NYC 9.14.2013

16 hours in the Big Apple!

15 miles on foot, 2 miles on bicycle plus a ferry ride for good measure.

What a whirlwind! 

It turns out the only parts of my body not suffering from this weekends adventures are my fingers. As the weekend has not yet ended it's time to make this pain a package deal.  Let's tire these fingers out by updating the blog - no rest for the wicked.

What, why, when, where?

So, Matt had to leave town for work on Tuesday and is not certain when he will be able to return home. I came home from work Tuesday feeling as if I  had just completed an entire week of work in ONE DAY (I can usually make it to Wednesday before feeling this way). I realized I did not want to sit around this weekend hoping to see tentative plans with friends become a reality. I've wanted to visit NYC forever now and it is on the list of future musts for Matt and I but we always plan other adventures as our mentality has been "New York's so close, we'll get there eventually".

Coal, my youngest brother who just turned 21 a few weeks ago, is always a good sport when it comes to joining me in my ridiculous adventures. When asked if he would consider taking a bus into the city for a day with me he did not expect to have to commit to this idea 2-hours later. He did commit and when asked what he wanted to do in the city he replied, "pizza".

Done. Little did he know what he would have to do to earn this pizza!!

We left Pittsburgh at 10:45pm Friday night and arrived in NYC at 7:00am, sore, tired but excited! We walked from mid-town to Union Square to join our only scheduled and planned event of the day: A Free Tours by Foot of SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. The tour was to begin at 9:50am on Spring St. and 6th ave, just outside of SoHo.

 We definitely arrived in the city EARLY - just as everything was starting to come to life for another day. It was a great opportunity for us to grab a coffee and begin the first of many miles of walking!

This picture would have been so much better without the tacky Bud Light sign. Oh well, gives it character I suppose. 

I'm hopeful to join a walking tour to see some of the cities graffitti art during my next trip to NYC. 

Metrnonome in Union Square: The first 7 digits of this clock show the current time of day while the final 7 digits show the remaining time before the end of the day "A modern day hourglass". 

Union Square Market opening early Saturday morning.

The first of MANY miles on Broadway throughout our day. 

Good thing this store wasn't open when we are walking past. I'm not so certain bald men make good chocolate but I am absolutely certain I could have enjoyed a breakfast and lunch of just chocolate. 

Muffinmilk? What? We saw these prints on the sidewalk for quite a few blocks before I decided to take a picture of it. I I googled "muffinmilk" when I saw this picture again today and was impressed with their message and business. 

The similarities of these two are simply striking! :)

Coal was convinced this restaurant was closed due to the season. Our best to you during these cooler months, "Butter".

And so begins our time in "I'll never be able to afford that" land. I think Coal was rather grateful as he quickly declined my offer to buy him these lovely buttercream robes. 

Move over Oscar Mayer - this is the TRUE Weiner mobile.

And just hours ago he was making fun of me for buying this "pop-up" map. 

We stopped for breakfast at Amelia's Restaurant a few blocks from our meeting spot for the tour. I was talked out of ordering the greek yogurt and granola by both our waitress (Lady GaGa's pretend Grandmother) and Coal. I settled for my second choice, bagel and lox as this has never disappointed me. The smoked salmon was great but there was WAY too much and there must have been a pound of cream cheese hiding underneath each salmon filet. I asked the waitiress to add arugula to the order as I was craving something green. Arugula = Iceberg at Amelia's. Fail! Coal loved his egg-bagel sandwich and hash browns though. Oh, and the mimosa was top-notch, of course. Not bad for a quick breakfast as we were both starving.

Arugula = Iceberg? ... yuck!

I loved the architecture and greenery of this building. 

Soon, Citi-bike, very soooon.

There were parks EVERYWHERE in the city. Just beautiful. Took this picture with the "One World Trade Center" in the background. 

A Street Art Vendors setting up for the day. 

Street Art for a Lumber and Hardware store. Posh. 

Back at the meeting place - now with official NYC $5 shades. Can you believe this was the only purchase either of us made (other than food). Me neither! 

