The Never Ending Road Trip: I <3 NYC

TUESDAY JULY 25, 2006~ Day 10: Secaucus, NJ to New York City, NY

David took the day off from work to show us around the city. We took the NJ transit bus from Secaucus into the city.

It was only a 15 minute bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal which is right on 42nd street. Since we were a block away from Times square we headed there first.

We walked up broadway through midtown and along the way saw Diddy's headquarters.

Sadly Diddy was nowhere in sight and neither was Danity Kane. Further up Broadway was

There was a lottery to watch him that evening but we didn't want to waste our day waiting in line so we kept walking towards Central Park. Along the way we saw Carnegie Hall and the Jekyll and Hyde Club.

I guess its sort of a Museum, Restaurant and Club all wrapped up into one. It's definitely an eye catching building. We finally arrived at Central Park.

After walking through Central Park we decided to head to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue.
It was so freakin hot & humid outside so it was nice to be somewhere that was air conditioned.

Check out the elevator in the middle of the stairs.

We stayed in there for a bit to cool off and to use the internet to figure out where to go next.

Since we were getting hungry we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant called Patsy's on 60th near Serendipity. We knew this place would be good because the ovens were out in the open where you could see them from your table. So, you know they can't be spitting in your food. Nah, but seriously, the food was really good.

We were going to head straight to Serendipity after lunch but we were too stuffed and decided to walk around a bit first and do some shopping. We headed to Urban and H&M. Again, I bought another fab bag @ H&M. Did I tell you how much I love that store? Well, I do. After more shopping it was time for some dessert.
It was about a 45 minute wait, which was fine because we we're still trying to recover from lunch. While we were in the doorway waiting, I saw this woman sitting outside on a bench. She looked really familiar to me but I couldn't remember her name. Once she came inside and I got a closer look I figured out it was Dianne Wiest. You know, the mom from Edward Scissorhands. She's a great character actress whose been in tons of films.
Then these 3 sorority girls from Missouri started talking to us. They told us that a celebrity was upstairs and that's why it was taking so long for poeple to get seated. Once we got seated upstairs it was confirmed that Jamie Foxx was there. He was eating with a huge table full of people who I assumed to be friends and family so we didn't want to interrupt him to ask for a picture. But as he was walking down the stairs David got this pix: Darn, too bad that girl's head is in the way. But, that's really him in the black hat. I swear! Anyways, back to more important things, the desserts. Here is their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate.

I don't even like chocolate all that much, but I figured I had to order their specialty. Good thing I did because it was yum!

Larnie ordered the Strawberry Fields Sunday. We finished this quick!

And here is David's "Can't Say No" Sundae with humble pie:

3 satisfied customers

We wanted to head downtown to Chinatown so that we could pick up some cheap souvenirs. So, from Lexington we hopped onto the subway & headed down to Canal St. After Larnie bought some shirts we wanted to walk on over to the World Trade Center Site. Since we didn't really know where we were Larnie asked a cop for directions.

Larnie: Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the World Trade Center site?

Cop: Go to Church

Larnie: [Thinking to herself, today's not Sunday. Looking very confused]

Cop: [Noticing the confusion in the girl's face] Walk on over to Church Street and make a left. [pointing to the next street over]

Larnie: [laughing] Oh. Ok. Thank you sir.

So, not knowing how far it was, we walked a good 20 blocks to the WTC site. It was pretty cool because we got to walk through Tribeca.

There is a timeline of what happend on 9/11

Here is what the WTC site looks like now. It's still under major construction.

Below the WTC site is the PATH train station.

We were getting tired and decided to take the subway back up to Port Authority. For those of you who haven't traveled on the NYC subway system, in order to use the subway you have to buy a MetroCard and fill it with money using the MetroCard vending machines. The fare for each ride is $2. So, when we first got the card @ the Lexington Station I put in $12 so that all 3 of us could ride downtown and back up again using only 1 card. Once you get the card you have to slide the card through the turnstile in order for a revolving gate to move. Well, I guess when David slid the MetroCard first time he did it too quick after the guy in front of him and so he had to slide it again.

I knew I should have let Larnie go first but I was right behind David and there were a lot of people waiting behind us, so after I slid the card I gave it to Larnie to use. But when she slid it through it didn't work.

Larnie didn't have any singles left so I handed her $2 through the gate. It took her a long time to figure out how to load the MetroCard so David and I kind of got worried for her. Finally, she was able to load the card and slid it through the turnstile. But for some reason when she was trying to go through the revolving gate, it wouldn't move. So, Larnie asked me for another $2. And I gave it to her.

After she recharged the MetroCard she slid the card through the turnstile again. But this time she decides to give the revolving gate an extra push before entering the stall. And so of course the automated gate thinks that she already went through. And she's like, "What happend?" I'm yelling & laughing at Larnie, "Don't push the gate first, just stand there and then push the gate." So again Larnie asks me for 2 more dollars. Of course at this point I'm like, "Oh, my gawd Larnie! You're wasting my freakin money!" But I give her another $2.

And she goes to recharge the card once again. When she swipes her MetroCard into the turnstile she goes in between 2 gates and pushes the revolving gate in the correct direction. And finally Larnie was able to get to the other side. I was like, "Larnie, that was a freakin $8 subway ride!"

Oh MaLa!