Day 123 New York 2nd day

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Trip Start May 07, 2008 Previous
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  New York City, New York, United States
Sunday, September 7, 2008

Day 123 New York city 3rd Day
Gee we have had three days in New York city, how cool is that? And Rick had a 60th birthday in this city. Happy Birthday Rick.
We have managed to see NYC in the sun, in the cloud and  also in heavy rain. What a great experience this has been for us.
The trip into the City from our lodgings took on a new meaning this morning, we caught the Shuttle bus, the driver was in practice for speedway driving, and appeared to be in competition with another shuttle bus, firstly ahead of us then behind us, then ahead of us.
No thought was given to passenger comfort nor safety as these bus driver clowns played racers along the route into the city, including changing lanes in the Lincoln Tunnel to blocking 2 lanes when one managed to obtain the front running. Definitely an interesting experience! Not a recommended trip to the city even on a Saturday with less traffic than the day before.
The choice today was to immediately hop on the uptown bus to ensure we had a seat in the upper deck as well as attempt to beat the heavy rain forecast for the day.
We arrived at the 1st stop to manage to be first in line and the wait was not too bad in comparison to yesterday, only about 10-15 mins.
Our guide for this trip was at least 4th generation New Yorker and was well aware of the territory we were travelling through. He was born in the area and was still living in the apartment he was raised, and is raising his family in the same apartment.
The contrast between the Downtown loop and the uptown loop was evident immediately. The amount of rush and bustle was less and the route took us in and around Central park, museum areas as well as the upper echelon of hotels and apartments.
Many famous names of celebrities and film stars mentioned either having lived in the area or living presently in the area. Many film locations, including the "famous soup kitchen scene" of Jerry Seinfeld, (he lives in the area overlooking central park). We were also diverted from the usual route because of closed streets for various reasons, such as a food festival street, or the labour day parade. The presence of police in this city is extremely noticeable, but we guess if you have 39,000 police in the force, they have to have somewhere to show themselves. We were also witness to at least 30 police cars going on a drive through in convoy, with sirens and lights, we have yet to work out what this was about, but a great spectacle to observe.
New York, once a deplorable city for crime, is now a reasonably safe place to live or visit, they now are proud of the fact, last year there were only 1.2 murders averaged per day. Sounds a lot, but if you consider they are talking a population in the greater metro area over all the boroughs, of 18 million, this is a low percentage of disputes settled in a final result. Unless of course you are one of the 1.2 of the average!
We completed the trip around the uptown section, decided to walk to the Rockefeller centre to observe that famous section of the city, which in the summer is a cafe style eatery area and then is frozen over to provide an ice skating rink for the winter. We were disappointed and unable to partake a coffee in the area because over night, marquis's had been erected and no access was available for the poor peasant tourists.
Never mind we will head back to Times square for some lunch or simply to have another look, as well, one of the party wanted to visit Macys, for whatever reason one would visit Macys?
We found our way back to Macys, Earnie found a seat outside while Karon and Rick chose to experience another famous setting in New York. Oh Damn and blast it is crowded and it didn't take too long to work out why, there was a one day WOW sale happening with some items up to 50% off. Gee what fun!
Especially if the 50% off an originally price tag of $486 for a dress, WHAT A BARGAIN!
Never mind one of the party, had a lot of fun and purchased some nice stuff and left there with a smile on a face!
Time for lunch now, the boys had been ripped off morning tea, we had also received a phone call from our friends Owen and Bev, who had managed to find their way into the city, found the hotel and back into the city via the shuttle bus.
We arranged a meeting in Times Square, this achieved and a decision to eat and catch up, to decide on what show we would take in tonight.
At this time the weather began to close in and the rain began; now this was a wonderful experience to partake. The first thing you notice is there are no awnings to shelter under, (our guess is because of the extra clutter and snow awnings create, but the next amazing part of New York, within about 2 mins of the first rain hitting the footpath, there was at least two hawkers on each corner selling umbrellas, VERY quickly we bought pop up $5 umbrellas, not a great quality, but if you were lucky it worked and it diverted the rain partially from you.
The sidewalks became a sea of umbrellas with people weaving and dodging with umbrellas doing what from above would be wonderful and interesting dance of movement, if looked down from above. We had lunch in a maccas and had a chat with Owen and Bev and decided to obtain tickets for Xanadu (an oldie but Whoopi Goldberg was in it for the last time tonight so we decided it would be worth a night out). We found our way to the "half price ticket outlet" but couldn't work out if the tickets for that show were available there or not, we had picked up a flyer along the way and decided to go direct to the theatre to obtain the tickets. Earnie had decided he would have a quiet night at home and put his feet up, while the others did the Broadway show thing!
Yes it was heavy rain and yes it lasted for the rest of the day.
We took shelter in of all places "Toys 'R' Us" but that was a great wander around to see a two storey Ferris wheel for kids in the centre working. We wandered around to the various sections and were amazed by what is available as toys these days, as well as a lot of the favourites including a whole section dedicated to Barbie dolls & a Barbie house of 2 real life storeys built inside this shop, (including collectors pieces of around $450 + a pop) Lego sections with models of the Empire state building and The Statue of Liberty, Star Wars section to name a few.
A babies section with a baby registry available as well, yes, everything is available in New York.
Well Earnie had taken his leave by this stage and someone decided that we had to revisit Macys, great the rain was squalling but it had to be done. Off we went and ran the gauntlet of rain, people and umbrellas to arrive at Macys to be handed a plastic bag to put wet umbrellas in (they think of everything in this city, mind you they can afford this luxury if they sell one dress even at 50% off)) and we do the walk around the store again. No purchases on the second round trip and we had arranged to catch up with Bev and Owen for a beer and a meal before we went to the show. This time we showed a little bit of NY savvy and hopped the subway section of one station to save the rain dance game.
We caught up with our friends and headed over to Bubba Gump's restaurant and bar just across the road in Times Square.
We were placed at a table over looking times square and enjoyed a meal with a beer looking  at the rain showers and traffic with the neon lights flashing and reporting whatever products are fashionable at the time.
We enjoyed the beer and Owen gave a shortened version of happy Birthday for Rick celebrating his 60th, (how good is that? a meal and a beer over looking Times Square and a show yet to come) what a way to celebrate a birthday.
We had a great chat sharing our storeys of our similar trips, and then decided it was time to head around the corner to the show.
The seats we had obtained earlier in the day were great, a good upper lever centre section and a great view of the stage. The show began and continued non-stop for around 95 mins. It was so much fun and so well done with a lot of laughter and great singing. The audience certainly appreciated the performance and rose as one at the end to clap in time as well as applaud the performers. An extremely enjoyable experience.
The rained had let up by the time we poked our noses outside on the street and we set off to the nearest Starbuck's (they are on nearly every corner in this city, so it wasn't far for us to travel) We sat and enjoyed a late evening cuppa and progressed our way to the shuttle bus pick up point, Thankfully Bev had noted the change of pickup point for our shuttle after 9pm, we found our way to the point and found a bus waiting. Ascertaining it was heading our way we piled on board and were dropped off to walk the last 500 yards to the hotel. Karon & Rick said goodbye to Bev and Owen at this point( they had yet to be allocated a room and have to suffer New York for a few more days!) we plan to keep in touch and most likely will cross paths again, either here or back in Australia.
All in all, a great day (despite the rain) and a great evening out.  By the way Earnie found he was suitable entertained with the advent of two John Wayne Movies and Saving Private Ryan on Tele as he rested his weary body for the evening.

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