New York, Day 2

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. :)

Tuesday morning the three of us woke up at a decent hour, got showered, caffeinated, and got ready to go again. I can't remember if I said this in the last post, but the city had had a significant ice storm the week before, and several of the sidewalks were not shoveled since no one had the responsibility to do so. So of course, on our way to the train station that morning, Samantha and I were walking side by side across what we referred to as "Lake Placid", Jonathan close behind us. We had nearly made it all the way across this plateau of ice when Samantha was no longer upright next to me. I whipped around and saw Samantha completely face down on the ice! From what Jonathan said, it wasn't even like she tripped or anything - she just went right down! So the poor thing got up; we were asking her if she was ok, and a few men who were walking the opposite direction started shouting in some language or another. We still can't really tell if it was about her boots, or if they were asking if she was ok, but they were definitely making a fuss. You could tell Sam was in some serious pain though. The way she fell caused her to catch with her left wrist and I think she landed right on top of it.

Well, after that incident, we decided to troop along and see how things went. Samantha doesn't have a doctor in the city yet so we were hoping for the best. We took the train back into Manhattan and got off in SoHo. We were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at Lombardi's Pizzeria, which is the oldest Pizzeria in the country. They bake their pies in a coal oven!!! (Not exactly green, but super yummy)We waited about 25 minutes for a table (in a very crowded wait area - it's still pretty cold to wait outside), and I asked the bartender for some ice for Samantha's wrist. When we were seated, they took us through a few different seating areas, a couple wait stations, the kitchen, all the way to the other side of the cafe in a narrow room with sooty brick walls and an old wood floor. Very "Little Italy", but wrong neighborhood. ;) We ordered a pizza to share and some drinks. One thing I learned about NYC is that you have to carry cash EVERYWHERE. Not a lot of places take card, unless they're a pretty big retailer like Gap or Toys R Us. Anyway, after we'd gotten our drinks (no free refills - boo!!) we were doing a bit of people watching, and I noticed a gent sitting at a table with two ladies and speaking in the stereotypical NY dialect. He had brown hair, slicked back Sopranos style, and was wearing this brown leather sport coat. We decided his name was Guido and he knew where the bodies were buried. :-p A few minutes later, Jonathan had noticed some of the framed photos on the walls, and began to look back and forth from Guido to the guy in the photos - this guy isn't guido, he's the owner of the joint! Very cool. We would've like to have our picture taken with him but didn't want to bug him. It was a pretty tasty lunch - some of the best thin crust pizza I've ever tasted.



From there, Samantha took us on a quick walking tour of SoHo, on our way to the next train station where we would ride to Herald Square. Once we arrived there, we went into a Duane Reade (the chain pharmacy in NYC) and picked up a bottle of advil and an ace bandage for Samantha - her wrist had actually swollen up pretty well by now and she was still in a significant amount of pain. After wrapping her up, we trekked across the street to the Herald Square Macy's. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping, and we enjoyed the ride up in the wooden escalators from floor to floor. It was a pretty HUGE place - I could definitely get lost in such a store! I tried to convince Jonathan to go sit on Santa's lap with me, but he was not keen to the idea. ;)



Following our Macy's extravaganza, we went over to a Borders book store - Samantha had gotten me a copy of "Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K.Rowling, and Jonathan told her he'd gotten me the same thing for Christmas, so she exchanged it for me. I got to see Madison Square Garden from the outside. I also enjoyed a soft pretzel from a street vendor, which broke almost immediately and was just a wee bit too salty. But tasty nonetheless.

Late in the evening we walked over to Bryant Park and shopped a bit in the holiday outdoor markets. I love this place! They had all kinds of fun little things in there. I bought myself a Peppermint scented candle from a little shop called "Long Island Candle Company". It is currently making a happy home in my bathroom. After this, Jonathan and I made our way back to Times Square, and Samantha went home.



We met our friends Buckly and Mike at a BBQ place in Times Square for dinner. This place was literally the biggest restaurant I've ever eaten in and the servers didn't really seem to care much - only that you got in and out. I guess if you're a starving actor/waiter the faster the table turnover the better. ;) We had a good time with them anyway, catching up. When the boys talked about video games, and I sort of tuned them out for a while. They didn't linger too long though. They also took us for a drink at a little irish pub in the neighborhood. It was cute. After parting ways, Jonathan and I headed back to the apartment to get some rest for the drive back the next day.

(this is just a little sculpture I saw in the subway station at 8th and 14th - I thought it was cute.)


We left around 10am on Wednesday, Christmas Eve. I was sad to say goodbye to the city, but I had a really great time and I can't wait to go back and experience more about New York.