Neon Paradise

After our tour, Nicole and I made it to Grand Central Station. It was actually as grand as its name describes. The ceiling was ornate, reminding me a little of the buildings I've seen in Washington, D.C. It was also bustling, just like I had always imagined it to be. We actually felt like we were at risk of becoming turnstiles, spinning in place in the center of the station, as people rushed past us to get to their destinations.

From Grand Central, we walked a couple blocks to Sushi Samba, where we met up with a friend of Nicole's, also named Nicole. She moved to New York recently so she was happy to join us for dinner. This was a colorful place, literally, and had excellent food. I had never had sushi before so I went with something safe, the California roll. It was amazing, though. Shrimp & tomato. Mmmm.... I want some right now...

After sushi, we parted ways with Nicole and the two of us went on to Times Square. All day we had both been waiting to see the city we had dreamed about all these years and when we reached Times Square, we found it. We were both incredulous as we encountered the neon block. It really does beckon you. It was a dream come true to see Broadway in all its glory. We just walked for blocks, looking in stores, taking pictures and buying souvenirs (okay, that was just me).

As always, Nicole had her radar on for good looking men. She found her first one in a cop stationed in the middle of Times Square so she asked me to take her picture. He was very happy to oblige and took pictures with a lot of tourists we saw walk by. These guys must be used to it.

For those of you who know Stan Freberg, you know exactly what line was running through my head when I saw this sign for Broadway (yethhir!).

On Nicole's list of "Things I Must Do While in New York" was eat a hot dog from one of the many stands. Sadly, she was disappointed. It turned out she wasn't a fan of any of the food in NY. Sadly, it takes a lot to disappoint me so I gobbled up a little of everything and loved it all (thank goodness for all the wallking we did to burn it off!).

Here are some of the lights of Broadway. I loved how all of the theaters were lit up and how there were 10-20 on every street. I could smell celebrities in the air. More on that later...

On the main thoroughfare in Times Square, we found a giant Toys R Us. Yep, another toy store. We went in and found the lifesize Barbie dreamhouse of our dreams. It was a pink vision (or nightmare, depending on who you are reading this right now).

They had a section for everything: Legos, Barbie, Candyland, Jurassic Park, Speed Racer, Star Wars, Wii, etc. They even had a ferris wheel inside the store. It was so cute because each of the cars was a different theme (Toy Story, Care Bears, Scooby Doo). We weren't paying $3.00 to ride though, so we enjoyed from a happy, not-so-poor distance.

After Toys R Us, we finally headed back to our hotel. Luckily, there were tons of stations everywhere we went, so it was easy to get back. Or, so we thought. The thing they didn't tell us was that after 10 pm, all of the lines changed and our line was no longer in service. Sooooo, we ended up taking so many lines to get home that we were in the subway for 2 hours! Most of that was just waiting...underground...with the smells....and the rats...and the guy with gangrene. Good times, good times...

We got back to the hotel at midnight and went straight to bed because we knew we were getting up at 3:30 the next morning to make it to the "Today Show". As I laid my head on that pillow for the first time, I had serious doubts if we would make it. Just as I started to doubt this, I noticed that, indeed, it would be a long night, since our hotel had a club, bumping music one story below us.