Ny Recap (day 2)

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this weekend.

So where did I leave you last? The end of the first day (Friday).

Friday night ended well into early Saturday morning, so we started out around noon-ish. Poor Gene got very little sleep the entire time I was out there.

Before lunch, we poked around the city. I can't really tell you where we went - we were all over the place.

For lunch we headed out to the very famous (and quite popular) Katz's Delicatessen. I didn't realize that I'd seen the inside of it before until Gene pointed out the sign that made reference to the When Harry Met Sally fake orgasm scene.

I guess I never realized how many movies take place in New York.

Gene knew all about the ticket system (for the bill) and schooled me about how it worked. Despite the education, I was still a Katz's newbie, so after I ordered my Corned Beef sandwich, I didn't get what the deli dude was doing when he cut a few pieces of corned beef, put it on a plate, and pushed it towards me.

(It was to taste while he was making my sandwich, I think)

(shrug) I thought it was for someone else :)

So yes, I strongly recommend the corned beef sandwich. It was crazy good. Not real or fake orgasm good, but pretty good. Unfortunately, Gene wasn't too excited about his hot dog, so no orgasms for him either.

In my quest to find places to eat that aren't chains (when I'm travelling), Katz's was perfect.

After lunch, we poked around the surrounding areas and I finally met up with Stef (my penpal of 6 years) and Lucy (her homey) in Little Italy. They were on holiday as well from the northern West Coast (although they were in NY for a week and a half to my 3 days).

We all went to this little Italian restaurant (I forget the name now) for lunch (part 2 for Gene and me). I was so stuffed from my industrial sized sandwich that I coudln't even consider eating anything else. I ddin't even want to try anyone else's food.

I really can't say much about the food, but the restaurant was completely open up front. We sat at a table within in the restaurant, but we had a clear view of the outdoors. The Feast of San Gennaro street festival was going on at the time, so we to caught the parade as well.

After our second lunch, we cruised the street fair. And I got hustled.

Like a complete chump.

I was just standing there looking at the warez of some vendor, and I got suckered into throwing darts at balloons in the next booth.

So a bunch of darts and 10 dollars later, I finally got a clue and got away. So now I have this cheesy stuffed animal bear to remind me not to be stupid.

Next time.

I guess I didn't learn many street smarts while growing up in the rough streets of suburbia.

So what else...

The young ladies were shopping for stuff, so I made Gene do touristy stuff wtih me - We tried to catch a Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise, but alas, we weren't able to make any of the boat times (there was only one left). We were supposed to meet S and L for dinner so we woudln't have been able to make it in time.

Maybe next time.

Even though we didn't get to go out on the water, it was still nice to see and be by it.

On the way back, we hit up Times Square and took in all the sights to see there. It's crazy how many neon and LED lights are all concentrated in one place.

Of course, I had to stop by and take a few pictures of the MTV TRL studios :)

And finally, we went through China Town for some bubble tea and souvenir purchasing. I tasted watermelon bubble tea for the first time - Quite an interesting drink, that's for sure. It was like drinking liquefied watermelon flavored Bubblicious gum.

With bubbles of course.

Afterwards we met up with Stef and Lucy for our dinnertime adventure. They had consulted their trusty (advance copy) travel guidebook and wanted to eat at Serendipity (again, another movie connection). I didn't know that the restaurant was a real one (shrug).

Unfortunately, the wait was kind of long (and obviously we didn't tip the host enough) so we put our names in and thought we'd poke around. By this time we were pretty hungry so we ended up going to the Starlight Diner instead for a Bison burger.

Bison kind of tastes like beef to me. I don't have the tasting skillz to tell you what's different.

So what else? We tried to be crafty and go back to Serendipity for dessert, but again, our tip to the host wasn't enough so we got the shaftily shaft.

Mark it down for next time.

After dinner we dropped Stef and Lucy off at their hotel and Geneman and I went people watching at Union Square for a bit. It reminded me of a busier version of the diag at Michigan - People walking around / hanging out, skateboarders and bikers practicing their skillz, etc.

And that was pretty much the end of day 2.

-Kirk