Our tour guide - Renee in the Orange jacket. I'm moving to NYC to train with her so I can host my own tours. She was so wonderful! The gals talking with her in this picture were from Australia, the couple to the left, from Scotland. There were 28 people on this tour and only 10 of us from the states. An absolutely great experience! 

The line for this bakery wrapped around the corner and down the street. Apparently this bakery invented"Cro-nuts" a cross between a croissant and a donut. They are $5 each with a limit of 2-per person. I'll pass, thanks. 

The tour began with a walk through the SoHo district in lower Manhattan, known for artists, galleries and boutique shops. We both enjoyed Renee's telling of the areas history and pop-culture stories as to which buildings were featured in television, movies, etc.

More street art

Charlotte's, from Sex & the City, Art Gallery

The architecture of these buildings was incredible.. 

Front doors to Tiffany's. 

Standing on Hyatt lights - these glass beads allowed natural light into the basement areas of these buildings. I've seen this in many cities but never realized it's purpose. 

An old "sweat-shop" now worth ba-zillions! 

Impossible to read in this picture  but there is graffiti on this building that says "Eat your Veggies". The group was moving too fast to get a good photo - still worth sharing though.

Crosby St. heh, heh,

Heath Ledger rented a penthouse apartment here for $60,000/month. He was also found dead in this $60,000 apartment. For that much $$$ I would hope to have a lifeline button in all of my rooms!

Difficult to see in this photo but there must have been at least 100 policemen gathered in preparation for Little Italy's San Gennaro Festival that was soon to begin.

I mean, it's okay.

Entering Little Italy!

Several streets were closed for the Festival.

We were advised by our tour guide to avoid the knock-off purses in Little Italy and go to  Chinatown instead. However, Chinatown did not have such obvious signs and Coal had little interest in exploring the dark caverns of purse-ville. 

Turn the corner and BAM - you're in Chinatown and both the scenery and people have changed in the blink of an eye.

A reasonable price for bullfrogs, wouldn't you agree? 

Shudder. Absolutely my least favorite creature on this planet! 

Priceless expression on Coal's face as the tour-guide explained how her friend from Pittsburgh painted a nude picture of her when she was attending Thiel college and how that picture was sold to someone in Pittsburgh.

Hundred's of Chinese citizens were gambling, dancing and singing in this park. 

New York's prison. 

Returning to Little Italy, San Gennaro Festival, to end the tour. 

We really enjoyed the "free" tour and paid Renee what we wanted for the experience.  A much better option then having to book the tour and having to pay in advance if if we weren't able to attend, or worse if the tour was a flop. I'm looking forward to participating in another tour in another part of the city when Matt and I visit in the future.

Coal and I were off on our next adventure to visit the 9/11 Memorial Site. Snapped a few shots of buildings and sculptures on the way. Feel free to submit titles for anything unnamed as I have no idea what the majority of the sculptures are

We made it to the 9/11 Memorial and only had to wait approximately 30-minutes to enter as we did not buy tickets in advance. Definitely a memorable and humbling experience.

We learned on each person's birthday the memorial's staff places a white rose on their name to recognize and honor the individual. 

After the memorial we made our way to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty from a distance across the river.

As time was not a luxury of ours during this quick-trip we decided against a visit to the Statue and Ellis Island.

A view of the city from Battery Park.

Seemed an appropriate picture for the location. 

One of many museums I hope to return to in the future. For this trip - this museum is where we rented our first Citi-bike. A behemoth of a bicycle but definitely a nice change of pace for exploring the city!  Next stop, Brooklyn!

No pictures of our travels across the Brooklyn Bridge because we were too busy focusing on not falling off the bike or running people over as they crossed into our lane on the bridge.

FINALLY, pizza! We bypassed the famous Grimaldi's pizza because of the line outside and made our way under the bridge to Ignazio's. The pizza was served quickly and was piping hot as we foolishly devoured it immediately ignoring the burns in our mouths. We'd pay for that the rest of the day!

