Monday - I ran three miles in the morning around the neighborhood surrounding where I was staying. While on my run I noticed some streets the sidewalks stopped near the end of the blocks. The sidewalks that I did run on, some were very uneven. I had to watch every step so I wouldn't trip. After showering and breakfast, my husband's uncle drove us to Newark, New Jersey. We boarded the
PATH train and it took us right into the city. While looking for
Madame Tussauds, that is where we needed to get our bus tour tickets, we saw a woman walking in Times Square with an outfit that was bad. She was wearing a white shirt and pant. The shirt and pants looked like tissue paper because it was see through. To top everything off she was wearing a dark bra and panties. Not a good look.
Once we got our tickets, we took the downtown tour. Points of interest on this tour was Times Square, Macy's, Empire State Building, SoHo, Chinatown, World Trade Center, Wall Street and others. At different points around the tour, you could hop on and off the bus. My husband and I got off at the Empire State Building. After waiting in lines for 40-50 minutes, going through the metal detector, we finally made it up to the 86th floor - Observation deck. I was taking pictures of the skyline and my husband whispered in my ear, "Psycho". Who, I asked. He said the girl next to me put her Smurf figurine on the ledge and took a picture of it. Sad.
Later that evening, we took the Night Tour. It was 2.5 hours long and we got to see the Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn, Chinatown, SoHo, Empire State Building, Little Italy and Times Square. What bothered me the most on the night tour was riding across Manhattan Bridge. I'm not afraid of going across bridges, but when you're sitting in the outside seat on a double-decker bus going 40 mph on a bridge where you can't see the guardrails, its a bit freaky. I tried not to look down. But I we did see some spectacular views from the bus. In Brooklyn, the bus drove by a basektball court. The tour guide said pick up basketball games are played there 24/7. Some of the other tourists on the bus were taking photos of the guys playing basketball. One of the people on the basketball court got out his camera and took a photo of us tourists on the bus. It was funny. I didn't understand why people were taking pictures of guys playing basketball in Brooklyn.
Tuesday - I decided not to run because my right calf hurt. After breakfast we were driven to Newark to board the PATH train to New York City. Our first stop was to our hotel,
Hotel Mela, to drop off our suitcase and to check in. We wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty. We hopped on the subway. During the ride there, I noticed on the wall of the subway car that if you wanted to get dropped off at Battery Park to go to Staten Island or the Statue, you have to be in the first five cars. Unfortunately we weren't. We were in the next to last car. We got off at the next stop to wait for another train to pick us up. The next train didn't come by for 15 minutes. We arrived at Battery Park and walked to pick up tickets to go to the Statue of Liberty. Tickets, more lines and more metal detectors were waiting for us before we boarded the ferry. At these metal detectors, we had to take off our belts, put in all necklaces, loose change, wallets, bags into totes. Over on the island, my husband really wanted to go into the base of the statue. Where the line was to go into the base, signs said that you needed to get your base tickets a week in advance. We didn't know about it. My husband was disappointed.
After the seeing Lady Liberty, we got on the tour bus to go on the Brooklyn Tour. The tour was 1.5 hours, or so it should have been. Traffic was bad. We went on the tour around 3:00 p.m. So the time we get over to Brooklyn, school is getting out. Bueses and cars were all over. During the tour, a man and woman were sitting in front of us. The woman stands up and walks back to the tour guide. She tells him that she wants off the bus. The tour guide was saying that this tour isn't a hop on/hop off. If he dropped them off in Brooklyn, they would have to find their own way back. This lady was just misable on this tour. Ok, we get it. Brooklyn isn't Manhattan. Not too many tall buildings or fancy shopping. Sit down and shut up. Later, she got up again asking the tour guide how much longer it was going to be. He told her after we go back over the Manhattan Bridge, the bus could drop them off somewhere. That is what they exactly did. The couple was dropped off in Chinatown. At 4:30 p.m., we were supposed to be done with the tour. We weren't due to TRAFFIC. It was so bad. I've never seen rush hour traffic so bad. We were sitting on one street for 10-15 minutes. I was so happy when some people on the bus asked to be dropped off at the Waldorf Astoria & Towers. When they got off, we got off the bus as well. We needed to get ready for Wicked.
