I took time off from my "time off" to visit Tricia in New York with Astrid and Kristine. I took hundreds of photos. Literally. Here's a relatively-small sampling.
The first thing we did off the red-eye was set our stuff in the hotel and walk over to Central Park, which was a few blocks north of us. This is a statue of Hans Christian Anderson.
Well, we also ate before that. I was hungry and Kristine was Dying. As you can see, she was feeling better by this time.
Astrid isn't one to let the kids have all the fun.
We headed over to the Met after that. You can see that about this time, the effects of the red-eye were kicking in. Kristine didn't see that much of the museum through her eyelids.
First prize in the "Most Homoerotic Sculture Of All Time" category goes to...
One of our many passes through Grand Central Station.
I finally got to meet Kenyatta that night. We met up in Union Square under umbrellas and went over to a Thai restaurant that night. It was fabulous to see Tricia in her element and witness the interplay between her and Kenyatta.
The Jockey Girl in Times Square. Oh how we love thee, Jockey Girl! Okay, so I speak for myself. We went there that morning to get in line to buy show tickets.
On our way from Times Square to Rockefeller Center we came across this very windy street. Yeah, I know, you can't really tell...
Time for some modeling photos. The wind didn't whip their hair quite as hoped.
Rockefeller Center. These fountains pour towards the big NBC building. I didn't really understand what the big deal was about Rockefeller Center. So there's a bunch of shops and stuff. Whee.
This is that statue right in front of the building. Kristine tells me that there's an ice skating rink down in this little plaza during the winter. That'd be cool--I've never ice skated outdoors before. In the nighttime, with a date. That turns out to be my true love. That'd be serendipitous.
Well, okay, so Rockefeller Center has some cool candy shops. This was Teuscher Chocolates where you could pick out these little boxes to hold your loot. Cute.
La Maison du Chocolat is there. Words cannot describe this chocolate. I want to smear it all over my body, wrap myself in a crepe and start at my toes.
Energy rapidly depleted from four hours of sleep, we stopped at Satan's Coffee for a recharge.
St. Patricks Cathedral. Still need a tripod.
Time for the show. On advice from a cool couple of guys in line that morning we had tickets in hand for "Thoroughly Modern Millie". It was cute, it was fun, it was seen awake, not to worry.
There were a bunch of these cute little statues all over this subway station. I think it was Union Square.
Skipping along to next morning, where we found ourselves in line once again for show tickets. We decided on "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" for that evening. We'll have to see "Hairspray" some other time--there weren't any performances that day.
And The Naked Cowboy was out in the cold. Objective #1 accomplished. We would be able to leave New York without any delays.
"We love you, Naked Cowboy! Oh yes we do!!!"
On to the Empire State Building. Yes, I made them pose for every cheesy tourist shot I possibly could AND THEY ACQUIESCED!
The view from up there is incredible. San Diego is small.
That's Lower Manhattan. You can see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island up on the right, and a smudge that's the Brooklyn Bridge on the left. It's pretty obvious where the twin towers used to be.
Windy, windy, windy.
My favorite picture of Astrid EVER.
Or wait...the votes are still coming in...
We took a little audio tour around the top that pointed out all the buildings and some history. Good stuff. Dorky, but good stuff. Hair styling by North Korea Sophisticate.
Times Square at night.
I really need to get a tripod. This was supposed to be the album cover shot!
We needed hot dogs. Kenyatta advised us to go to Gray's Papaya. He was oh so right. After two days of wanting hot dogs we finally got our fix that night. I don't know what it was about New York, but we were craving pizza and hot dogs from the moment we landed.
Homeland Security forces patrol key points of interest these days. We were pretty surprised when we first saw them in the Subway. Tourists.
We typically got to sleep no earlier than 3:00 AM and woke up by 8:00 AM, I think.
Sudden change of weather the next day. The downpours were gone, to be replaced with hot humidity. Bleh. This is the famous cross down at the World Trade Center site.
Lots of construction is already underway. Looks like there's a high priority placed on getting the subway station back up and running. It's very strange to walk through this big open area ringed by tall financial buildings. I can only imagine the shock felt by those who have lived here this whole time.
The sculpture has been moved to Battery Park as a memorial.
On the ferry, heading to the Statue of Liberty.
You'll never guess what I'm doing with my hands.
Hot...sleepy...
Ramona and Harriet
The turtle comes up for air...
...and a look at the Statue! Over there! Somewhere! The light, it burns mine eyes!
Arlene and Shawanna.
"Ready to clown! Let's do this!"
I saw my first Hard-core Jews ever!
Shalimar and Propecia.
Clown suits, activated.
"Okay, one serious one."
Yes, we handed the camera to someone. We posed. We let him take the photo. In our defense, his children then wanted to do the same so it couldn't have been a bad idea!
I had been neglecting my duty! We MUST have J. Crew shots!
On to Ellis Island. Frozen Lemonade to the rescue.
Must have audio tour, of course!
Perp #1, Perp #2.
Lombardi's for dinner. We finally got our New York Pizza. It was good. Good like this picture!
And GONE.
Right across from Lombardi's (north of Little Italy) is the trend-of-the-week. Rice to Riches sells rice pudding. Read the link to find out more.
Much like this guy, I don't get it. Should've named this one "Colon Collapse". There is not one single piece of ANYTHING in that store that isn't custom, that doesn't SCREAM design. It is all cool, smooth, overstated understatement, right down to the wall outlets. And the pudding isn't anything to scream about.
Contrast that with the Indian restaurant we ate at that night. Tricia and Kenyatta told us that one of the Indian restaurants on this street put up some lights one year, so the others all copied it. It quickly became a game of one-upmanship. Some people build skyscrapers, others...
I actually found all of the lights charming.
Tricia was able to get Keisha to join us that night.
And a friend of hers name Kelly came along too. They're going to be in an independant movie pretty soon--one with actual funding, so keep your eyes peeled--you're witnessing stardom in progress. :)
This was the night before we left so I had to say my goodbyes.
"Get yer cotton-pickin' hands off my woman!"
Kenyatta's the bomb-diggety. We like him.
On the subway platform. I am getting a tripod.
We had most of the day to dork around before getting to the airport. We ate lunch at Jean-Georges on the west side of Central Park. Fancy-shmancy Frog food. This was a watermelon gazpacho. They brought it out all arranged like this...
...then carefully ladled in the rest. Presentation!
I took a lot of pictures of the food, but I'll leave you with Kiki and her salmon. Yummy.
Okay, a last-minute romp through Central Park. In the hot, hot humid heat. Sassy Steenie.
"Is wine a diuretic?"
I really wish we had trees like this in San Diego.
J. Crew forever, baby!
My camera + photoshop = fun photos. Too bad I didn't catch her in the air, eh?
There we go. :)
"What was that about diarrhetics?"
It's hard to get good photos in the hands of other people, I've noticed. Really hit-or-miss once you hand it over.
B'lanna and Jadzia.
Oh shit...I'm a nerd!
And here they are, looking forward to returning to work the next day. Thanks for reading, have a good night!
