Sunday, October 11, 2009

OCT 9-10: TWO DAYS IN NYC!!!

We were up earlier than usual, and left for New Haven about 8:30 or so. We drove around Yale University for a few minutes to take a quick look, and then Jeremy let us out at the train station. Purchasing our tickets to NYC, we then waited until about the time for the departure, went down below, and soon were seated for 1.5 hour trip into the city.

Arriving at the Harlem train station about 11:35, we hailed a cab and went to the Hotel99....a new remodeled hotel.....and in fact, they are still working on the new drywall, concrete, entrance, etc., etc. BUT.....such a great deal: $153 for the room for four, including taxes!!!! We were just soooo lucky to find this one on the internet.....as in checking around,Super 8 downtown was charging $350 dollars for one night!!!!!!!! The room was brand new, which very contemporary furniture and was on the 2nd floor.....great. This little hotel was on 99th and Broadway....a great location with coffee shops/cafes/etc. just around the corner. It is like a little European hotel, as there are shared baths being used....and the baths on our floor were completely new, sparkling clean, and very good size!!! We quickly put our bags in the room....and walked about 10 blocks where we found a great little cafe for lunch!!!

I will not go into detail about the food....there are toooooo many wonderful places to eat in NYC to even begin.....but, this little place was just wonderful!!!!! My open-face sandwich was rare roast beef , caper infused mayonnaise, a small fresh salad, fruit, and some great coffee. Wonderful way to start our visit to the city!!

From there, we hopped onto a subway train and plunging deep into the darkness below the city, we quickly found ourselves in "downtown" to do some looking, lots of walking, and some incredible little art galleries scattered around the various area where we walked. And.....we walked and walked, my eyes about to fall out from trying not to miss a thing....and, OMG...there are sooooooo many things to see and to look at and think about!!! And.....this certainly reminded me of just HOW MUCH I love this wonderful city!!!!

We took a stroll on The Highline......a unique and very creative idea for a walkway ABOVE the streets of the city, running with the original railway tracks that were used to bring the huge carcasses of meat into the meatpacking area......the part of town where these wonderful art galleries are located and in the very same buildings where the meatpacking industries were once sooooo busy! This walkway.....is like walking on a beach with all native and natural beach plants growing.....about 3-4 stories above the streets and buildings of the city. I highly recommend anyone visiting NYC to enjoy this walk above the city!!

We visited Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and other communities of the lower part of Manhattan......and had such a great time!!!! We would stop in at any little shop that looked interesting....and they all were just that!!

Later in the evening, Jeremy arrived....having driven down, parked up close to the hotel in a parking garage, and then taking a cab down to where we were. We had a few drinks at one of the many great little bars, and then cabbed over to a restaurant that he and Anne-marie have enjoyed before.....sort of a little French bistro type of place. We had a couple of bottles of wine, I ordered Duck Confit....and it was an outstanding dinner!!!!! But....as I said, there are so many great places that suggesting any one place would be useless!!! Just go, eat, and enjoy!!

We then took a cab to Times Square....and by that time it was almost midnight....and OMG.....tens of thousands of people were there wandering around and having a great time......as we did, also!!!! Absolutely LOVE this city....and Times Square while beautiful and fun at night, is only one place in Manhattan to see and enjoy!!!!!

We took a cab back to the hotel....and fell into bed quickly. TIRED, we were!!!! And.....we all four slept like the dead!!

YESTERDAY(SAT):

I was up first......took care of the morning rituals in one of the great shared baths....and then left the hotel to go around the corner to the closest Starbucks there on Broadway. Grabbed a NYTimes, a cappuccino, and some pastries.....and sat there enjoying the world walking by the window.....hurrying and scurrying to wherever they were going. Not tooo much longer, the 1st Lady arrived and then later, Jeremy and Anne-marie arrived and we enjoyed our coffee/pastries for a couple of hours.

Then......off we went again by cab.....to various parts of the city.....and, once again...just walking around the various communities of NYC on southern Manhattan was absolutely incredible. Seeing how sooooo many live here in this marvelous city, no matter what their financial status, everyone seems to enjoy living and working and playing here in NYC. We stopped off at Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skaters....then over to 5th Avenue and did some window shopping as well as go into a couple of the very large stores. We also went into the Park Plaza Hotel, looked around, and checked out where Jeremy had proposed to Anne-Marie there in the hotel, after having dinner in the incredible restaurant within the hotel.

From there, we went again to the south part of the city....and had lunch at a neat little place which Jeremy and Anne-marie enjoy eating at.....and it was a very nice little place to have lunch. Afterwards, we separated and went our own ways for a few hours during the afternoon. The 1st Lady and I walked, ambled, looked, sampled, ........all part of being in the city. We wandered down to Chinatown and walked through many of the REALLY interesting streets looking and gawking at all of the things they had for sale.......items and food that we had no idea what we were looking at....haha!!! Not sure I would care to eat some these items, but......I might give them a try...at least once!!!

Then....we crossed a street and found ourselves in Little Italy.....one of our favorite places!!!!! Incredible restaurants, many of them as sidewalk cafes, gelato stands, pastry shops, coffee stands, kitchen appliance shops, wonderful items to purchase in sidewalk stalls......just a really WOW afternoon of ambling around in Little Italy!!!!! We had gelato cones(similar to ice cream), and then late during the afternoon we stopped into Ferrara's....a wonderful pastry shop where we had coffee and mini-pastries of all types.......WONDERFUL!!!!! And.....this IS the place I would highly recommend!!!!!!!!! FIND IT...and enjoy it!!!!!

From there, we met Jeremy and Anne-Marie at a local bar.....and then we bar hopped for a bit, taxied to Times Square....and enjoyed this area for a couple of more hours. Then we took a cab up to where he had parked his vehicle, picked it up, went by the hotel where we had stored our bags, picked them up, and soon were on the road to Hartford.....arriving in about an hour and a half! Easy trip......and soon, we were unloading at their apartment.

TWO WONDERFUL DAYS!!!!!!!! Oh sure, there are things I would have really enjoyed doing, but it can't ALL be done in two days. We spent 10 days here the last time we were in NYC.....and so, two days obviously are not enough....at all!!!! I would loved...LOVED to have seen a Broadway musical, but at the late time for getting tickets, the cheapest ticket we could find was $183 per ticket!!!!! MORE than we wanted to spend this time!!!

And....soooo, as I said....these two days in New York City were just wonderful!!!! And, as always......

LIFE IS JUST REALLY INCREDIBLY GREAT!!!!!!.....And, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!!








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