New York

Day 1 (September 19th, 2009 midnight)
Gloria and I caught the 10:40PM red eye flight to New York.
We got to New York at 6:30AM the next day, got picked up by a Lincoln and arrived to the New Yorker hotel problem free. Desparate for some sleep, we took a nap and woke up to get some breakfast at Dunkin Doughnuts. The coffee was unbelievably sweet. We made our way towards Times Square, and passed by an international festival on 8th street.
We made our way to Times Square and were awestruck by the size of the buildings, the billboards, the lights, and the shear amount of people. Shoulder to shoulder people on the streets.
We made our way to Grand Central Station, followed by a trip past the Chrysler building.
For lunch we made our way to Soup Man, made famous from Seinfeld, where the Soup Nazi denies George of soup. Cost over $10 for crab bisque, but man was it good soup.
While wondering around we made our way to the Empire State Building. We had to go through a security check before getting in the elevators. $20 got us 86 floors high, and the view was unbelievable. The buildings in New York were humongous but atop the Empire State building we were at an unfathomable height above everyone else.
Walking back to the hotel we stopped for some light shopping.
After dropping off our bags, we went to eat at TGIF's just around the corner of the hotel. Dinner was mediocre, but that didn't dampen the day at all.
We ended the night by walking around Times Square, which is even more beautiful at night. The huge tv's and neon lights cast against the skyscrapers are a wonder to view.

Day 2
We woke up early to make it in time to Battery Park, for the Statue of Liberty tour. We took a cab there which was surprisingly cheaper than we thought.
Before we could get anywhere near the Statue we had to go through a security check, again. We made our way through the museum within the Statue before heading up to the pedestal. Flights and flights of stairs had to be climbed before getting to the feet of Lady Liberty. She really is beautiful, the amount of detail on such a huge monument is amazing. We couldn't get tickets to get up to the crown, but the view from the pedestal was still great.
Afterwards, the ship took us to Ellis Island. Site of US immigration into New York up until the 70's I think. Great history lesson complete with pictures and text describing what an immigrant would have felt coming into the US.
After docking back at Battery Park, we were in for a show in a nearby park. Calling themselves the Positive Brothers, sporting US flag spandex, they cartwheeled and flipped around drawing a huge crowd. For their finale, they pulled random people out from the crowd, including Gloria. With six of them standing shoulder to should and bent forward, one of the positive brothers ran full speed and jumped a 360 flip over all six of them.
We made our way back up to Wall Street, and just like it's portrayed, everyone was walking around with suits, powersuits, briefcases, and Blackberries.
Gloria somehow landed tickets to go watch Letterman. I had to answer the trivia questions to qualify for the tickets. Took me three tries to get it right, lucky for me the promoter guy was super patient. We lined up for the tickets close to 3PM. It was a busy day for NYPD as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both in town. This forced us to have to pick up our tickets on the second level of some restaurant. After grabbing the tickets we had to line up to enter the studio where they were going to film. While in line, the Letterman interns (?) were trying to get us worked up by making us yell and cheer. The taping that we were part of had Bill Clinton and LeBron James. There was no opening monologue which is a little bit confusing, Letterman must've taped it with another audience? Throughout the taping, the interns (?) kept trying to get us to yell and cheer. Overall pretty good show, LeBron was more interesting then Clinton though.
For a quick dinner we grabbed some New York style pizza, stuffed with toppings, and loaded with flavor.

Day 3
At the crack of dawn we got up and made our way down to a nearby diner just around the street.
After breakfast we made our way to Central Park via the subway system. Not the newest, nor cleanest transit system I've seen, but it had a sort of vintage appeal to it.
After Central Park we made our way to the Metropolitan Museum. The museum was unimaginably large. Inside were exhibits that stretched to pretty much every era in recorded history. Egyptian to Roman to Medieval to Renaissance to Shogun to whichever other era I've left out. There is no way a person can see the entire museum in one go. You'd pass out from exhaustion before you saw everything. There was an exhibit dedicated to grandfather clocks!
We didn't see the entire museum, but time restraints caused us to leave early. We made our way to Serendipity where we enjoyed a delicious two person chocolate ice cream sundae.
Gershwin theatre was the next stop, we had pre-purchased tickets to watch Wicked the Broadway show. I am not a fan of musicals, I've only ever seen one other musical (Amadeus), and it just doesn't tickle my fancy. Wicked though was on an entirely other level. The songs were memorable, the characters very likeable, the story conflicted with the story of Wizard of Oz, but very very entertaining. I have new found respect for those that perform on Broadway. To be able to sing and dance live is more talent then I could ever possess. Defying Gravity still gets stuck in my head from time to time.
After the show we grabbed dinner at an Irish place, and then walked back to Times Square. We sat at Times Square, half way up the steps just taking in the sights and sounds of everyone around. Something very entertaining about sitting in one of the busiest places in America just watching all the different types of people walking along all with smiles on their faces.

