Just because we had nothing planned for the weekend (other than Halloween on Friday) we decided to book a trip to New York on Thursday. So at 6am on Saturday morning the alarm went off and we fell out of bed, into the shower and into a taxi. At 8am we were on a flight to La Guardia and at 10am we were checked into the hotel and walking down to Times Square in search of coffee!
Our taxi from the airport was having trouble turning off 5th to cut across to our hotel. All the streets were barricaded. We said we'd just jump out and walk as we knew we weren't too far from the hotel. We got to 6th Avenue and discovered why the roads were closed. There were thousands of runners running up the road...and our hotel was the other side!! Imagine then, Stephen and I waiting for a suitable gap in the flow of runners and then running across the street (and these streets are wide) dodging the runners bearing down on us, trailing a wheelie case behind us! It was the International Friendship Run apparently. They certainly seemed friendly!! There was a samba band following them, and lots of people draped in flags cheering them on.
Once we'd had a coffee I made a quick trip into Macy's and managed to solve one of my long-standing dilemma's - what to wear to Matt & Jane's wedding in a few weeks. I got a gorgeous jacket, and what was even better, it was reduced by 50% AND I got an additional discount as I'd registered with their visitor centre. I LOVE that store!!! I didn't want to spent too long shopping, but I did glimpse GirlyHeaven.... the elevator doors opened at the 5th floor and my view was filled with shoes and boots as far as the eye can see!!
When I'd reclaimed Stephen from outside we headed further down 5th Avenue until we go to the Flatiron building where we paused to sit and enjoy the blazing sunshine. We decided to head back to the hotel and ditch the shopping and jackets as we were too hot, so we jumped on the subway back uptown. We wandered for miles around 5th Avenue, the Rockefeller Plaza, Bryant Park where we watched the ice skating and finally onto Times Square. We headed up to the 8th floor bar which overlooks Times Square and enjoyed the spectacle as the sun set and darkness fell.
We went to Ruths Chris for dinner which was delicious as ever. We had a really leisurely meal - which makes a change from some of the dinners we've had recently! Our waiter Jimmy was a hoot - like Chris Rock, but without the profanity! After we'd scoffed ourselves into a stupor on lobster bisque and fillet we went to the "Top of the Rock" to admire the Manhattan skyline from on high. The great advantage it has over the Empire State building is that the lines are shorter (non-existant v's 40+ minutes), its much quieter (20 people vs 200) and you get THE most fantastic view of the Empire State building!!
After mucking about trying to get a photo of me with the Empire State building behind, we decided to go to the official photographer. What a disappointment!! When we went to view them, the first two shots were blurred and the 3rd wasn't a great photo, so we passed. I did suspect that they weren't going to be great when I saw other people's photos displayed. The point of taking your photo there is to get the Empire State in the background, and in some of the shots all you could see of it was the very edge of the building! Talk about terrible framing!
By the time we'd descended down the 70 floors to street level it was about 11:30. We'd heard that John McCain was going to be on Saturday Night Live, and knew that SNL was filmed in The Rock, so it was no great surprise to find the whole street bristling with police and paparazzi waiting for him to reappear. I think we narrowly missed him coming out of St Patrick's Cathedral this morning too. There were lots of police cars parked and a couple near us were shrieking "They're coming out. They're posing for photos"... if we could have been bothered to run across 5th Avenue we could have seen him in the flesh...but hey... Now, if it had been Brangelina that might have been a different story!!
I put the apathy down to the freezing temperatures this morning. What a contrast from yesterday!! We were muffled up to the eyeballs and still feeling cold. I thought my ears were going to drop off!! I need earmuffs!!!!! After breakfast we walked up to Central Park to watch them set up for the finish line of the marathon, then back down 5th, up 6th, over to 7th.... By that time it was time to check out the hotel. We decided just to jump in a cab over to the airport in case we were delayed in any way by the NY Marathon. Thankfully we weren't and got to the airport just fine. We actually arrived in time to check in for the earlier flight - which was just as well as our flight had been cancelled!!! Helpfully, the airline had left a message on our home phone to tell us....I'm pretty sure that they have our cell phones on the booking, but hey...at least they made the effort!!
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