New York: Day 3 - Lego Dragons, Football Players, and Dried Lizards On Sticks

On our third day in New York City, we boarded our buses at 6:30am in New Jersey to make the drive into the city. Can I just say real quick that NYC drivers are INSANE? They're completely nuts. I'd need to be heavily medicated to drive anywhere near the city. Our poor bus driver had tiny cars dart in front of her left and right. I don't mean that they found an opening to get in front. No. They pushed their way in in such a way that made you gasp and hold your breath.   One evening on the way to pick us up, a car ran into the bus in the bus lane! The woman claimed she didn't see the huge bus. The police officer asked her why she was in the bus lane to start with and she said that she saw other cars do it so she thought she could too.  Our bus driver declared that this would be her last trip to NYC because she couldn't stand the thought of dealing with driving in the city one more time. 

Once we safely made it into the city, we made our way to NBC studios.  Here are the people waiting outside hoping for a glance at their outside Today Show broadcast.  We had to keep moving around the building though to find the tour entrance. 

I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside or during the tour so you'll have to use your imagination.  We got to see the set of Dr. Oz, Saturday Night Live, and one of the late night shows that I can't remember the name of now.  I was surprised at how tiny the sets are.  They seem so big on TV.  We were told they use wide angle lens. 

After the tour, we were on our own to wander the around the city for a few hours.

Look Mom and Katie!  I walked by Michael Kors store!  From Project Runway! Normally I don't get excited about stores but it was neat seeing his name on the store.  Jon didn't have a clue why I was whipping out my camera. 

Rockefeller Center doesn't look quite as impressive with the Christmas tree.  This statue was pretty cool though. 

I was so glad that St. Patrick's Cathedral was open to tourists.  It was an impressive building from the outside but that didn't compare with inside.

The view inside is breathtaking.  The ceilings are so high and the stained glass was so bold and colorful.

I walked around with my face pointed up to the ceiling the whole time. It's a wonder I didn't run into anything.

After we left the cathedral, Jon wanted to try to find the NFL shop that we passed on our way into the city.  As we approached this building, I couldn't wait to find out what it was.  It was amazing and such an impressive building.

Guess what it is?  The library!!!  I can't imagine what it must be like to have a library like that nearby!  I wish we had time to go in and check it out. Maybe next time.

Cheese!

We found a little chocolate cafe, Lily O'Brien's, and we stopped to take a break.  Jon had a dark chocolate hot cocoa but all I could do was live vicariously through him since I'm allergic to milk.  I had to settle for trail mix and bottled water that I had in my backpack.  There are so many amazing chocolate shops in NYC and it was torture to not be able to eat any of it.  I finally found some Godiva 72% chocolate that I could have. I savored each bite.

Here's Bryant Park. 

We finally found the NFL shop and noticed that there was a long line waiting to get into the store. 

Look! I found Waldo! 

This picture is for Evan.

So, Jon walked up to someone and asked what the crowd was for.  They said that it was the opening day for the NFL store and there were going to be players and the commissioner there.  We had time to spare so we got in line and waited, and waited, and waited. 
When we finally got in the store, we saw a few football players but we only recognized one.  Please let me know if you know who these players are. 

This handsome guy plays football but not sure what his name is.

This man was doing an interview so he must be important in the world of football, right?

Do you know who this is?  I did after Jon told me.  Terrell Owens! T.O.!  I had at least heard of him. 

He was nice enough to take a picture with me but then he moved on to sign more autographs before Jon could get a picture taken with him.   He's a tall guy.  A lot of the teenage girls were so jealous after I told them who I met when we got back to the bus.  Apparently he's "FINE!". 

Anyone know who this is?

How about this guy?  

We walked around the store for a few more minutes, got a commemorative coin and then headed on our way. 

Next we stopped by the Lego store.  The wall of Lego's was impressive.

The Lego dragon was cool too. 

It beckons me.  Like a magnet, I was drawn inside.  It's probably good that I couldn't eat 99% of what was inside.  I just wandered around and admired it all.  Jon got bored but I could have looked through that store for an hour!  All the boxes of chocolates wrapped so beautifully. 

I could care less about handbags, shoes, and jewelry.... but chocolate is another story.

Next on the agenda was Grand Central Terminal.

When I saw it on the itinerary, I couldn't figure out why we'd want to visit a train station.  Then I walked inside. 

Oh my.  It's amazing.  Again my eyes were glued to the ceiling. The light fixture were beautiful.

The ceiling on the main room (if you call it a room) is painted with constellations.  It's a beautiful aqua blue.   I then realized that I've seen this room so many times.  It's been in movies, in flash mob videos, etc.  It was neat to see it in real life. 

At this point in our day, we were exhausted.  Actually, exhausted doesn't even begin to describe how tired we were.  We were to eat lunch at Grand Central and after walking past all of the offerings in the food court area, we found Two Boots Pizza.

