NYC – Things done (and things left undone)

A Travelogue through New York City, told (mostly) in Wikipedia Pages. 

(I’ve left out the wedding stuff up in Westchester because … well, that’s a different topic.)

THURSDAY

• Dave took the train from White Plains down to Grand Central Station (saw same, took many pictures). Met up with Doyce, Doug, Virg.  View of the Chrysler Building from outside.
• Wandered by the Library. Looked at the lions.
• Wandered around. Found Jack’s Bar & Grill (fancyish). Drank some beers.
• Headed over to Times Square. Yow! Lights! Video! Lights!
• Bachelor party at Dave & Busters.
• Wander back to GCS, taking various blurry night time pictures. (It was the lighting conditions, honest!) Took the train back.

FRIDAY

• Margie and Dave took the train down to GCS.
• Went over to the Library. Ate lunch at the Bryant Park Grill.
• Toured the Library a bit. Gorgeous place.
• Couldn’t get a good view of the Empire State Building because of cloud cover.
• Took the train back up to White Plains for the wedding rehearsal.

SUNDAY

• Drove down to the city in our rental car. Dropped the car off at the Hertz garage which was, quite serendipitously, only a block from where we were staying, the Hotel Belleclaire, at 76th & Broadway (Upper West Side).
• Took the 1 line subway down to Times Square. 
• Wandered about. Went to the Gray Lines office to pick up our passes. We got a 48 hour pass for the uptown and downtown tour busses — double-deckers with open observation decks, which have hop-on/off privileges. In general, it went pretty well, even if there were some maddening difficulties around shift changes, getting on a bus that had room upstairs, etc.; once on, the tour guides were all good, and the routes were enjoyable.
• Went to Avenue Q at the Golden Theatre.
• Headed back up to the hotel, wandered over to Isabella’s for dinner.

MONDAY

• Ate breakfast at the Manhattan Diner.
• Walked over to the Natural History Museum along Central Park and picked up the Uptown Loop of tour bus. This went through the Upper West Side, through Harlem, down through the Upper East Side along Fifth Avenue.
• From the south end of Central Park, transferred to a Downtown Loop — except that went ahead and dropped us in Times Square to pick up a different bus. Irksome.
• Drove around downtown Manhattan, past Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, and then down through SoHo, Greenwich Village, etc.
• Eventually, the bus got down to the Civic Center. We got out there, and took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge — well, about half-across, past the first span of cables, so that we could shoot back toward the city.
• Returned to the bus route, eventually caught the next tour bus down (with a glimpse through other buildings at the WTC site) to Battery Park, from which we took the Staten Island Ferry in order to get a view of the Statue of Liberty.
• Took the subway up to Grand Central Station. From there, we walked, past the Chrysler Building, over to the UN Headquarters. Lots of police parked in the area, and, sadly, all the flags were down. The place needs a paint job.
• Caught the tour bus once again, which drove us past Rockefeller Center, and dropped us off back in Times Square.
• Checked out the TKTS booth, but didn’t find anything we wanted to see. Margie boldly took us to consult with the concierge at the Marriott Marquis, who got us reservations at Frankie & Johnnie’s down the street for dinner. Which put us in great position to mosey across the street to the Golden afterward to pick up the photo I’d left backstage at Avenue Q.
• Being stuffed, we walked back up Broadway to the hotel, passing Columbus Circle and the Lincoln Center along the way.

TUESDAY

• Checked out of the hotel, stashing our bags there and making arrangements with the concierge for transportation to LaGuardia mid-afternoon.
• Had breakfast at the Manhattan Diner again.
• Walked to Central Park, then across it, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Took the Highlights Tour for an hour, then did a bit of common browsing, then split up to maximize the things we both wanted to see. As previously suspected, one could easily spend the whole day (if not more) at the Met.
• Running a bit late to get back to the hotel. Considered getting a cab, settled on a pedicab, which made it’s way over to the American Natural History Museum with us. The driver didn’t speak English very well, so I’m not sure if I stiffed him on his suggested fee (as Margie thinks) or gave him more than he asked (as I thought), but I tore a pants pocket getting out of the cab, so I guess we’ve even.
• Hoofed it back, hopped in a town car, and we were off.

So that’s what we did, which leaves …

UPDATE: Pictures, pictures, pictures!

THINGS NOT DONE

• Touring the Cathedral of St John the Divine. Drove past it, took pics.
• Empire State Building observation deck. Drove past, took pics.
• “Top of the Rock” Rockefeller Plaza observation deck. Drove past, took pics.
• Statue of Liberty (Liberty Island). Cruised past, took pics.
• Central Park. We crossed through it pretty directly, but I’d like to do more rambling (so to speak) around it. And visit the Zoo.
• The Village and Soho, and so forth — shopping and eateries, both look very tempting. Ditto Chinatown and Little Italy.
• More Met.
• More walking, less riding. 

I solicited thoughts of places to go from several people who’ve visited or lived in NYC — Mary, Michelle, Scott, Bruce, etc. I fear we didn’t take any direct suggestions from any of the entries, though they all went into the hopper of our brains and filtered out into a bunch of the above. Plus, we lugged the printouts around with us everywhere. So many, many thanks.

Pictures to follow — I’ll comment here when they go up.