We left for LAX on Friday evening and got to our hotel, Hilton LAX, by about eight o'clock. There was some conference going on about aliens, UFOs, meditating and other odd things. We had dinner in one of the restaurants before heading up to bed.
We had to get an early start on Saturday morning. Our flight was set to depart at seven forty-five. We took the hotel shuttle to LAX. The Virgin America ticket counter was a pretty cool experience. It is separated from all of the others and has some nice mood lighting. When we boarded the plane, all of the window shades were down and it also had some cool lighting. It was a great experience. I expected some very attractive flight attendants like something out of the movie Catch Me If You Can to show up at our seats, but that didn't happen. The flight itself was pretty uneventful.
We arrived at JFK at about four o'clock in the afternoon. We found a cab and departed for our hotel near Times Square. The cab ride was not very exciting and took longer than I thought it would.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn Times Square North because I have had a lot of success with the chain when travelling for business. They are all clean and most of them are recently updated. You also can't beat a free breakfast. Once we arrived at the hotel we freshened up a bit and then asked the concierge where we should go to find some local restaurants. He suggested restaurant row on 46th Street, so we headed out.
There were a lot of different restaurants to choose from. We ended up eating at Ristorante Da Rosina. They packed people into every square foot of the restaurant. The Queen and I sat at a table that blocked access to another table, but nobody cared. The food was good, but the restaurant was just a normal big city restaurant.
From there we walked up the street to the Village Pour House for some drinks. I asked for a local beer and the waitress told me they stopped selling them. Two beers later when we were ready to go she came back with some Brooklyn Lager. It was an OK beer, but I had already had to Blue Moons. From there we walked to Times Square to take it all in. It was an amazing place. I have seen it on TV and in movies, but it is something you have to experience. When I was in NY the first time, Times Square was still a seedy place that you avoided so it was nice to see it like it is now.
We decided to stop in to Planet Hollywood and have a drink like tourists do. We sat at the bar and ordered a couple beers. We started talking to the bartender, Josh from NC, and I asked him if there was somewhere locals hung out near there. He recommended Bourbon Street Bar & Grill. We finished our drinks and Josh gave us a few more recommendations. He also put our ten year anniversary on all of the screens in the place. I got a picture of that with my iPhone.
We walked back to 46th Street to Bourbon Street Bar & Grill. The Queen found us a seat that was right behind a bachelorette party. We ordered some drinks and some food, alligator sausage and chicken wings. We ended up talking to the girls at the bachelorette party and having a good time. We left the bar very late and walked back to our hotel.
We woke up late the next morning after our long day. We decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We ended up taking the subway there. I had never ridden the NY subway, so I had to do it. We ate lunch in one of the restaurants in the museum and then started exploring. There was a lot of stuff to see. There are several building facades that are inside the museum as well as a complete Egyptian temple. I really liked the museum, but we were still exhausted. We took a taxi back to our hotel to rest before going to dinner and a Broadway show.
We headed out to eat and I really felt like a hamburger. We ended up at Chelsea Grill in Hell's Kitchen. The Queen and I both had gigantic hamburgers and fries. The food really hit the spot. We walked a short distance from there to the St. James Theatre to see Green Day's American Idiot.
It was a small theater, but the show was fantastic. We both really enjoyed the show. It was a short show, there was no intermission, but it was great. We bought some souvenirs before leaving the theater. A lot of people were gathered outside waiting for Billy Joe Armstrong to leave, so we decided to wait as well. After about forty five minutes he came out of the theater. I got some photos of him on my iPhone from a distance.
After the show we wondered around Times Square again and started looking for someplace to get dessert. We walked over to Rockefeller Plaza and still couldn't find anything. We started to walk back through Times Square to our hotel and found Junior's Bakery. We got a slice of NY cheesecake and red velvet cake and headed back to the hotel. The red velvet cake was better than the cheesecake because it did not have a graham cracker crust. I started planning for the next day at the hotel. We both knew it was going to be a busy day if we were going to see everything we wanted to see.
We started out early on Valentin's day and met with the concierge to map out our day. We walked to Central Park and took a carriage ride through the park. Our "driver" was Colim from Ireland. We told him we wanted a fun ride with lots of information and he did his best for us. It was a short ride and we did not get to see much of the park since it was covered with snow.