Inside was a haven from the hussle and bussle of the station.  The walls are decorated with all kinds of interesting art. 

Jon ordered the Mr. Pink pizza with chicken, garlic, tomatoes, and mozzarella.  He said it was good. 

I ordered the whole wheat crust, marinara sauce (it's non-dairy), sausage and pepperoni.  It was AMAZING!  The wait staff and the chef were extremely helpful when I was trying to figure out what I could eat from the menu.  They even offered a non-dairy fake cheese for the pizza but I decided against that.  I didn't even miss the cheese.  The sauce is great and the pepperoni was nice and crispy.  I ate every bit of this "small" pizza. 

After leaving Grand Central, it was off to China Town and Little Italy.  Have I mentioned how packed our schedule was? 

Chinatown was really fascinating. It really is like walking into another country.  There was a mix of tourist traps and shops for the locals. 

Does anyone know what this building is?  Really great building, right?

It's a bank!  Seriously... first a library that looks more important then the Smithsonian and now a bank that looks like... well, I don't know what it looks like but surely not a bank!

Here is the Manhattan Bridge Arch. 

We tried to get in to see the Buddest Temple but they had forms we had to fill out first.  We'll save that for another trip.

My favorite part of Chinatown was a grocery store that specialized in dried foods that I suppose are used in Chinese cooking.  It was fascinating!!  I walked from bin to bin trying to figure out what the product was.  They're big fans of dried fish bladder, by the way.

Here are some dried octopus.

I wandered the store but almost a half an hour.  Look at those mushrooms! So many interesting shapes and colors.

Here was my favorite thing though.  Dried lizards on sticks.  Not sure what they're used for but they looked pretty awesome. 

Next was Little Italy.  Little is right.  Apparently Chinatown is expanding and Little Italy is shrinking in size.  There weren't as many streets to explore in Little Italy.  That was okay because our main goal was to find dinner.

Jon asked that I take a picture of this sign because it had a "really big gun" on it. 

This sign cracked me up. 

There is major competition among Italian restaurants in Little Italy.  Waiters stand outside and sing, describe their menu to you, and tell you why their pasta is better then their neighbor's pasta.  It was a tough decision made even more difficult because Jon and I had 6 teenagers with us. 

We finally decided on Grotta Azzurra Ristorante.  See the owner in the picture?  Looks like he belongs on the Sopranos, doesn't he?  He was very nice and convinced us to give his restaurant a try.

Jon had a pasta dish smothered in cheese. I'm thinking it's baked ziti but I can't remember. 

I was lucky enough to find a pasta dish without cheese.  It had broccoli, sun dried tomatoes, and olives all tossed in olive oil instead of butter. It was great even if I didn't eat my tomatoes or olives. 

Have you ever taken 6 teenagers out to eat?  It's a blast. You should really try it sometime.  Jon teaches a wonderful group of kids.

So, after a LONG day of sight-seeing, we ended the day at the Empire State Building. 

Here's what the building looks like if you're standing at the bottom looking up.  No one ever thinks to capture this view.... only the other way around. 

Quick tip.... if someone mentions to you, while you're waiting in a line for the Empire State building that is so long it's out the door, that it takes 2 hour to get to the top from that point.... believe them.  Just because the line is moving fast doesn't mean you're getting anywhere. 

The foyer/entrance is beautiful and made me think of the movie Elf. 

We walked from room to room, in zig-zagged, roped off lines for 2 hours.  2 hours of standing and shuffling ahead after a full day of being on our feet was torture.  Each time we made it up to the front of a room and we were sure it was our turn to go to the top, we'd get herded into another room full of ropes to start shuffling through all over again.  I think I shut down about an hour in.  I kept shuffling ahead but I no longer cared what the view looked like.  No view, no matter how awesome, was going to make my feet and hips feel better.  I sound pretty whiny, don't I?  I was crazy tired.  I kept most of my whining to myself, luckily for those around me. 

And then we finally reached the top.  I think it was about 10:30pm at this point.  It was cold and CRAZY windy out on the observation deck.  There were so many tourists up there that you could hardly get to the edge to look out. 

The view was amazing though.  I hate to admit it but I didn't stop to really enjoy it at the time. I snapped some quick pictures and then made my way back inside to get out of the cold. 

The lights go on forever. 

This is a panoramic view. Click on the picture and hopefully it'll enlarge.

I managed a quick smile before running inside. 


Do you want to know how wonderful my husband is?  He rubbed my feet all the way back to the hotel!  A whole hour of foot rubbing! I'm the luckiest woman. 

Looking back, I have no idea how we packed so much into one day.  It makes me tired just blogging about it.  It was such a fun day filled with great food, great people, and lots of walking.