Day 4
The next morning after breakfast we walked to Madison Square Gardens for our All Access Tour. The tour guide seemed very knowledgeable and clearly had a New York accent. Despite strong opposition by Gloria, I insisted on wearing my Russian Rocket t-shirt, somebody had to set the balance of Rangers to Canucks. The tour took us deep into the heart of enemy territories. From the press box to ice level to the locker rooms, Madison Square Gardens oozed history. GM Place is far more modern looking then Madison Square Gardens, but you can't copy tradition and history.
The Knicks locker room was great to see, the Rangers locker room was full of hate and distaste, or maybe that was just me.
Next stop after the tour was the NHL store. They had a lot of apparel that I've never seen before, but it was mostly for american teams. I couldn't find any Canucks gear that I liked, although Gloria lucked out and found a t-shirt.
The Rockefeller Center was next on the list. There wasn't much to see inside the "Rock", but we didn't get a chance to go to the top.
St. Patrick's Cathedral was the next stop. This Cathedral was an unbelievable sight. Stained glass surrounded the Cathedral, and the amount of detail on the walls and ceilings was mind boggling.
We got a little hungry after and purchased some New York foot long hotdogs.
For dinner we went to Uncle Jack's steakhouse where Gloria had a plate of seafood, and I had their steak.
Gloria had a craving for the New York cheesecake we had the first night.

Day 5
The next morning we were walking down eight street and we passed a White Castle, so it was a no brainer. The White Castle burgers were miniature in size but you get pretty full after eating three of them.
We taxied down to Ground Zero where the World Trade Centers used to be. Construction had already began and so the are was fenced off. We couldn't get a good look at the sight from ground level.
We did some shopping at Century 21. As soon as we got through the doors, Gloria disappeared. I was left to just wonder around aimlessly in the sea of shopaholics. The stuff at Century 21 was really cheap though, no idea how they have the items that cheap. I saw fitted, iron free name brand dress shirts for $30. We spent the remainder of the day shopping, and by we I mean Gloria.
For dinner we went to Famous Dave's Bar-B-Q, where we ordered their famous feast, which was a mistake. The portion was huge, with an assortment of ribs, briskets, chopped pork, and veggies. The catch phrase at the restaurant was "Eat like a pig" but we weren't even close.
After dinner we decided to buy souvenirs. Souvenir stores aren't hard to find, there's one on every corner, but they all carried the same generic stuff, key chains, t-shirts, magnets, and cups.

Day 6
We checked out early, and left our bags with the desk. We made our way to Chinatown and it was hot. I wish I had packed more shorts and less jeans, cause New York is a walking city. Combine walking with heat, and you get deadly. By now we were both getting sick of eating out, so it was good to get some good old fashion Chinese food. We sat down with a lady and started talking to her. She told us tips on where to go in a foreign city to eat, her tip was just to go where it was packed. Sounded like she travelled a lot, and from the sounds of a phone call she had and the pass card she had on her, she was important. Something to do with medical, or department of health? Mysterious figure with hidden powers and wisdom, very Yoda like.
It's a good thing we did a lot of walking cause after lunch we grabbed some of New York's famous fried dumplings at a place identified only by a sign labelled Fried Dumpling. We followed that up with ice cream from The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, which is apparently quite popular according to Gloria.
Back in the shopping district we passed by Chase Bank, where armed guards were standing outside the doors. One of the guards told me I had a nice shirt, I was sporting my Jack Bauer t-shirt, I should've asked for a picture with the guard.
We also stopped by the NBA store, which much like the NHL store was a little disappointing, except it was two levels of disappointment.
We went to Red Lobster's for dinner, cause I craved there biscuits.
After dinner we shared an airporter with another couple from our hotel. I wanted to make conversation but I fell asleep as soon as the car door closed. I could've been mugged and I wouldn't have known.
The flight back, I contemplated sleeping as we would've arrived back in Vancouver around midnight and I had work the next morning. My ideas of sleeping quickly faded when I found out the onboard entertainment system allowed me to make a music playlist.
We got back on time, went through customs without a hitch and Amanda picked us up from the airport. All was well and it was great to be back in Vancouver.

Reflection
I have a soul crushing hatred for the New York Rangers. After spending a week in New York, I still hate the Rangers, but New York as a city I can very much see myself living there. The city moves too fast for my laid back Vancouver attitude, and maybe it's just a phase, but there's a lot of New York I have yet to see, and would very much like to go back. It'll be great to go back in a few years to see if that diner is still there, to sit on the steps in Times Square, maybe to catch another Broadway show. For the time being, New York you've accomplished in cracking this wall of Vancouver patriotism.