Live from New York, It’s Thursday night!

It doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? But we are sitting in our hotel room, exhausted from a long day of walking, walking, walking, and we are now kicking back watching the BYU/Florida game. Go Jimmer!
We finally paid the $16.99 for internet tonight, so I thought I would blog a little bit about what we’ve been doing here in NY.

Oh, New York! We’ve been having a wonderful time in NY!

Monday, we arrived here, exhausted from our long day of flying, took a taxi to our hotel and checked into the Marriott Marquis. It’s a far cry from the run down Comfort inn (or whatever it was) we stayed in when we came before. We were so tired, but we went out exploring. Our hotel is right off of Broadway, and there we were in times square! Look- the Adams family is a musical on Broadway! Oh, look, it’s a show about Alice in Wonderland, hey, there’s all the lights of Time’s Square! It was chilly as we walked around, and we soon realized we were pretty hungry. We’d split a sandwich that we bought in the airport in Texas, and were both on the hungry side. We ended up eating in an Irish Pub called Long Room. Oh, look at the beer list! We’ll have water, thank you. I ordered a sandwich called “Thanksgiving dinner on a ciabatta,” and Ryan had the fish and chips. Very good food! After our dinner, we explored some more, but not too much, because we were really dog tired. We did find a Walgreens and got some snacks, and came back to our room to crash. We felt kind of wimpy calling it a night so very early. It was “early” by New York standards, but we called it a night anyway.

Tuesday we planned on getting up and out of here early, but didn’t leave until after 8:30. We wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but had to find how to get there. After a few wrong turns and a backtrack, we found where to buy metro cards, then found the correct bus stop to take us uptown. It was fun to take the bus instead of the subway, because you can actually see where you are going. We took the bus up 5th avenue and saw all the designer shops. We found the Met, and made our way inside. Where to go? There’s something like six floors with about a million wings each. We started out in the European artists, and saw many, many paintings of Mary and Jesus. Chubby cherubs with halos and all that. We saw the Egyptian exhibits, sarcophagi, musical instruments, early armor and furniture. Wow! We had to take a break for some lunch about then, and ate in the museum cafe. We were running out of time, but really wanted to see the 19th century European artists, so we hurried quickly to the other side of the building and up a couple floors. Wow! Renoir, Matisse, and Monet! Degas, Manet and more…. Amazing!

We could have stayed there for 9 days, but alas, we had to move on to our next adventure.

Feet starting to ache, we waited quite a while for the bus in the cold wind. We needed to navigate our way back to midtown to check in with the Late show, so we could get our tickets. We stopped in quickly to see Rupert Gee at the Hello Deli, and then got in line. Yes, even the people ‘”on the list” needed to stand in line. We got up to the front, checked our name on the list, and eventually got our tickets. Then we had an hour to kill before we had to be back. We moseyed across the street to the Europa cafe, where it was warm and we could share a hot chocolate and use the bathroom. We ended up staying there for nearly an hour, but they didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t want to get too far away and then have to come back. We had to line up in the “yellow line” and then get in numerical order. We were number 96 and 97, whatever that means. Once inside, we had a lot of time to stand there in line, so we got pretty chummy with the people in line behind us. The lady lived here in NY, we think her friend said something about being from Afghanistan.

When we got inside, it was all fun and clapping to the band. They tell you to laugh and clap at everything, even if you don’t think it’s that funny. ‘If Dave tells a joke, laugh now and think about it on the way home,’ they say. When Dave finally came out, he was indeed funny. At a commercial break, the three people in front of us were asked to leave their seats, and three other people came and took those seats. Huh? We knew something was up, because there was a camera aimed right at us. Sure enough, Alan (the announcer) came out in the audience, and ripped the moustache off the man who was sitting RIGHT in front of Ryan. We haven’t seen it yet, but I’m told we were on camera! Cool, huh? You might be able to watch that episode here, if you are interested.

By the time that taping was over, we were ready to get out and walk again. We headed over to Rockefeller center for a “top of the rock tour”. You get to go up to the top of the building, kind of like at the Empire State Building, but not so high. I was hoping we’d run into Alec Baldwin or Tina Fey while there, but no such luck.

(Sorry there are no pictures here, but we haven’t downloaded the pics from the camera yet. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of pictures in the future.)

No, we did not pay $20 to ice skate, but we did watch some skaters.

I’m going to end this post now, because the BYU game is tied with two minutes to go. I must watch the game and quit the typing. But don’t worry, there will be MUCH more about the trip in the next couple of days!