New York (Uncensored): Day 3

October 19, 2006

We started out the day by going to Grey Line and buying a 48 hour pass for their Double Decker bus tour. Our plan was to do the downtown bus loop. Our posse included: Nicki, Scott, Melody, Vanessa, Tricia, Me. Megan and Tina had some hair stuff to do as they are stylists and wanted to accomplish some business while they were there.

The bus tour was great because: a) less walking, b) tour guides are filled with lots of fun facts. The first stop we got off at was the World Trade Center area, but before that we saw the Brooklyn Bridge. I was expecting to be able to walk through the WTC area but it was blocked off by a huge fence all away around. They have some professional posters up with emotional pictures and timelines of that day’s events. Around the corner from the WTC area was a WTC Visitors Center where they had a makeshift museum. It was a lot smaller than I was expecting, especially if you consider that it was 5 years ago that it happened. Or maybe that is why? I had to keep the pictures, quotes and memorably registering at arms length or a person could get mighty depressed there. A lot of lives were effected by that event.

After that we headed towards Wall Street where the bronze “charging bull” was supposed to be located. We did see the New York Stock Exchange but no bull. The six of us ended up at the South Seaport where Nicki & Scott wanted to lunch but Mel, Nessa, Tricia and I wanted to try to find our way to Chinatown. Our first mistake was not going back onto the bus! We got a little lost and found ourselves in the real Chinatown versus the tourist Chinatown (didn’t know there was 2 LOL). So it was stinky, and we didn’t find too much good shopping.

After much walking, nervousness and time we got to the one block that remains as Little Italy. We had Gelati (Italien ice cream) and I bought a chef pizza cutter for my kitchen. Eventually we made our way back to the tour bus (it was a hop on – hop off deal which was really nice to have that flexibility). Since we just missed a bus we decided to check out the tented sale area that was right beside it. We were quite glad we did. I bought 2 elephant purses (one for my mother-in-law & one for my sis-in-law), a NYC hoodie (for only $18), and perfume for Willie my old carpooler.

Then we caught the bus and looped back around the area we walked through which was great as then we got some facts & history about it. Many, many photo opportunities. Also we drove past the bull so I got a great side shot of that. The bus dropped us off a little ways from Rockefeller where we checked out the NBC Store (one of my favorite highlights of the trip) where I loaded up on “the Office” stuff and Mel, Nessa & I got our photo in Central Perk (a green screen that looks amazing). Then we had to hustle back to the hotel so we could meet up with the group again.

Megan & Tricia got tickets to see “the Producers” on Broadway, Tina and Mel were going to watch the Met’s game in Times Square, and the last four of us (Nicki, Scott, Vanessa, I) were going to check out New York Improv (stand up comedy). The latter 6 of us decided to get dinner first. Big mistake. By the time we were all ready to go it was prime dinner time. I wanted to go to Carmine’s which is some famous Italien food but it was a 45-60 minute wait which would have made us late for the comedy. So we walked into the first available restaurant: Planet Hollywood.

It started out okay: food decent, clips of songs, movies & trivia (that we won free stuff at). However it was a rushed meal. Oh, and Nicki & Scott confessed that after Mel and Vanessa fell asleep they had sex a mere few feet away. Rude. Then, when we went to split up the bill things went haywire. At first we thought we had too much money so Nicki & Scott left, saying they didn’t care. But upon further inspection we realized we didn’t have enough money (8.5% tax + 20 % gratuity adds up). I blame it partly on the fact that the bill was itemized retardedly (the souvenir cost of the glass was under the cost of your drink).

Can you believe that they charged me for bringing a small, small plate of cutup pineapple from the bar that I had to add to my own pizza? It was only a $1.50 but it’s the principle (and the fact that the pizza was already like $18 for a small)…anyway I tried to bring it up with Nicki & Scott in what I thought was a nice way. Turns out it didn’t come across that way & Nicki was peeved at me. She even said she was mad cuz she had bought me that Scrapbook stuff and I threw a few dollars in her face. My point: it wasn’t me that ended up pitching in the extra money, and I think it’s rude to ditch the bill without making sure everything is covered.

Anyhoo, the four of us headed to our comedy stuff via cabbie (I think?) and Mel & Tina went to a sports bar as it ended up raining again. The comedy club was in a somewhat scary basement and we were packed like sardines! Drinks were far from good but the comedy was pretty excellent. Especially since it was only $5 admission. The table next to us were really annoying, talking through some of the sets. Thankfully the management asked them to pay up & leave. I wish they’d do that in Red Deer! It was really interesting to hear different material from New York comedians as they have different environments to draw from.

That pretty much wrapped up Thursday.