3/16/07--Day #3...and maybe the rest of the trip also

So day #3 was Friday, and we heard later that it was the 2nd coldest day in the HISTORY of New York City (think about that statement for a moment).  Folks, when I tell you it was cold---it was cold.  We began the day by heading down to Battery Park to...well, quite frankly, we went in search of some bootleggers.  Kellie wanted a pair of sunglasses, and a pair of unnamed co-workers were in the market for some Gucci handbags....no what I mean Vern?

So we get down there....and it turns out that Battery Park has this massive construction job going on right in the middle of it, which has...pretty much ruined the bootleg business.  Although, truth be told...I did run into one guy and was able to a pair of "designer" shades for the daughter at a decent price--after the required haggling.
We decided as a family (i.e. "I decided") that it was too cold to take the boat over to the Statue of Liberty (sorry kids, maybe next time) so we began walking over to Ground Zero.  We stopped and had a quick breakfast, which also included a near incessant amount of teenage whining from Kellie about how cold it was and how she "couldn't feel her toes".  She took her shoes off to get some blood flow going, and I told her to wrap her toes in napkins from the table and then put her socks back on.
End of problem.
Ground Zero is still a very sacred place, and always should be.  The kids had never seen it before, and I felt it was important that they did...not the least of which is the historical aspect.  After that, we headed towards the Empire State Building....which of course gives us yet another chance to totally freak out my daughter by going up 89 floors and taking a view of the New York skyline.  They both were impressed, although not as much as how cold they thought it was.  We made our reservations for a tour of NBC the next day (not without the usual drama of course) and then headed back downtown to see Union Square--which is probably my favorite part of NYC....some great stores, atmosphere and towards the end of each week there is a "green market" where people come in from the country (and even out of state) to sell different produce.
Me of course, I'm interested in the cookies.  Hey, its who I am, its what I do.
That night, we took the kids to see a little Broadway action as we went to see the Blue Man Group.  Now my old friend Greg Goode had been pushing this show on me for years....and I gotta give credit where its do....they were fantastic.  Truly this is one of those shows that can't be captured on DVD or television.  Its a really great live visual experience.  If you ever get a chance to see them....highest recommendation.

Day #4--got up and made our way over to 30 Rockefeller Plaza--home of NBC.
We took the tour (after spending way to much in the NBC store) and got to visit where they film Saturday Night Live each week.  Some classic photos of guys like John Belushi and Phil Hartman....amazingly though, a tour of NBC....which is of course, the "network of Notre Dame football"....and you do not see ONE SINGLE THING about the Fighting Irish.  Which is amazing, considering how much flak the Damers get for that contract amongst college football fans and the media.  I even told one of the NBC pages, "Your network needs to push the Fighting Irish more", and she promised to mention it to the next executive she saw.  I won't hold my breath.  After the tour, we scooted over to Grand Central Station and caught a train out of NYC and on the way to White Plains, NY....which was about a 30 minute train ride.  We hooked up with my Uncle John, "travel consultant" Mary Ellen (hehehe) and my other cousins Brian, Patrick & Terrance, who were all at a pub for an early St Patrick's Day celebration.  We walked up to the pub...and let me just say....that if I dropped a quarter in the bar, I wouldn't have been able to pick it up--it was that crowded.  Nothing like a pub full of drunken Irish to put you in the mood.  We were able to sneak outside and hook up with Uncle John & Mary Ellen....who like any good Irish mother had brought her kids with her....they need to experience the Irish ways I tell yee!  We had a lot of fun chatting with them for awhile, as Uncle John told some great stories about me dear old Da himself--no sibling rivalry there, no sirree Bob!  After awhile they left us, and the Florida Bowdren's forced there way back into yon pub, past just a few drunken lad's and lasses until we came across me own cousins...Brian, Patrick & Terrance.  Fine Irish lads all tree!  (Sorry, I seem to be morphing Barry Fitzgerald from The Quiet Man)  Anyway, with them was Terrance's girlfriend...or maybe its fiancee....me own wife and I couldn't remember--and we figured it'd be rude to ask.  I was a good cousin, and downed a pint under the watchful eye of me own daughter...who was giving me an eyebrow I don't mind tellin ya!  I told her...."welcome to your very own heritage little girl!".  Right there in the pub they were singing some fine Irish songs, and Brian, Patrick & particularly Terrance were in fine form and my own bride says to me---she says:
"You don't know these songs as well as your cousins." (she didn't have the dialect)
"No," says I, "'tis true.  And its because me Da...he didn't marry a fine Irish girl from the neighborhood like me Uncle John.  He went down south and got himself the Belle of the Ball....which makes me 1/2 Irish and 1/2 South Carolina....and which is the better half, I can't say.  But its an equal helping of each that made me what I am today...and that's the man you love and married....so it can't all be bad."
It was at that moment that a fierce wind picked up outside, blew the door to the pub open, and as Kim tried to walk away, I grabbed her by the arm, pulled her too me and gave her a kiss like she hadn't had in awhile.  Then I picked her up into my arms and....

Whoops, there I go again.  That was John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man.  Wow.  That movie sure did make an impression.

So we caught the train back to NYC and ended up all the way downtown by the famous Brooklyn Bridge, which...much to Kellie's chagrin, we proceeded to walk across.  I'm proud to say that over the course of Friday & Saturday, my podometer indicated that we walked over 15 miles.  The walk was very nice, as by this point the sun had begun to go down and although it was cool....it wasn't ridiculous like the morning before.  We were heading over to a pizza place that Kim had read about right on the waterfront in Brooklyn....and when we got there....you guessed it, about 40 people in line before us.  We asked around and found another place, this one just some american cuisine (although it was actually pretty good) that was right on the river with a spectacular view of both the Brooklyn & Manhattan Bridges.  I think where we were sitting might have even been used in a Woody Allen film.  However, all things being equal, we caught a cab back into the heart of the city--which of course meant another moment spent in Death Race 2000, or at least, something just like it.  We stopped off back in Union Square and made some purchases and then headed in.....long day.

Day #5.  We really had nothing on the agenda for the day, so we thought we would head back down to Times Square and maybe pick up some last minute items we might have forgotten to get.  The wife then decides...that she wanted some bagels from an authentic NY bagel joint to take back home to Florida--because, you know, of course the bagels in Florida are never as good as the ones in NY.  ("Its the water!")
Well, now she has an "approximate" idea of where the place is located....and off we go.
Along the way, we stopped in a huge Barnes and Noble (4 or 5 stories tall), Central Park and a few other places.  And we continued to walk.......

44 blocks we walked.  That was where the wife FINALLY saw the sign for the bagel place.  And she went in....and I told her....that these had better be the best damn bagels that she had ever eaten...for the effort we put into getting them.  So she's standing in line, waiting to pay...when she looks on the wall and sees the sign:

"Be sure and visit our Times Square location"

Ya know, right where we started.    DOH!

After that, we stopped off for some authentic New York style pizza--we hadn't had any, remember?--at a place called John's Pizza, which is right off of Times Square.

That's us in the picture....right after Kellie had spelled the Pepsi all over herself.

Time to go home!  Thanks NYC, it was fun!

Later,
Jeff