We walked the couple of blocks, 7 or 8 blocks, to the
Gershwin Theatre for the Broadway muscial,
Wicked. The shoes I wore were a huge mistake. I have only worn them a couple of times before. They killed my feet and rubbed off some skin on my toes. I loved the musical. My husband liked it too. If it ever comes to Toledo, I will go see it again. I recommended it to everyone. After the show, we walked a painful couple of blocks to
Angus McIndoe restaurant. I ordered three drinks. Two of the drinks they didn't carry and one they couldn't make. So I stuck with water. My husband and I had the New York Strip Steak. It was delicious. One of the best I had. Our server was terrible. The bus boy and the server from the next table did a better job of serving us. Our server was too busy flirting with the bartender. She didn't get a very good tip. The bus boy did.
Wednesday - Got up early for our session with PhotoTrek tours. Our photographer took photos of us in Times Square, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge and SoHo. On the subway during rush hour, it was quiet until some crazy dude started talking loud. He was putting words together like Blue, Ball, Girl, Pants, Government. He would rant then quiet down. At one point I thought he got off the train, but he continued again. A woman who was near him encouraged him to keep talking and maybe one day write a book. OK psycho. The entire time he was talking I was laughing. Our photographer said that he is a New Yorker and has learned to ignore things like that. I thought it was funny. After lunch, we went on the final bus tour of Uptown Treasures & Harlem. While on Bleeker Street, our tour guide said that the bus company made an agreement. They would stay off the microphone on Bleeker Street because it is a quiet street. OK. Why is it quiet? Bleeker Street is lined with bars. Our last stop before leaving Manhattan was Trinity Church and the World Trade Center site.
Thursday - I got up early to run. During my run, I thought to myself how nice it was to run outside without people honking and yelling at me. Just then I stepped in a low spot in the road and twisted my left ankle. I fell hard onto my right knee and laid in the middle of a street. A guy on the sidewalk asked if I was OK. I told him I twisted my ankle. A man in a nice suit was opening his garage door and saw me in his driveway. He asked if I was alright. I said that I twisted my ankle and I wondered if he could give me a ride. He said yes and I climbed into his fancy SUV with leather seats trying not to sweat all over. He dropped me off and I thanked him. I was far from the house. I can't image trying to walk on that.
I iced my ankle and went and bought an ankle brace. It wasn't a tie up one that I like but it made due. After breakfast, I asked to go to a medical store to see if they had the ankle brace I was looking for. They did. The worst part of it was it cost $65. Since my ankle was in bad shape I really didn't feel like doing anything. What we ended up doing for the day was going to a mall, Barnes & Noble and tending to my ankle.
Friday - Iced my ankle and felt sad when I saw others running. I know I have to get back to running. The half marathon is in less then 30 days! We went to Short Hills mall, a very upscale mall, to look around. Didn't buy anything because everything was too expensive. After the mall, I wanted to get back to the house to get off my ankle and read my book about the Supermodel Gia.
Saturday - Eat breakfast with my husband's uncle and drove home. We made it home in 8.5 hours with one stop.
I enjoyed the trip to New York City and New Jersey. I didn't like twisting my ankle, but that sometimes happen. If we go to New York again, I would like to skip all the tourist attractions and walk the neighborhoods. We didn't see too much of anything riding a bus. If you are down walking the sidewalks, you see everything.
My husband and I got back from Mackinac Island Saturday afternoon. We had a nice and relaxing trip. During our trip, my husband attending conference meetings at the Grand Hotel. While he was doing that, I was doing other things.
