ground beef with a tasty yogurt dipping sauce on the side. The pastry was flaky and the meat was expertly spiced. These fried dumplings were delicious!

Judie ordered the Beef Kofta (ground beef marinated in fresh grated spices, broiled over wood charcoal) and I ordered the Kebab Combo which included chicken, pork and beef kabobs. Both meals came with Afghan bread and the yummiest rice that I'd had in a long while. We were both curious about the rice dish, so we asked our waiter about it. He actually had his brother the chef come out to talk to us. We learned that he made the dish from scratch using basmati rice and 16 herbs and spices.

As we were leaving the restaurant, we asked the man that had handed us our menu to pose for a picture. I told him we were writing a trip report, and that we would mention the restaurant in it. He said, "You should have told me, we would have given you the best service!" I laughingly told him that they had given us the best service. Everyone in Afghan Kebob House #3 was friendly, the service was good, the prices were inexpensive, and the food was tasty - what more can you ask for?!

With full bellies and tired feet, we headed back to the hotel, wondering what the next day would have in store for us.

Thursday

Hurricane Isabel caused Thursday to be breezy and somewhat gloomy. We spent quite a bit of the day exploring streets and shops that we had missed during the previous days. This was also the day that we had to do our requisite souvenir shopping. For me, this consisted of the mandatory mini Statue of Liberty figurine.

I got Sarah a couple of shirts from the MTV store, located under the MTV studio...

We decided that we couldn't leave NYC without seeing a Broadway play.

Julie called the hotel concierge, and was told that tickets to the popular shows were in the $150+ range. In our ignorance, we figured that was probably about right, since Vegas shows can run $100+.

Luckily, we found out that we could stand in line at a TKTS stand and buy tickets for half the original price. So, that's what we did, stand in line... for two long hours. The only thing that kept us entertained as we stood there were the Times Square flashing advertisements on the buildings, and the old man that kept walking up and down the lines trying to sell umbrellas "$2 now, $5 after it starts to rain..."

The guy in front of us bought an umbrella because he reasoned that if he did, it would not rain. He was right. we never had any! While Julie held our place in line, I ran up to the front to see what available shows were on the marquee. There were so many to choose from - but we figured it would be fun to see one that had a star that we recognized, whether from the movies or TV. We created a short list to choose from once we got to the booth and knew what was still available. We really weren't that far back in line because we got there so early. By the time TKTS opened, the line had looped several times along the sidewalk behind us and to our sides!

Once we got up to the ticket booth, we decided on a musical called The Boy From Oz with Hugh Jackman (AKA Wolverine from the X-men movie). We got the tickets for $51 each. Not bad considering that our hotel box office had wanted $185 for the same tickets! OUCH!

Now that we were armed with our Broadway tickets, we were free to go exploring again. Thus began a marathon walk that included the Rockefeller Center once again, and some of the more famous landmarks in Manhattan.

The CityMantis electric scooter would have really come in handy by this time! ;o)

We were awed by the beauty of St Patrick's Cathedral, which is the largest Gothic style cathedral in the United States. It is just amazing when you consider how a building like this (as well as many of New York's skyscrapers, for that matter) was created in a time when there were no cranes.

If architecture is your thing, NYC can keep you occupied for quite awhile. The only thing is that you'll end up with a pain in the neck from constantly looking up to see the best features of some of the older buildings. One of our tour guides mentioned that a lot of native New Yorkers don't even notice some of the unique carvings and details that the older buildings have.

The Waldorf Astoria, featured in movies such as Serendipity, Scent of a Woman, Coming to America, Maid in Manhattan and many others, is a dirty looking grey building on the outside. If it weren't for the touches of gold on the front, you might be tempted to overlook it - but that would be a shame. Inside is one of the most opulent hotel interiors I have ever seen. I would have taken pictures, but I thought that might be a bit gauche - especially since we weren't even staying there.

Actually the lobby area of the Waldorf didn't really do anything for me... I would have liked to have seen inside the actual rooms though.

The Helmsley Building is interesting because it appears to be the end of Park Avenue...until you realize that it is actually straddling two one way roads - very clever. The gilt trimmed clock on the outside was beautiful, even if it wasn't telling the correct time...

We actually thought the Helmsley Building was the front entrance to Grand Central Terminal for quite a while. We walked through one tunnel, then back around the other, trying to find correct way in.

It didn't help that there were stairs leading down in the tunnels that went to a subway terminal. We were both thinking, "this can't be right!"

When we walked in the front doors, we knew we weren't in the right area because there was a security guard stationed there to only allow people with passes into the building. We finally got our bearings and found the actual terminal building and went to check it out.

