The Big Apple Experience Part I

"I was wondering when you were gonna give me your ticket". Jeff hands the man at the toll booth his ticket. Apparently, he didn't extend his arm far enough the first time. The man takes it. "That will be $.860" Jeff is getting money ready. "That's $8.60 sir. That will be $8.60" Jeff fumbles through his wallet and hands the man a $20 bill. The man gives him his change and we take off... only a few yards and try to merge into the tunnel. We made it to New York!

We wanted to go to the Manhattan temple first. Jeff was already dressed in his suit and I in a skirt. We had a GPS and followed it until we landed ourselves in Manhattan. We drove around and found Columbus St. "Well the temple must be around here somewhere... oh, look! There it is!" It was rather small looking. It had one small steeple and big gold letters that named it as the temple. Now if only we could find parking. We were excited about this being our first stop. Sadly, it didn't work out. We drove around for an hour and a half looking for parking. There was none to be had. At one point, we got so close to a parking spot, but the van in front of us got to it first (of course he would, it was a one way, one lane side street). Finally, we gave up and decided to go to our hotel. That didn't take long at all... we were staying in Queens just outside of Manhattan. We called beforehand and found out that there was limited street parking in front of the hotel and that there were parking lots close by. As we neared our hotel and saw the parking lots, we feared for our car. We were definitely in the ghetto of New York. We drove around for about a half an hour looking for parking. There were only three parking spots in front of the hotel- all three were taken. On our fifth trip around the block, we saw that a couple was getting into their. "Look, I think they're leaving," I said, "maybe we can park there". So we drove around again. They were still there. We drove around, made a bigger loop and decided that we would park in some spot a block from the hotel. Jeff ran to the hotel to see if we could park there. When he came back, he let me know that we could check in early and that we could park right in front of the hotel. The car had left! Perfect. We could leave our car there for the the entirety of our stay. And, we did.

When we were checking in, we asked about AAA and realized that we could get a 10% discount for having AAA. Score! We got all of our things inside, checked out a map of the subway system, found out that the closest subway station was just a block away and then headed out! It was time to venture into Manhattan (without having to worry about a car). The first place we decided to go was Times Square. We wanted to find the discount ticket booth to get tickets for a Broadway show.

When we stepped out of the subway, we were amazed! The buildings, they were so tall! And screens everywhere! It was incredible and awesome. We found the ticket booth and decided on seeing West Side Story. We were able to get both tickets at half off. Score again! We had a couple of hours to kill before the show started, so we decided to walk around and go find something to eat. We went to a resturaunt called Juniors. I had a cheeseburger with grilled onions and Jeff had a chicken sandwhich and fries. Jeff really enjoyed his sandwhich. Mine, well, let's just say it wasn't the best. After dinner, we walked around a bit more. We went into some stores and then went to Toys R' us. What a cool store! I love toys anyway (I know, I'm a big kid). It was pretty fun. Anyway, after that, we headed to go find ice cream. I asked someone, "Do you know where we can get ice-cream?" "There's a place called Cold Stone Creamery (as if I'd never heard of such a thing) on 42nd and 7th"

Coldstone was bigger than I'd ever seen one. There were so many people inside, all different shades, and speaking all different languages, just like all of New York. I don't think I'd been around so many different people with so many differnt ethnic and cultural backgrounds in my life. It was awesome.

We got our ice cream and headed towards the playhouse. As we walked the streets, people kept trying to hand us fliers for manicures, comedy shows, men suits warehouses, theatre shows, psychic readings, etc. "No thank you. No thanks" I felt like I said that over and over again.

The playhouse was a beautiful, old building. Our seats were in the balcony and it was neat to be able to see the alcoves where part of the orchestra was. The woodwork was so ornate. I loved it. I would have taken pictures, however I left the camera. Or at least I thought I did. It wasn't until later that I realizd that it was in my purse the whole time. Gah! All of those pictures I missed out on.

The musical was awesome! The choreography was amazing! There was some suggestive material, however, which I didn't really appreciate it. One scene in particular was kind of wretched and I couldn't believe that parents were their with their children. I was kind of embarrassed and a little mortified for them. That being said,the choreography really was great. And the music, of course, was awesome.

After the musical, we walked outside and was amazed at how bright it was. It did not seem like it was nearly 11 pm. It was so lit up, it almost seemed like day time. As we were walking, we saw that someone (well two someones, a Chinese man and woman) was drawing a person, they stopped us, ask if we wanted ours done and almost insisted. Well, how could we resist? So we sat down and the lady started drawing us. After she had been drawing for about 10 minutes, she switched with the man and he started all over. When he was done, he showed it to us and tried to sell us a "frame". The picture of the two of us was $15. The frame was also $15. It wasn't worth it to me so we turned it down. They said that it would smeer without the frame. We let them know that we'd manage. The brought the price down to $25 total. I said, "Tai gue le" (Forgive me, I can't remember how to spell), meaning "too expensive". The woman was surprised that I could say that. She said, "okay I give you for $5 dollars. $20 for both." We agreed and gave them a $20 bill and went on our merry way to the subway. It was time to get back to the hotel.

On the way back to the hotel, Jeff mentioned several times, as he would throughout the trip, "I hope the car's okay". Of course it was, and it continued to be fine the whole time it was there.

Well that was our first day in New York. It was quite the experience and so amazing!

I'd like to continue sharing our trip to New York, but there will have to be a part II tomorrow. It's late and all week we've been going to bed late and getting up early. Tomorrow will be no different, so I'd better get to bed. Ta ta for now!