The Big Apple (day two)

At like 7 AM on Sunday, my family took a walk around the hotel, to see the sights and get acquainted with the businesses within a 20-minute-walk radius from our hotel. Our first "official" tourist attraction visited at New York?

Central Park.

Now, there are signs EVERYWHERE in this park stating that all dogs must be leashed, and that you must pick up 'after' your dogs. Simple to understand, ain't it? Well, I would have to say that there were at least 100 dogs in this park, no kidding. I only saw one dog in the entire park that had a leash on. Seriously....ALL of the dogs were running around, playing, sniffing, greeting the tourists, and just generally having a good time. It was really awesome, because they were all friendly...yeah. It made me happy.

I saw a sheltie that reminded me of Troy, and it made me think of my bubba. I really think that he would LOVE Central Park, because there was just so much happiness there.

We went to the duck pond, and there was this dude feeding the birds there. You could tell that the birds knew and trusted him, because they all flew straight towards him the second that he was within their sight. He told us that he feeds the birds every Saturday and Sunday...Apparently it is a tradition that his mother started.

Anywayz, Mom was taking a picture of me and Jason by the pond and he asked if he could take a picture of the entire family for us. He said he was a photographer. My initial response was the thought that he would take our EXPENSIVE camera and run. Fast. But, he seemed nice so we gave him the camera.

He turned out to be a nice guy. He took the pictures, and then made suggestions of other places that would be good backdrops for other great pictures.

We went to the Central Park Zoo...and amazingly enough, we were the FIRST people in line at the beginning of the day. It was kinda cool to be the first person to enter the zoo...hehe. It was a small zoo, but they animals were of high quality funniness. My favorite part was the penguins...there were at least 100 of these suckers, and they were absolutely hilarious. They would swim RIGHT up to the side of the aquarium, and then just sit there bobbing up and down, staring at you.

The worst part of the zoo was the fact that it was SOOOO cold. The tropical area was awesome though, because it was a building with a miniature rain forest within. It was hot, and it felt good.

We watched the sea lions get fed, and that was really cool. You all have seem shows like this on television, so I won't go into much detail. But still, it was awesome.

We had breakfast at some random cafe near the hotel. It was $36 for french toast, one egg, and one waffle. Plus hot chocolate, skim milk, and a bottle of apple juice. If you ask me, that is absolutely ridiculous.

Back at the hotel, we got changed for the play and then headed out. It was a ten minute walk to "Ring of Fire", which is the play that Lari is in. We watched the show, which was AWESOMENESS by the way. After that, we had a backstage tour with Lari, followed by dinner at the world famous Ruby Foo's. This place was really fancy, and we had no reservations.

It was packed, but we got in within a minute of entering the door. How? Of course! We told them that we were with a Broadway star. Of course, this was ENTIRELY true. How cool is that? Someone that I have known for 12 years is now on Broadway, knows me by name, and even sends me Christmas cards. WOOT! We instantly became VIPs at a very fancy schmancy restaurant.

The food was a mixture of Japanese-Chinese-Taiwaneese-anyother'eese' you can think of. It was expensive, but it tasted all right. I'm not a fan of this type of food, so I can't say that I would ever go back again...but oh well.

After leaving Lari behind, we walked to the Hershey factory. It was packed, and the food was waaaay too expensive. We continued our trek through Times Square, going through various shops and stores. I bought a t-shirt for myself, and searched for items to buy for Gary and his family. I found a shirt for him, but it was like $25. Sorry babe, but I didn't buy it. I plan to continue my search for gifts tomorrow...

Before returning to the hotel for the night, we stopped at the Carnegie Deli for cheesecake. Yes, I spent $8.75 for a piece of strawberry covered cheesecake. I meant to order cherry, but it tasted good anyway. I mean, it tasted extraordinary. This is the best cheesecake that I have ever tasted....I guess that this is why the cheesecake of New York is so popular.

We walked back to the hotel, and now here I sit. So, my plans for the rest of the night are to hopefully get a hold of my boyfriend, take a shower, and then hit the sack.

I don't have a sack to hit, so I guess I'll just have to punch my suitcase. Can you tell I'm tired? Like duh.