Trips dates: Wednesday August 9, 2006 until Sunday August 13, 2006
Day One, August 9th: aka Matt and Joan learn the ropes
We flew into JFK Airport and get into our first NYC taxi cab, which was actually a Pontaic Azetec van. Our cabbie drove us through heavy 5PM traffic to our hotel, The Milford Plaza Hotel . I checked into our room without any incident. Then, we went up to said room. OUR KEYS DIDN'T WORK! So, we went back down to the desk and got ANOTHER set, which also didn't work! Finally they moved us to another room and we got it (by using LOTS of hip on the door). Then, I discovered that my awesome Samsonite luggage lock is jammed, and will not open. SO, we called the front desk to have a maintenance guy come with a lock cutter to get it off. We ended up waiting 2+ hours, so essentially, our first night in NYC was spent dealing with hotel people.
Day Two, August 10: We actually do something...and walk...a lot
Due to my obsessive compulsive planning, we had to get up early and head down to the Lower East Side for our food tour. We did the Melting Pot tour featured by the Enthusiastic Gourmet This tour took 3 hours and walked us from Delancy Street to the heart of Little Italy. This tour featured this Pickle Stand, which made me think of Jenny D. The pickles were awesome (Matt didn't have any). After finishing the tour we ate at this delightful Italian restaurant in Little Italy called Pelligrinos.
We then took the NYC subway to Rockafellar Center. From there we went to the Museum of Modern Art
After the trip to the MoMA, we hit Macy's in Herald Square. Matt had forgotten his dress pants in Minneapolis, so he ended getting to buy new ones at the largest department store in the world. After that, we hit the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, we there was a storm rolling into NYC, so our view wasn't the best. Luckily, we managed to get to the top, take our shots, and get out before it hit. We did get caught in the rain, but that just gave us an excuse to eat a nice dinner, walk around Times Square, and get back to the hotel. We then spent the rest of the night at a piano bar in the Theatre district sipping cocktails (Jack and Coke for Matt, an Southern Comfort Manhattan for me). We capped off our fun filled night with giant slices of NYC pizza.
Day Three, August 11: A Long, Fun Day
After a late night, we started the day off early by meeting up with our Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island tour group. All I can say is this: go on the first available tour of the day to avoid very long lines! The Statue is very beautiful and moving. The tour given by the Park Service is really good. You can't get up to the top, but it is awesome to look at her skeleton. Ellis Island is a work in progress as far as a museum going, but it was still nice.
After the ferry trip, we took the subway up to the financial district and ate hotdogs in City Hall Park. We then walked to Ground Zero. It was very sad. Here is a picture of the damaged globe that was near the towers. It now rests in Battery Park a few blocks away.
Our next fun thing for the day was a trip to Yankee Stadium to watch the NY Yankees (Matt's favorite team) play the LA Angels (my favorite team).
The Angels beat the Yankees 7-4. It was a great game. I even predicted a ARod solo home run. Matt was amazed by this. During the game we saw a fight in the stands and lots of other cool stuff. Yankee Stadium has way more atmosphere than all the other ballparks I have been to. After the game was over we went back to the hotel and collapsed. Day Three, August 12: Our last day
After hitting Yankee stadium, we only had three big items on our agenda for the day. The first was a New York Harbor cruise. This was a great way to start off the day, as we got to see the island where we had spent most of our trip (Manhattan), plus the other areas we didn't have time to get to (Queens, Statan Island, Brooklyn, and the Bronx). I also got a better view of how the World Trade Center completed the NYC skyline.
After all this, we then hit our Broadway show: Jersey Boys. This play was so awesome. I could hardly believe it. Even Matt was impressed.
Even though we were blown away by the show, we were able to gather enough strength to hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was by far the best museum I have been to outside of Europe. Through the windows we were able to see Central Park, the only area we didn't get to hit. We then left the Met and went back to Rockafellar Center and Times Square one last time.
Day Four, August 13: Back to MN
We got home to a rainstorm in Minneapolis. Our venture to JFK started at 5:30am EST when we caught a cab. After standing in line for over and hour at the NWA luggage station, we preceeded to sail through the rest of security due to 1. luck and 2. being 5 hours early for our flight. Matt and I will miss NYC, but were very happy to be greeted at the door by our sweet kitty Thomas O'Mally.
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