3/10/05--a "3 hour tour"

Day 3 arrives and I've come to at least one conclusion.  If a nuke hits New York, the only thing that will live is the cockroaches....and Starbucks.  I mean to tell you, there are literally 6 million Starbucks in Manhattan alone.  There must be one on every single corner.  There like little coffee parasites.  We got up this morning and told the hotel staff that we were either changing rooms or changing hotels.  Funny how a threat like that and they manage to find an available room.  So we move on up, much like George & Weezy....to the 12th floor.  Where we find a double bed.
Which is great if you sleep alone.  For two people.....uh, no.  But we were no longer smelling Chinese food and the room wasn't a sauna.  Hey, we'll live with it.
We end up walking down towards Times Square again and begin to look into going to a show that night on Broadway.  I guess there must be 15 to 20 shows happening on any given night, so we had a ton of choices.  We had originally planned on standing in line for one of those 1/2 price ticket places....but that involved us standing outside in the 30 degree weather.  It was about that time my wife informed me that we needed to be amending our plans, as standing outside wasn't an option.  So she goes into this other store that sells tickets and passes to the different boat tours and bus tours of New York, and lo and behold there was also a booth selling tickets to the different shows (full price naturally).  So while Kim was buying us a boat tour, I stood in line and snagged us a couple of tickets to MAMMA MIA!!--which is a play that celebrates....try not to laugh......the music of Abba ("Dancing Queen"--hello???).  Anyway, I had a guy in line tell me that I was pretty lucky to snag tickets to that show, since its still pretty hot.  Ya know, one thing that I probably should point out here that I don't think I have---almost everyone we met in Manhattan was really nice.  You get a mental image of what a New Yorker is going to be like, and it couldn't be more different.  Most of them were friendly, helpful and would go the extra mile to offer advice on restaurant or shows. 
So we've bought the tickets to the boat tour around Manhattan, and we begin walking that way.  Kim is looking at the map and says....."hey, we're going to walk right through Hell's Kitchen.  Is that bad?"  And I said...."well, if our name was Muhammed Al Farrouq....yeah, but a couple of nice Irish kids like you and me got nothing to worry about."
So we stand around for a few minutes waiting for the boat....and holy crap is it cold.
I mean, right to the bone cold.  And that's before we get on the water.  So we proceed to take the tour--which goes about 3 hours---all the way around Manhattan Island, and see all the highlights and historic spots and also the spots like Yankee Stadium (Ha!  Like that's a big deal) and Harlem.  Hmm....how shall I describe Harlem?  Its sort of like 30 or 40 apartment buildings that have about 25 floors.
So you move in there and you have about 700 neighbors.  Ya, big fun.  Talk about your urban blight.  It looks so depressing.  On the opposite side, New Jersey actually looks really nice--from the other side of the river of course.
We came back in....thawed out (no joke either)....and got ready for our evening.
That night we took the advice of some friends and visited Patsy's, an Italian restaurant near the theatre district.  I had the chicken parm--which was huge and some delicious Italian bread.  Very good meal, but again--a New York tradition...everything on the menu was ala carte.  After the meal, we walked towards the theatre and went in to see....MAMMA MIA!
Wow....was it ever fun.  Here's the story in a nutshell (help, I'm trapped in a nutshell--sorry, old joke) A young woman and her mother live on a small Greek island, where they run their restaurant//small hotel.  The young woman is getting ready to be married, and has always wondered who her real father is (Mom refuses to tell her).
She discovers her mom's old diary from the timeframe where she was conceived and finds out that---well, let's just say that her mom had quite the productive summer that year, with not just one, not two....but THREE boyfriends in the span of about 2 mos.
The young woman proceeds to invite all three of the men to her wedding--without telling her mother, naturally--and big fun ensues.  All this, believe it or not, set to the music of Abba.  It is so much fun and a guaranteed good time.  So get this one.  After the show is over, and the cast has done their curtain calls....one of the supporting actresses steps forward and announces that it was the week that is known as "Broadway cares" since a percentage of all ticket sales will go to Aids research and all breastcancer charities.  And the crowd applaudes politely.  Then, the actress says...."and you know.....ordinarily I don't do this, because its really not something we like to do....but I'm such a huge fan of someone who's in the audience tonight....ladies and gentlemen......
BRAD PITT!!  Brad, please stand up and take a bow!"

Holy crap, you should've have seen the women in the crowd jump to their feet.  And everyone is looking....looking.....looking....and then the actress on stage goes....
"Oh, he's not really here!!  I can't believe you fell for that one!"  It was hilarious.

Afterwards, we had a nice walk home in the cold weather....took a nighttime view of Rockfeller Center (NBC) and then St Patrick's Cathedral.  It was really nice.
When my wife wasn't coughing at least.  Which was about every 20 seconds or so.

Later,
Jeff