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*whew* Another long day in the Big Apple.
I took a long bath last night and slept okay. Couch beds are not my favorite thing ever, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to give room service a shot since they let you put a tag on your door for breakfast. 2 minutes before they stopped serving I called to find out what the hell was going on, and then saw they never picked up the tag. They sent it up, but it was cold, not exactly what I ordered, would've been mediocre even if it was warm, and was absurdly expensive. I guess I have to re-learn that particular lesson every so often.
I researched and decided I had enough time to make it to the boat tour if I took a bus. So I've done the someone-else-does-the-driving trifecta: cab, subway, and bus. The buses were very pleasant and a lot easier to figure out than the subway was for me. I made it with plenty of time to spare. It was a three hour tour (a three hour tour!) and it was a pretty good deal. I was concerned I might get motion sick (I am very prone) but it wasn't a problem at all. It was crazy with the wind and we bobbed quite a bit in dock, but as soon as we untied from the dock and started up the motor, it was smooth, uh, sailing. The tour guy was chatty and informative, and we went by the Statue of Liberty and then circled Manhattan island. I went on deck a couple of times to snap some pictures, but with the wind the way it was, the wind chill was about a million below. So I spend most of the trip in the cabin. To continue the bad food trend, I had the most horrible large pretzel... you could beat someone to death with it.
But I really dug the tour and learned some things. Then I headed over to the Colbert Report to see if they would let me in (they didn't) then back to the hotel. Gordon was there, and we were both hungry. He offered to go to the Empire State Building with me, and since they were open 'til midnight we took our time. He said we might as well walk, and I said okay as long as we could take the bus back if I decided to be a pussy.
We ate at an Italian place the concierge recommended; I think it was called San Martin's. The bad food trend was over. I had a decent bowl of penne with mushrooms and Gordon had a slab of salmon that he seemed to enjoy. For dessert, I had orange slices in Grand Marnier, very tasty. We headed over to the ESB about 15 blocks away, stopping at some souvenir shops for all your New York related crap needs. I didn't find a shirt I liked (and I saw plenty) but I still have a couple of days; the right one is out there somewhere. We made it around 7. They were not very well organized (we had to go through a freaking mile-long empty velvet rope labyrinth before we got to the elevators), they pestered us for money for this and that (get your picture taken! buy the audio tour! go to this other observation deck for an extra $30! and buy the damn audio tour or you will miss out and regret it forever!). It was annoying as hell, but we finally got up and had a look around. The aforementioned wind meant part of the outside deck was closed, but we could still see plenty. I called hub to help me figure out how to take skyline pictures at night, and I think I got a few good ones. After a suitable period of gawking we decided to head home.
I was pretty tired and decided to exercise my pussy option (I'm in worse shape than I had thought, I guess) and find a bus, thinking that we could hop on one and be on our way. But we couldn't find a stop for several blocks, and just missed one when we did. After standing around forever, I asked Gordon if we couldn't just call a cab. He agreed, and I even hailed it all by myself! We got home close to 9, had a night cap, and ended another day.
Tomorrow, the Met. I also still need to eat something out of a cart.
I took a long bath last night and slept okay. Couch beds are not my favorite thing ever, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to give room service a shot since they let you put a tag on your door for breakfast. 2 minutes before they stopped serving I called to find out what the hell was going on, and then saw they never picked up the tag. They sent it up, but it was cold, not exactly what I ordered, would've been mediocre even if it was warm, and was absurdly expensive. I guess I have to re-learn that particular lesson every so often.
I researched and decided I had enough time to make it to the boat tour if I took a bus. So I've done the someone-else-does-the-driving trifecta: cab, subway, and bus. The buses were very pleasant and a lot easier to figure out than the subway was for me. I made it with plenty of time to spare. It was a three hour tour (a three hour tour!) and it was a pretty good deal. I was concerned I might get motion sick (I am very prone) but it wasn't a problem at all. It was crazy with the wind and we bobbed quite a bit in dock, but as soon as we untied from the dock and started up the motor, it was smooth, uh, sailing. The tour guy was chatty and informative, and we went by the Statue of Liberty and then circled Manhattan island. I went on deck a couple of times to snap some pictures, but with the wind the way it was, the wind chill was about a million below. So I spend most of the trip in the cabin. To continue the bad food trend, I had the most horrible large pretzel... you could beat someone to death with it.
But I really dug the tour and learned some things. Then I headed over to the Colbert Report to see if they would let me in (they didn't) then back to the hotel. Gordon was there, and we were both hungry. He offered to go to the Empire State Building with me, and since they were open 'til midnight we took our time. He said we might as well walk, and I said okay as long as we could take the bus back if I decided to be a pussy.
We ate at an Italian place the concierge recommended; I think it was called San Martin's. The bad food trend was over. I had a decent bowl of penne with mushrooms and Gordon had a slab of salmon that he seemed to enjoy. For dessert, I had orange slices in Grand Marnier, very tasty. We headed over to the ESB about 15 blocks away, stopping at some souvenir shops for all your New York related crap needs. I didn't find a shirt I liked (and I saw plenty) but I still have a couple of days; the right one is out there somewhere. We made it around 7. They were not very well organized (we had to go through a freaking mile-long empty velvet rope labyrinth before we got to the elevators), they pestered us for money for this and that (get your picture taken! buy the audio tour! go to this other observation deck for an extra $30! and buy the damn audio tour or you will miss out and regret it forever!). It was annoying as hell, but we finally got up and had a look around. The aforementioned wind meant part of the outside deck was closed, but we could still see plenty. I called hub to help me figure out how to take skyline pictures at night, and I think I got a few good ones. After a suitable period of gawking we decided to head home.
I was pretty tired and decided to exercise my pussy option (I'm in worse shape than I had thought, I guess) and find a bus, thinking that we could hop on one and be on our way. But we couldn't find a stop for several blocks, and just missed one when we did. After standing around forever, I asked Gordon if we couldn't just call a cab. He agreed, and I even hailed it all by myself! We got home close to 9, had a night cap, and ended another day.
Tomorrow, the Met. I also still need to eat something out of a cart.