Next we headed east to Serendipity 3. The Queen had to have their Frozen Hot Chocolate. We got there about an hour before they opened for the day and decided to move on and come back at night. We walked back toward Central Park and ended up stopping in Bloomingdale's for a bathroom break. The Queen ended up shopping some before we left. We hit H&M next and The Queen did some more shopping. Our subway stop was right outside.
We took the subway to the Empire State Building. We waited in line to go to the Observation deck. It was very windy up there, but I managed to get some good photos and we even had an employee take a picture of The Queen and I with Manhattan in the background. From there we walked to another subway stop and headed to Greenwich Village to have lunch.
The Queen had to eat at Gray's Papaya, so we went to the original in the West Village. It has been in several movies. We both got hot dogs with everything on them. They were really good and the hot dogs snapped with every bite. We walked around the Village for a while and ended up at the arch in Washington Square Park. The arch has also been in many movies, so I took a picture of The Queen standing at it's base.
We caught a taxi and headed to the South Street Seaport. We bought tickets to a water taxi ride on Pier 70. We past ground zero on the taxi ride, but didn't even know it until we were on the water taxi. There was so much construction going on that you could not even tell what it was. The water taxi took us along Manhattan on the East River and then onto the Hudson River. We came back down on the New Jersey side of the Hudson and then past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We then went back on the East River past Governor's Island and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges before returning to Pier 70.
When we got off the water taxi we walked to Wall Street and stopped briefly at Federal Hall and the The Stock Exchange before ending up at Trinity Church. We walked through the cemetery at the church and I took a lot of pictures. We then left and tried to catch a cab to SOHO for our dinner reservations. It was really windy that day and we had to walk for a long time before we found a cab.
Once in SOHO we realized it was early so we walked around some. We walked by DASH and decided not to stop in to shop. We ended up at some paper store and The Queen had a good time looking at stuff. We walked back to Osteria Morini just in time for our early reservation. The food tasted great, but the ambiance was a little lacking. The restaurant had rustic Italian decor and paper napkins and place mats. It also had some eighties music playing on the stereo. The food portions were small, but tasted great.
We caught another cab to Serendipity 3. We put our names in and had an hour to kill, so we went back to Bloomingdale's for another bathroom break and then walked around until we ended up at Urban Outfitters. The Queen shopped some and then it was time to head back to Serendipity 3. I ordered the peanut butter Frozen Hot Chocolate and The Queen ordered the regular. I am not a big fan of chocolate ice cream, but this tasted great. The Queen really loved it.
When we were done we walked back to the hotel and I picked up my tripod and we headed out to Times Square for some night photos. It was cold and windy outside and it was trying to rain. I got some nice photos and then we headed back to the hotel. When we got back we asked for some authentic NY pizza that would deliver to our room and got a recommendation from some of the employees at the hotel. When the pizza arrived I was disappointed that it was not the authentic thin crust. It was good, but not what I was looking for.
Tuesday morning we woke up really early and headed out to Rockefeller Plaza to try to get on the Today show. We succeeded! Al was the first to come out and shake our hands. He filmed some and then went back inside. About a half hour later, the whole group came out. Al, Meredith, Matt and Ann. I shook Matt's hand and got a photo of The Queen with him in the background. Meredith stayed outside and took photos with anyone who asked and shook hands with everyone. She was by far the nicest one on that day. I took a picture of The Queen with her and she told me that Meredith gripped her hand tightly and told her it was very nice to meet her. I didn't think she would have been the nicest one, but she was.
We went back to the hotel and had breakfast before packing and catching a cab to the JFK Airport. Our cab driver would not turn on the heat and even gave me a hard time about using my debit card to pay for the ride. He said if I used it I needed to give him a ten dollar tip and he watched me to make sure I did it.
The Virgin America ticket counter at JFK was not as cool as the one at LAX. We boarded the plane and headed back. Once at LAX we got our luggage pretty fast and went back to the Hilton to pick up our car. We were on the road about an hour after landing. Not bad at all.
When we got home, Chels and Meg were waiting for us. We gave them big hugs and started telling them all about our trip.
In hindsight, we packed a lot into this trip. We really only had two full days to see New York and we saw a lot. It was really fun and we both enjoyed it a lot. I would recommend a trip to New York to anyone.
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