New York City 2009 with Joe

On Friday, Oct 30th, we got to NYC early enough to check into the Renaissance, walk over to the Jacob Javits center to the Expo, grab pizza off the street, light candles in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, go to the top of the Empire State Building, & head to “The Lion King”. Talk about making the most of your day! Our day started at 5am & ended around 11:30pm. The Expo was pretty good with Asics being the sponsor. Joe got me the Bart Yasso book & I bought arm sleeves. I’ve always wanted a pair & finally found some Asics arm warmers for $8! We stood in line with an Austrian runner who told us he was shooting for a 2:30-2:40 time. His name is Markus Poll. He’d done NYC’s marathon a couple times before turns out. He’s an Austrian police officer, races with some sort of team over there. I regret I didn’t take a pic with him but I did get one of him near the finish wearing black. He finished around the 2:41 mark. BTW, “Lion King” was super, duper awesome! If they had allowed photos I would have taken a ton of them. The costumes, stage, the talent…I just can’t say enough good things about that show. If you’re heading to NYC see it!

Saturday, Halloween: We got up early & took the bus tour. It lasted longer than the one Hannah, Cheryl, & I took in June ’08. This guy was named Jerry, a NYC park ranger, who does 2 bus tours a week. So, you can imagine the wealth of knowledge he had to give us. I think his mouth spewed NYC facts non stop the entire time. He was great! He was one of the first folks to spot Sully’s plane in the harbor. I didn’t take many photos on this tour since it was pretty much the exact one I had taken before but he did show us the building where Nicole Kidman lives. Ha! After the bus tour ended, we jumped on the subway for Chinatown & Little Italy. It had been a long time since I had been in a situation to where I could bargain with people like that. Fun!
Chinatown
Little Italy

I got the girls in the office some nice scarves, a swiss army watch for a office friend, & refrigerator magnets to hand out. Joe got Jessica a watch & some other things. It was pretty cool over there. We ate in Little Italy outside in a little café since it was 68 degrees on Halloween in NYC! I got pumpkin ravioli. It was good/different but left an after taste that drove me nuts for a while. We walked until the bottoms of our feet hurt, seriously. We took the subway back up to the Times Sq area & walked around, went to Niketown, watched the fireworks, & enjoyed the sights on the street. People dressed up everywhere. Some were walking around with their kids and/or pets dressed up. It was AWESOME! I started looking around for Yankee stuff for the TX nephews. There wasn’t just the marathon electricity in the air, there was baseball excitement!

Sunday morning we slept in a little & went to a café/diner for breakfast. We watched the first hour of the marathon on a TV in there then walked to Central Park. There was no problem at all with getting a view right on the fence. When the wheel chairs started coming through the excitement really got to me.The announcer was pretty funny. He kept giving updates on where the elite runners were in the packs. Truly amazing to see them come around the corner. I’ll never, ever forget seeing Paula Radcliffe floating in the air…sure she didn’t have a good race by her standards that day but us mere mortal, recreational runners were screaming her name. Derartu Tulu-the winner in front, then number 2, number 3, then Paula's feet way in the back. I had no idea I got this shot until I downloaded the pics tonight.
Moments later I thought I’d lose it when I saw Meb zip around the corner pointing at USA on his chest! The emotion of it all caused me not to get a good shot of him on my camera or on my cell. He was awesome to see! Then before we knew it there was Robert Cheruiyot! I almost didn't get him at all. ha! What a sight he was in his red! Then.....Ryan Hall...so fast & blurry! :)Then Brian Sell soon followed. I barely got the back of his legs so I'll leave that pic off. :(
We waited long enough to see our Austrian friend, Markus, then we left. I almost wish we had stayed about 10-15 mins longer because Joan Benoit Samuelson came through not long after that. Some of the celebrity runners included Dan Jansen (speed skater), Anthony Edwards & Ed Norton (actors), & Alanis Morissette (singer). There were several others but I can’t think of them now. The only person I knew personally from here running was Holly M. She did great with her 4:03:10 finish!
We headed to the Museum of Natural History which was a short walk just up the road. As a matter of fact that’s where all the meeting areas were set up. (Right in front of the museum.) Joe took more photos in there than I did, apparently. The museum was interesting. I'd promised myself I’d do something educational the next visit up & Joe was all about it too. At one point I screamed “Whoo Hoo!” in the museum when I got a text from Erin S. that the Titans had scored a touchdown. (So glad they finally got a win!!!) We spent about 5 hrs in the museum but didn’t really see everything. It was hilarious to hear folks whispering, “Where are the little people?” If you’ve ever seen the “Night at the Museum” movies, you know what I’m talking about.
After we left the Museum of Natural History, we took a subway ride down to 110th to look for “Tom’s Restaurant” (Seinfeld). For the record it’s on 112th & Broadway. Why I had 110th in my head, who knows…but we found it & it was way cool. Simple little diner made famous by Seinfeld.
We then headed by subway back to 42nd Street & Times Sq. I got a pic on the red stairs & in the outdoor seating that is now in Times Sq. From what I had read, I thought it was a bigger area than this but turns out they just basically shut down one lane of traffic. I like it. It made it a little easier to get around there.
Monday, Nov 2nd, we took the subway down to Battery Park for the Ellis & Liberty Island tours. The only difference I noticed was that Ellis has added a lot more personal items to the 3rd floor such as immigrant clothing, teddy bears, shoes, blankets, jewelry, etc… Things that families had handed down from their ancestors that came through Ellis Island. Always interesting but I will NOT go back there for a good while. 3 visits to Liberty & Ellis in less than 2 yrs is definitely enough for me for a very long time.

World Trade Center sculpture sitting in Battery Park. (temporarily)

We headed back to the Renaissance to get a late lunch/early dinner in Times Sq & to get our bags. Note to self: read the menu more closely because nobody needs a lb of sandwich meat in one sitting, seriously! I should have taken a photo of these sandwiches! You could have fed 3-4 people off one sandwich.

Below are pics of Times Sq (Recognize "Cake Boss" fro TLC?), Rockefeller Center, & Empire State Building.

Flying over NYC at night is breathtaking, especially with a full moon overhead. I could see Times Square blinking. I wonder how a pic would've turned out taken through the window of the airplane? Ummm...

I could go to the city every year for a few days & never get bored ever...thanks Joe. The next time I write about NYC, I hope it’s the 2010 race report from BOTH of us.

What will I do on the next trip besides run a marathon? I have a good mind to stick my head into Kleinfeld's Bridal & scream, "Just Say Yes to the Damn Dress". (It's on TLC, too...it's my Friday night addiction. ha!)

Next up is Thanksgiving & man is it fast approaching….heading back to Waterford, Michigan for some craziness with the cousins. Joe, the kids, & I are driving up this time around. I’m doing a 5k walk with Carrie & Patti, the Detroit Turkey Trot in the parade. Now to find an insane costume….uuuummmmmmm….Party City here I come…