I have always wanted to see Grand Central Terminal. Like so many New York locations, I had seen it's interior in movies and on TV. When we walked in, I was thinking, "this is more like it!" The terminal was just beautiful. Evidently massive restorations were done between 1994 and 1998. New Yorkers can be very proud of the results.

Lunch was at Cosi, a little soup and sandwich shop on 45th street. Walking into the long, narrow eatery, the first thing we saw was the open brick oven where they were cooking the flat bread used to make their sandwiches. After looking at all of the offerings on the wall, and not knowing what to choose (too many choices!), I finally asked the woman working the line what she would suggest. She named a chicken concoction that had a tomato spread, lettuce, chunks of pesto infused chicken and some sort of sauce. It was heavenly! Julie got a mozzarella cheese and grilled chicken sandwich. Since each came with two halves, Julie and I swapped so we could have one of each. Both were very good.

We also had a choice of chips or baby carrots :o) We both took the carrots...

With tired feet, we walked back to the hotel and chilled out for a couple of hours.

We spent the time packing for our trip home, surfing and catching up on email. All I can say is, thank goodness for the high speed internet access in our room! My Fujitsu Lifebook (mini-me) really came in handy during this trip.

For dinner before the show, we decided to have Italian once again. This time, we tried a tiny little upstairs restaurant called Puleo's, which was just a couple doors down from the Imperial Theater, where our show would be. I had the Veal Marsala, and Julie had the Chicken Parmigana. Once again, we enjoyed excellent meals.

Is it obvious that we enjoy eating almost as much as we enjoy our gadgets?  Sometimes I think we should start a food website, what do you all think? ;o)

When we got to the show, we saw that the regular price for the tickets in the Orchestra section - where we would be sitting - was $101. We was even more proof that we had  scored a great price on our tickets! When the show started, we could not believe how close we were to everything that was happening. We were in Section K, seats 26 & 27, and we were no more than 20 feet from the stage. When Hugh Jackman did his opening number, it was like we could have almost reached out and touched him (not that we would have - but still!). The show was unbelievable! Considering that we saw it on the 3rd night of previews, and it doesn't even officially open until October 16, I was expecting a performance that wouldn't be quite perfect. If anyone didn't hit their notes or flubbed their lines, we certainly couldn't tell. Everything was just amazing.

I did notice at least a couple times during the show where Hugh laughed at or with the audience. At one point, his character took off his shirt, and quite a few female audience members cheered. This didn't detract from his performance though, because his character often addressed the audience members as if he was actually relaying his story to us.

If you have any doubt that Hugh Jackman can sing or dance, forgettaboutit! For anyone that doesn't know the story behind the Boy from Oz, it is about the life and death of Peter Allen, the Academy Award winning songwriter that wrote such songs as "Don't Cry Out Loud," "I Honestly Love You," and "Arthur's Theme." He led an extremely interesting life, and this play did a good job of piecing it together with original Peter Allen songs. If you get the opportunity to see this show - do not pass it up! If all Broadway shows are as good as this one, then I will be returning to New York, if for no other reason than to see more.

I agree that the show was excellent! I love going to plays. There's just something about seeing a live performance that makes things all the more exciting. The play lasted a full 2hrs, so at 10pm, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing.

This trip wasn't exactly what we had envisioned, but it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. Although, we didn't make any new contacts with vendors at TECHXNY, we were able to see the sights, eat the foods, watch the people and soak up the culture that is NYC.

I can't wait to go back - 2.5 days just wasn't enough. I think you could live in New York your entire life and still not see all of the sights. For those of you that have never been, there are a couple of stereotypes that New York did and didn't live up to, at least in my eyes.

I had expected Times Square to be dirty and full of shady characters, which if you don't count the street vendors was definitely not the case. Everything was as clean as any other major city I have ever visited. Judging by the number of people that were walking around with expensive designer accessories, no one was afraid of being robbed. There was a definite police presence, and as Julie and I remarked while we were walking together at dusk one night, there was never a time when we felt threatened or unsafe.

I mostly expected to see a bunch of kooky people... At least that's what came to my mind when I thought about Times Square. I guess we did see a few... the Naked Cowboy... And then there was the lady that had a baby lamb with diapers on a leash! That was odd!

I had expected the food to be good, and as you can tell from our report - I was not disappointed. Every restaurant meal that we had was wonderful. Julie did tell me that the hot dog she bought from a vender (after I had already left for the airport) was the worst she had ever had, though. So unless you know of a specific vendor that has good ones, consider yourself warned. ;0)

True, but then I got the best hotdog I ever had at the La Guardia airport. It had a pretzel wrapped around it. YUM.

One last observation was that people seemed extremely friendly. I had heard that New Yorkers can be brusque, but that was never the case with the people we spoke to. All in all, this turned out to be a wonderful trip. We hope that you enjoyed sharing it with us. ☺

Monday Tuesday