I love bridges. Even bridges without sweaters. 

What an incredible day in the city! View of NYC from Brooklyn, 

Waiting for the River Ferry to take us back to mid-town for part II of our day.

Meet Betty. Not necessarily her real name but I don't think she'd mind/know.
Betty was a delight! We struck up a conversation during the 2nd or 3rd time she knocked over her bag of goodies from her trip to Governor's Island. Betty lives in Manhattan and this was apparently her first time on the River Ferry. She knew everything about NYC but absolutely nothing about Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island, etc. and was proud of this! She was a huge help in helping us plan our NYC round II adventures. She was also absolutely convinced that we were insane for tackling the city in one-day. Awww, Betty.

On our way to see Grand Central Terminal and then Central Park!!

Chrysler building

Grand Central Terminal

Coal wishing he didn't have to keep walking and just go home!

The typical STOP TAKING PICTURES crazed travel partner picture!

So many Starbucks and yet not a single visit. How did this happen?

Birds! BIRDS!

Awesome Apple building right before Central Park. 

Central Park! It was a quicky as the sun was setting fast.

We grabbed another citi-bike to play frogger on the streets on our way from Central Park to Rockefeller Center. Scary and fun at the same.

The fabulous Bouchon Bakery! A favorite of ours from many wonderful trips to Napa Valley.

A quick visit to Lego Land.

And onto Times Square!

An escapee from Toy Story

Mmmm... chocolate.

Yep. Time's Square definitely did us both in! We were both so exhausted - the madness of the nightlife in the busiest part of the city quickly sent us on a detour to find a less crowded sidewalk and possibly dinner. We wandered a few blocks away and came across several guys selling tickets for live Comedy Shows in the area. Coal and I talked about wanting to catch a show earlier in the day but figured it wouldn't be very realistic given our timeframe.

Coal ended up talking to one scalper just before 8pm who said he could give us discounted tix for his 8pm show. He made a few calls but didn't get any answers so he took us a few blocks away and into a building, up the 4th floor, and walked us in front of a line of people to talk with someone telling them to let us in. Turned out the show was sold out already. The people in line were for the next show at 10pm. The guy apologized profusely, refunded our $$ and gave us free tix "to any show" for our next trip to the city. When we left his buddy met up with us at the door to say he was from Penn Hills and wanted to buy us a drink and give us free tix for the 10pm show. We explained we had to catch the bus back to Pittsburgh at 11 but thanks anyway. Coal and I both thought we were in for the scam of a life-time once we learned the show was sold-out. So thankful for the way the situation had ended though. We met some of the nicest people during our visit and would quickly challenge anyone who said New Yorker's are rude.

The Comedy tickets guy gave us a recommendation to go to Hell's Kitchen area just a few blocks away from the Comedy show building. We did so and eventually found his suggestion to visit "Rudy's" for drinks and food. When we found the place we were greeted by the bouncer who asked for our ID's (the only time Coal was carded this whole trip). He was a big guy - bald with black sunglasses and scraggly red beard. I asked him if they served food, "yeah, hot dogs". No thanks!

I thought Coal was going to choke me as he just couldn't wait to sit down somewhere! We finally ended up at a little restaurant on 42nd Street called the West Bank Cafe. We were VERY underdressed for this pre/post theatre group but they were very accommodating. The dinner was incredible and the drinks were way too strong, ie. perfect. 

Finally, we made it to our final destination to return home. We met some woman who lives in Long Island with her husband who works in NYC. She travels to Pittsburgh every other week for work. She has lived in New York for 10+ years yet has spent more time exploring Pittsburgh on her lunch break then she has spent visiting ANY of NYC. She said she makes more $$ in Pittsburgh and has a better work experience then she did working in NYC. Interesting. Certainly made me appreciate my life and the opportunities I've had to enjoy these last minute excursions and extended vacations!

I'll definitely be visiting NYC again in the near future with Matt. And we'll DEFINITELY be staying more than 16 hours! Glad to have had this experience but WOW is my body paying for it afterward! :)