Travel update number 2...NYC

March 2010, with Lindsay and Erin

DAY 1

Our hotel is great, its clean, its got lots of room and its close to everything.  The bathroom is teeny tiny, and so is the kitchenette area...but its exactly what we need and more importantly its in a great location and a safe neighbourhood.
Last night from about Syracuse onward (about half our trip) there was torrential downpour (of course, from the moment I got out of the drivers seat and Lindsay took over!).  Last night once we checked in and parked the car (which is about 2 blocks away) we got changed and went out in search of food and good times.  We were able to find food - great food - there's a little Irish Pub about a block away from our hotel and it was raining too hard to look any further.  Lindsay is slightly obsessed with St Patrick's Day, and got upset I didn't mention that the pub was all decked out in shamrocks!  I had EXCELLENT beef stroganoff, Erin had Shepherds Pie and Lindsay had a salad that she really liked.  We were SOAKED, we had stopped at Target just outside of Syracuse and bought umbrella's thank God!  I was the only one who remembered a rain coat though...after dinner we came back and went to bed and got up this morning at 7.
There's a market just down the street that we went to this morning, it smelled SO good - I went through it twice just walking around.
There's a subway station just half a block away and it will take us all along the Broadway line.  We're about half a block W of Broadway and 2 blocks W of Central Park.
Our plan for today is to go over to the Theatre District and try to get some Rush tickets, basically if there are tickets still available 2 hours before the show they sell them for between $20 and $25.  We might go try Age of Rock or West Side Story.
Then, later on tonight we're going to try to go to one of the free Comedy club.

Tomorrow morning we have our Movie Sites bus tour and then we're going to try to get stand-by tickets to a taping of David Letterman.

Tuesday we're going to do the Statue of Liberty, Soho, Greenwich village and then go to this little speak easy that you go through a hot dog kiosk and then into a phone booth - through the back wall of the phone booth and into the bar...how cool is that??? 

We might skip PF Changs...I know!!  But there's so much great stuff to do and eat here, and we've parked the car and we're trying to take the subway or walk - and we'd have to get the car out and drive over to New Jersey to go to PF Changs, so I might just give it up.

Talk soon - by the way - we paid for internet until Tuesday night.
Dana

DAY 2
Hey - we're just getting ready to go out to dinner, we're going to walk down to 72nd and Columbus. (change of plan, see below)

We went to Times Square today, we had to buy rubber boots - but found a place selling them for buy one get one 50% off that Lindsay's friend had recommended - then there was another lady in there who was buying boots and wasn't going to get the discount, so I talked her into letting me buy boots with her on her transaction so that the 3 of us could all get the discount...since there were 3 of us Girls, we were not all going to get the discount.  The puddles here are HUGE, its been raining a lot (Trevor, the boots were necessary...NECESSARY!).  We also went to FAO Schwartz and saw the Big Piano from BIG.

We went and saw Rock of Ages today, its all 80's rock music and it was highly entertaining.  We got RUSH tickets for $36.50.

We also put our name on the list to see David Letterman today!  We went by the studio and they said they would call us tomorrow if we can go to the Monday or Tuesday tapings. 

Tomorrow we have our 3 hour movie site seeing tour and then hopefully we'll go to see David Letterman at 4:00pm tomorrow.

Oh yeah - and I don't know if any of you remember the movie with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek - Fool's Rush In and she had Grey's Papaya hot dogs sent to him, which was what he missed most about New York - its weird because I actually mentioned the hot dog place on the way down on the drive, but couldn't remember the name - its about 40 steps from our hotel!!!

And Erin HAS to go to a place called S'Macs - all they serve is Mac n Cheese...thats it.  I think we're going to go tonight - we're going to take the subway down!  It was on Gayle King's list of Favourite Restaurants in America.

Erin has SKYPE calls - so even though we're in the hotel, I can call you for free (Jason), I'll try to call you sometime in the morning.  Make sure you call Lisa today to find out if she's coming to our house (which I think she is) or if she wants you to drop the Girls off to her Monday and Tuesday.

Ok, gotta go and get ready - talk soon,
Dana