New York City, Day I, 22.Apr.2010

We flew into JFK Airport at about 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 22. It was perfect for me, because I slept most of the flight. I felt great. It's probably a one hour drive to the hotel under regular circumstances, but we got to the hotel at about 10 a.m. It was a 1.5-2 hour ride. The Queensboro bridge was closed, so the cabbie was trying to go around it. He ended up going in circles several times, and we had to wait in TONS (!) of traffic anyway. Thankfully, the cab fare from the airport is a flat amount of $45 + tolls. We found out later that President Barack Obama was in town. The prior blog includes that story..

To peak your interest - Dennis & my activities for this day were:

1. Tenement Museum attempt
2. President Obama's motorcade

3. David Letterman Show ticket pickup
4. Sheraton Hotel to kill time and watch guests heading to the NFL Draft
5. David Letterman Show taping
6. Walk from 53rd and Broadway to 75th and Broadway to hotel

-Columbus Circle and Alice Tully
Concert Hall along the way

7. Dinner at Manhattan Diner with Dennis' mom, Janet

We got to the Beacon Hotel and left our luggage, and headed out to do some things. We won tickets for David Letterman Show later that night (they called me and asked me a very easy trivia question). They HAD to be picked up between 2 and 3 p.m.

We went downtown to the Lower East Side, to see the Tenement Museum. I was hoping to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge as well, but we didn't end up doing that. The subway is my favorite form of transportation in NYC. Over the years, I have finally learned (well, DECIDED this when I was there in 2004) that the subway is the best thing for my short attention span. It was great going there and taking cabs every single place we went...but, the subway beats it all. It's nice to see the sites and the buildings and the places you hear about on every single corner in every single block. Since EVERYTHING is in NYC, everywhere you look there is something to see...but, even so, I'd rather get to my destination than chance getting in NYC traffic. We got off the subway (#1) and had about a mile to walk to the museum. We got to the museum and realized they had scheduled tour times, which weren't going to work with our Letterman ticket schedule. We left and figured we would go back there later on the trip, which we did on Monday Apr 26. Next we had our "Obama experience".

We took the subway to midtown, so that we could end up at Letterman (W. 53rd and Broadway) at 2 'o clock. We ate at the Heartland Brewery right in the most tourist-y part of the city (Times Square/Theater District/Broadway). It was fine, though. It wasn't wonderful, but good. I had buffalo chicken spring rolls (picture, right) served with sauces of blue cheese and buffalo wing sauce. They were definitely yummy, but just bar food.

We went and picked up tickets to see Dave. We had time to kill so walked over to the Sheraton Hotel one block over from the Ed Sullivan Theater. There were many families there checking in, that were obviously going to the draft later that night. The first round of the draft was right down the street from there at Radio City Music Hall. There were families with special guest NFL stickers, and larger-sized (many black) young men...I like Sheratons/Westins/W Hotels and we stay at them often. We earned an hour of loitering in their lobby until Letterman's taping began. Like I say, the NFL Draft-related people watching there was priceless. :)

Dave's guests on 22.April.2010 were David Spade, Broken Social Scene (music), and the current head of the EPA (Lisa Jackson). Jackson was there because it was also Earth Day. It was fun. Dennis and I both agreed that we don't need to see Letterman live again. It was, without question, much more entertaining when we were there in 1998. The stage was much more cluttered and view obstructed this time.

The taping ended by about 5:45. We decided walking to the hotel would be just as easy as getting on a crowded subway at rush hour. It was a beautiful, nice, fun, site-filled walk!! We walked from W. 53rd and Broadway to our hotel on W. 75th and Broadway. The blocks are actually very short heading that direction in Manhattan. On our walk, we passed Columbus Circle. I wanted to see the remodel: Time-Warner Center...the mall, Jazz at Lincoln Center...I didn't need to go in the mall (which we ended up doing two days later for dinner, when we ate dinner at Whole Foods :), but it was nice to see the renovation. Dennis salivated at the cool huge Apple store...I was excited to see Alice Tully Hall, so got that taken care of on that first day's walk as well. (I saw an hour on Charlie Rose about Alice Tully and it's remodel and what an amazing piece of architecture it is.) We walked by Lincoln Center buildings...the Metropolitan Opera (that's it, just above).

Dennis' mom and I wanted dinner, so the two of us went to Manhattan Diner. I ate there several times when I stayed at the Beacon in 2004...it's my favorite kind of diner. The epitome of a diner!!!