The Rest of the Story

Apparently I'm a blogging slacker. I just realized I haven't even bothered to fill in the remaining blanks of what else we did in NY.  And I know you all are waiting with baited breath...

This was my 3rd time to the Big Apple and each time I'm there I'm reminded that it's a great place to visit, but not a place I want to live in. So much to see and do. And the people watching...whew...that's worth any trip to NY.

When last I wrote I told you all about the wedding and our drinking.  The plan was to leave early so we could get up early on Saturday to get to the Empire State Building before the crowds.

I'm an early riser almost all the time, so we didn't bother to set an alarm. They relied on me to wake us up. I woke when I heard the MomUnit was up scurrying around the place like she was late. I reached over and looked at the time on my Nook which said 6:47am. I couldn't figure out why the MomUnit was in such a hurry at that time of the morning.

Then I thought maybe the Nook hadn't caught up to East coast time. So I got up and checked the iPhone. "Holy crap," I yelled, "It's a quarter to 10." That got Blueberry and Seattle SIL up quickly.

So much for getting to the Empire State Building early.

We dressed, stopped at Bucky's for coffee and grabbed a cab to the Empire State Building.

The traffic was horrible and I'm convinced the cabbies take certain routes so they will be backed up and we'll sit in a cab and pay to do that. Finally we had had enough. We hopped out of the cab and hoofed it to the building. When we got out of the cab, the driver said, "Good luck" to us and I couldn't figure out why.  Only then did I remember that "objects appear closer than they are."  I think we walked a good 7 or 8 blocks, which was fine.

When we got there, I was thrilled to see the lines were still short.

We got quite a few chuckles when we put on our crab hats.

I love seeing an area from above. Some cities it really isn't that big of a deal, but others it's mind boggling.  Manhattan from above is just that. All you see is concrete and dense, dense, denseness. It's such a beautiful view. It had been recommended to go to the Top of the Rock instead, but the two NY Newbies wanted to do the famous Empire State Building.

After we, and thousands of our closest friends, viewed the city from 86 floors above, we headed to the Time Square area to catch up with the MomUnit and The Gnome Niece and her fam for the hop on hop off upper loop tour.

First we had to get lunch. In Time Square, the food options are all rather vanilla to me. ALL are really chain restaurants and nothing I'm very interested in while traveling.  While in line to get our bus tickets, the worker guy recommended this burger place just a block or so away. I hadn't ever heard of this place, but the guy "swears" it's great food. The MomUnit and I are always down for a good burger.

The place was called Schnipper's and oh my goodness was it good. AND they had Fanta. So naturally, while on vacation, I feel obligated to have Fanta.

Afterwards, we hopped ON the bus.

Me, Blueberry, Seattle SIL, and Great Niece N

Pseudo nephew, The SL Niece, The MomUnit, and Teenage Great Niece

Now let me just say, I'm a big fan of the hop on hop off bus in new cities. I like to do the tour within the first day or so to get a feel for the area and what I may want to see again. And it often works as transportation as well.


I've been on the hop on and hop off in NY twice before. This time I purchased tickets to a line called City Sightseeing. I usually hop on the Greyline tours instead. But this time to save a bit of cash, I chose this other line. What a mistake that was.

First off, the buses had seen better days. This first loop bus the tour guide hopped off and said we'd be picking up our tour guide at the next stop. Which proved to be incorrect. Instead we were given ear plugs and no further instructions. Obviously we had to plug them in, but we weren't told which channel. After adjusting to the right channel we were set...or so we thought. The audio was off. We were behind the audio. It was saying we were looking at one thing, but we were no where near that one thing. So annoying. It bugged the crap out of me the entire time.

Side note: The next day we did the lower loop and had tour guides. The first tour guide appeared to wish he was elsewhere. He was monotone and really didn't seem like he was interested in being on this bus. The second tour guide we couldn't understand. He was an older Asian guy who's English wasn't so great. AND the microphone wasn't working, so anyone sitting past the first couple of seats couldn't hear him. Those of us who could hear him didn't get anything useful. All he did was tell us where the next stop was. And yes, I've sent a complaint to the company. Not too surprising I haven't heard from them.

Anyhow, once the upper loop was done, we had some time to kill. I was ready for a beer and a bathroom. Blueberry and Seattle SIL took off to go walk into Central Park to "see it". The rest of us found a restaurant and had some beer and chips/salsa.

Dinner that night was at Guy Fierie's restaurant American um...what's it called...American Kitchen, I think. Yes, yes that's what it is...Guy's American Kitchen & Bar. We had met Guy Fieri there the last time we were in NY. And by "met" I mean accosted to get photos with.

The food was pretty darn good and frankly decently priced. I had the ribs and Oh my were they delicious. And it was great to spend some more time with the family.

From there we went back to the hotel via Time Square and the subway. And for the record, Time Square is pure and complete chaos.

 More later on our Sunday adventures. Right now I need to go find something to eat cuz the thought of those ribs have made me hungry.