Sun-Kissed Shoulders in NYC
Day II adventures in NYC!
We started the morning out with breakfast at this adorable cafe' type bakery establishment called the Cranberry cafe'. They have a wonderful variety of fresh foods, including made to order breakfasts. I chose to eat from the self serve (buffet style) fruit bar. Mangoes, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, & oranges filled my plate with a touch of yogurt. YUMMY! Darek chose not to eat breakfast, as usual. He watched and patiently waited for us to finish, so we could begin our adventures for the day.
First stop - a US Post Office. I purchased a few postcards yesterday to send off to some of my friends & family, and needed postage so I could send them off right away. I asked a nice man in one of the gift shops yesterday if he could sell me 3 postcard stamps and his reply... "$4.50" WHAT?!?!??! I quickly declined his generous offer and proceeded to look up the nearest post office. It was about 4 blocks from our hotel. Score!! It took a little searching to find the entrance, but we did find it eventually. Mission Accomplished! And, we missed the quick downpour while we were inside, so we were completely blessed to be out of the rain. There was a 91% chance of thunderstorms today, but the weather turned out PERFECT!!! Sunny and 78 degrees!
YES, please & thank you!!!
Next stop - Grand Central Station.
This building was HUGE and magnificent. It's an amazing structure and really too beautiful for words. We took a lot of pictures to try and capture the magnitude of the building, but nothing we did could really show how enormous this building is. We proceeded to purchase 7 day passes so we could have unlimited rides while we are here. $27 per ticket later and we were set. Train 5 to 86th street (Central Park near the MET). We safely made it on and off of the subway without witnessing and stabbings or being stabbed. (Darek was relieved). ;)
Central Park was amazing! HUGE! Everything in New York is super-sized. We walked part of the way around the reservoir and then proceeded the opposite direction toward the Bethesda Fountain. Unfortunately this fountain was under restoration and was covered with scaffolding, etc. Oh well, it was still neat. We continued walking until we reached the horse drawn carriages.
YES!!!!!!!!!! We took a ride through Central Park on a horse drawn carriage. Our horse was named Ernie and the driver was from Dublin. He gave us a lot of interesting facts about the park, and about the surrounding buildings. We learned that Donald Trump has a 30 year lease on 1/4 of Central Park, including the skating rink and amusement park. Yep, he's raking in some serious dough on that one! Way to be an entrepreneur, Donald! ($80,000/day approx. in the winter for ice skating profit.) He was sponsoring a fashion show that was being set up while we were strolling through.
From here we visited FAO Schwarz, and played the Giant Piano! I played a little and even had an audience. Haha! It was a lot of fun!! That is a child's dream store. Toys and candy galore!! We continued down 5th avenue and took lots and lots of pictures along the way of high end stores. Some day I will conquer this street! Some day!!! We did visit Tiffany & Co. This was a great experience. There were very busy, but didn't mind having us walk around and admire the 'pretties'. We most certainly did visit the 2nd floor and admire the large, sparkly diamonds. There was one in particular that I have to mention. 11.2 carats and the cost is.... drum roll please........... $1.8 million!!!! Yes, you read that right! $1.8 million!!!! YIPES!
We took a self guided tour through St. Patrick's Cathedral. WOW! That is an impressive building, and beautiful for sure! 1 thing is certain - the Catholic church has a LOT of $$. We enjoyed being there and admiring the beauty. Great experience!! From here we moved over to Rockefeller center. Amazing building and a great etched stone 'saying' in front. (Not sure what it's really called). Took some picture of Radio City Music Hall... Ate a Gyro and Darek had a Philly Cheese steak from a street vendor. This naturally led us to Magnolia Bakery. What a great find! It was only 3 blocks from our hotel. It's like a diamond in the rough. We did have to wait a few minutes to get in, but we got there just in the nick of time. When we left there was a line around the corner of the building. SO worth it!
We continued to walk, only to find that we were 2 block away from our hotel. Yep, we walked the entire way back from Central Park without even knowing it. Funny, huh? We got back just in time to take a quick rest and get changed for our evening show - Pagagnini at the Victory theatre. (Pah-ga'g-neenee) It was a wonderful show with the most amazing violinists and cellist I have ever heard! They were hilarious and Emily's contagious laugh made it even funnier. I was laughing so hard I was crying. They even came out after the show for questions from the audience. There were a lot of children there, so it was fun hearing them ask questions and learn from these fantastic musicians! Music is FUN!
Once this show was complete, we decided to find a sports bar or restaurant to watch what was left of the Twins/Yankees game. We ended up at the Times Square Applebee's. The game was fun until the Yankee's hit a grand slam and brought the score to 7-4. That pretty much deflated the Twins and we watched our beloved team loose. That story should be different tomorrow, as we will be at the game. Looking forward to seeing Yankee stadium and a Twins victory.
While walking back toward our hotel through Times Square, we encountered some street vendors. That was where the fun started. They had large pouches of handbag knock-off's from all kinds of designer labels. We had a fun time looking at them and testing out our bartering skills. Just preparing for our trip to Little Italy. ;);) Mike looked at some 'rolex' and 'breitling' watches, but decided not to buy just yet. We still have 4 days here, so I'm sure we will find just the right thing.
We decided to call it a night so we can get some rest and prepare for our big day at Yankee stadium tomorrow.
Highlights in a nut shell:
Subway ride
Carriage ride in Central Park
Cupcake / banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery
Sunburn
Show
Haggling with illegal purse vendors
Until tomorrow -
PS Darek LOVES the street vendors, and I must admit I'm pretty much loving them too! lol!
We started the morning out with breakfast at this adorable cafe' type bakery establishment called the Cranberry cafe'. They have a wonderful variety of fresh foods, including made to order breakfasts. I chose to eat from the self serve (buffet style) fruit bar. Mangoes, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, & oranges filled my plate with a touch of yogurt. YUMMY! Darek chose not to eat breakfast, as usual. He watched and patiently waited for us to finish, so we could begin our adventures for the day.
First stop - a US Post Office. I purchased a few postcards yesterday to send off to some of my friends & family, and needed postage so I could send them off right away. I asked a nice man in one of the gift shops yesterday if he could sell me 3 postcard stamps and his reply... "$4.50" WHAT?!?!??! I quickly declined his generous offer and proceeded to look up the nearest post office. It was about 4 blocks from our hotel. Score!! It took a little searching to find the entrance, but we did find it eventually. Mission Accomplished! And, we missed the quick downpour while we were inside, so we were completely blessed to be out of the rain. There was a 91% chance of thunderstorms today, but the weather turned out PERFECT!!! Sunny and 78 degrees!
YES, please & thank you!!!
Next stop - Grand Central Station.
This building was HUGE and magnificent. It's an amazing structure and really too beautiful for words. We took a lot of pictures to try and capture the magnitude of the building, but nothing we did could really show how enormous this building is. We proceeded to purchase 7 day passes so we could have unlimited rides while we are here. $27 per ticket later and we were set. Train 5 to 86th street (Central Park near the MET). We safely made it on and off of the subway without witnessing and stabbings or being stabbed. (Darek was relieved). ;)
Central Park was amazing! HUGE! Everything in New York is super-sized. We walked part of the way around the reservoir and then proceeded the opposite direction toward the Bethesda Fountain. Unfortunately this fountain was under restoration and was covered with scaffolding, etc. Oh well, it was still neat. We continued walking until we reached the horse drawn carriages.
YES!!!!!!!!!! We took a ride through Central Park on a horse drawn carriage. Our horse was named Ernie and the driver was from Dublin. He gave us a lot of interesting facts about the park, and about the surrounding buildings. We learned that Donald Trump has a 30 year lease on 1/4 of Central Park, including the skating rink and amusement park. Yep, he's raking in some serious dough on that one! Way to be an entrepreneur, Donald! ($80,000/day approx. in the winter for ice skating profit.) He was sponsoring a fashion show that was being set up while we were strolling through.
From here we visited FAO Schwarz, and played the Giant Piano! I played a little and even had an audience. Haha! It was a lot of fun!! That is a child's dream store. Toys and candy galore!! We continued down 5th avenue and took lots and lots of pictures along the way of high end stores. Some day I will conquer this street! Some day!!! We did visit Tiffany & Co. This was a great experience. There were very busy, but didn't mind having us walk around and admire the 'pretties'. We most certainly did visit the 2nd floor and admire the large, sparkly diamonds. There was one in particular that I have to mention. 11.2 carats and the cost is.... drum roll please........... $1.8 million!!!! Yes, you read that right! $1.8 million!!!! YIPES!
We took a self guided tour through St. Patrick's Cathedral. WOW! That is an impressive building, and beautiful for sure! 1 thing is certain - the Catholic church has a LOT of $$. We enjoyed being there and admiring the beauty. Great experience!! From here we moved over to Rockefeller center. Amazing building and a great etched stone 'saying' in front. (Not sure what it's really called). Took some picture of Radio City Music Hall... Ate a Gyro and Darek had a Philly Cheese steak from a street vendor. This naturally led us to Magnolia Bakery. What a great find! It was only 3 blocks from our hotel. It's like a diamond in the rough. We did have to wait a few minutes to get in, but we got there just in the nick of time. When we left there was a line around the corner of the building. SO worth it!
We continued to walk, only to find that we were 2 block away from our hotel. Yep, we walked the entire way back from Central Park without even knowing it. Funny, huh? We got back just in time to take a quick rest and get changed for our evening show - Pagagnini at the Victory theatre. (Pah-ga'g-neenee) It was a wonderful show with the most amazing violinists and cellist I have ever heard! They were hilarious and Emily's contagious laugh made it even funnier. I was laughing so hard I was crying. They even came out after the show for questions from the audience. There were a lot of children there, so it was fun hearing them ask questions and learn from these fantastic musicians! Music is FUN!
Once this show was complete, we decided to find a sports bar or restaurant to watch what was left of the Twins/Yankees game. We ended up at the Times Square Applebee's. The game was fun until the Yankee's hit a grand slam and brought the score to 7-4. That pretty much deflated the Twins and we watched our beloved team loose. That story should be different tomorrow, as we will be at the game. Looking forward to seeing Yankee stadium and a Twins victory.
While walking back toward our hotel through Times Square, we encountered some street vendors. That was where the fun started. They had large pouches of handbag knock-off's from all kinds of designer labels. We had a fun time looking at them and testing out our bartering skills. Just preparing for our trip to Little Italy. ;);) Mike looked at some 'rolex' and 'breitling' watches, but decided not to buy just yet. We still have 4 days here, so I'm sure we will find just the right thing.
We decided to call it a night so we can get some rest and prepare for our big day at Yankee stadium tomorrow.
Highlights in a nut shell:
Subway ride
Carriage ride in Central Park
Cupcake / banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery
Sunburn
Show
Haggling with illegal purse vendors
Until tomorrow -
PS Darek LOVES the street vendors, and I must admit I'm pretty much loving them too! lol!
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