NYC - Friday April 22 Adventures- 1 Kanak and 1 beauty in Da Big Apple

Saturday, April 23, 2016

What a great day yesterday was in New York – Times Square  We made the most of the day, considering that Brandi and I both were up by 5am.  Bodies time clock all of…lol!

Got my workout in and had my first taste of pork (bacon and sausage) in over 9 days..hmmm good…lol.  Even though Friday was Passover, sorry, needed to eat some bacon. It is so amazing how unhealthy our American Diet is…in Israel, we had all kines of fruits and veggies along with nothing fried for breakfast other than the vegetable omelet’s.  Brandi and I talked about making some Mediterranean style food moving forward.  I think I actually lost weight cause of all the walking, one of my shorts fits so easily now and my belt buckle is all the way to the end..lol. 

Anyway, got my workout in early, ate breakfast with Brandi in the lobby (included in room charge) and headed to Time Square,  Our hotel is located on W. 40 Street, and Times Square is on 45^th Street, like a 5 min walk..we are right in the thick of it.  So blessed and so cool.  We hung out where they drop the ball for New Years and was there early, like 8am and according to Brandi it was empty.  It was so cool to see the billboards and buildings and all the places you hear about and see on TV.  Our first stop was to Rockefeller Center, but before we got there we saw the Good Morning America filming going on and their recording studios.  It was pretty cool seeing all the people trying to get on TV and the excitement abound.  As we walked around, we noticed some beautiful tulips in a planter box near the Good Morning America studio..it just reminded us of Lori coming along with us on this trip.    

Got to see Radio Music City Hall next to the Rockefeller Center.  We headed to the Top of Rock Observatory Center.  It is 70 stories high, approximately 850 feet…we got there and it was not as crowded as it would be later on in the day. We got our tickets and took our pic on 1 of the 2 picture places..the first is a copy of where the famous pic of guys sitting on the construction beams, way up high during the construction of this huge building.  We then caught the elevator to the 67^th floor, a 40 second elevator ride..Lori would not have been happy with that ride.  Even had a light show in the elevator on the ceiling. We got through all the purchases, check in and elevator ride in less than 15 mins.  Amazing considering that thousands visited it daily.  As you enter the area, there are these posters that tell you what you will see, the one that stood out to me was the one that said we would be able to see 8.5 million people at one time…I was like wow.  The views were spectacular when we got to the 67^th floor, then you can go up 3 more floors, 69^th and 70^th..so beautiful.  So majestic, so God gorgeous.  Could see all of Central Park, about 10 blocks north.  Then to the south could see the Empire State building and Chrysler Tower, like 2-5 blocks away.  You could also see much of Brooklyn and Long Island to West and you could see World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey to the southeast.  It was gorgeous, God gorgeous.  Unreal.  It was not even crowded..maybe less than a 100 people on any floor.  We then got a 2^nd pic taken with both north and south views.  However, when we went to get the pics, the photo lady did not have the SD card in her camera and we were already down on the main deck.  It’s ok, they gave us the 5 pics from the construction beam for free, well sort of free, 2 we paid for, the other 3 was free.  We grabbed a small snack downstairs and headed to Central Park.  One thing that we were unable to do was to go and see the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, we had tried to get tickets, but were unable to..that’s ok. All else was great.  When we stepped outside the Rockfeller Center, there was tulips everywhere on the courtyard..it was really beautiful. 

We then headed to Central Park, and like in Israel, pan handlers are everywhere…same aggressiveness, just different items…on the streets, guys trying to sell bus rides, tickets, horse carriage and bike carriage rides (I think it was like $2.50 per minute for horse rides), all kinds of other stuff.  Central Park from top to bottom, 2.5 miles..if you were to walk around the edges, it is 6 miles.  It is really awesome.  We spent about 1.5 hours in the park: walking, talking, taking a look at all the beauty and skycape of the city line and tree lines.  It was so God gorgeous.  We made it about 1/3 through the park, maybe almost half, and sat down in a courtyard area called the Mall area…had a group of 4 guys singing some eclectic comedy music…pretty cool.  Had a bunch of bike ride tours going on…the bike riders can ride on the street and designated areas in the park, but they had to walk their bikes through here.  Behind the band had tulips once again..beautiful purple and white tulips and butterflies.  Lori was being represented everywhere.  We walked and sat at a few more spots, just taking the New York way of life in…it was a sunny day, lots of people in the park and all the hustle and bustle of big city life.

It was almost noon and we were a bit hungry.  We were recommended 2 places, Carnegie Deli with their pastrami sandwich and the other was Ellen’s Stardust Diner.  Our new found friends, Tom and Amy Webster told us about this great place, great NY style food and the servers all sing.  Each person working at this place are aspiring theater wanna be actors and actresses.  They can all sing and sing well.  From Phantom of the Opera, to Bruno Mars…it was amazing.  The food was ono and the entertainment was even better.  We were 2 for 2 on our choices this morning and it was such a blessings.  Carnegie’s was packed so this choice was a good one for Brandi and I.  It was now about 1:30pmish and we were just going to go hang in Time Square till we could buy theater tickets. 

The TKTS service at the Times Square, sells most of the major operas, theater and plays on Broadway and off Broadway at a discounted price.  Thousands of people wait everyday to take advantage of these discounted tickets.  It was early and I was in no rush to shop so I decided to wait in line…while Brandi went to go shopping.  I was #4 in line..woohoo..thank you Jesus!!!  People watched, checked FB and talked with people around me.  Brandi went back to the room about 2:30pm and I got our tickets for Fiddler on the Roof..it was chaos though buying these tickets.  Hundreds of people waiting in this one line, but then there also is another line that if you bought a ticket within a 7 day window period, you could stand in a preferred line next to our line with hundreds, if not 1000’s waiting.  They let this line go first..so I actually was not number 4, I was more like 74..lol..but I got our 2 tickets in about 15 minutes, and paid discounted prices @ 50%...but here is the kicker…we got 2^nd row from stage dead center…I normally don’t like sitting up close, but when we saw the seats later on..it was such a blessing.  I met Brandi back at the room and took a nap for like 2 hours. 

Prior to going to the show, we decided to go take advantage of being guests in the hotel that managed the Sky Room lounge, a hip bar on the 30^th floor of our building that had happy hour and a view of Manhattan looking northward.  The view was nothing compared to Rockefeller Center, but it was a nice lounge  The pupu’s were pretty good and we killed about an hour of time.  We headed back up to Time Square area to the famous Broadway Theater.  Fiddler on the Roof just came back into playing and it definitely tied into our Israel themed trip…We walked about 12 blocks to this famous theater and got seated within 10 mins.  The seats of the theater are not big boy comfortable but the view from the 2^nd row dead center was unreal.  I mean spectacular  I am not one for plays…when you give me a dark room, with a/c and a somewhat comfortable chair, I will be passed out within 10 minutes.  Lori can verify that the 2 plays she took me to Phantom of the Opera and Cats, I did not make it out of the 1^st hour..only Lion King did I stay up the whole time..Hakuna Matata…lol.  But this play based on a Jewish man and his family with 5 daughters..was so awesome. I have heard about it and apparently it was supposed to be read in high school, but I never have…but it was so awesome and tied into Passover, Jewish customs and “Tradition”…the main song and theme of the play…”Tradition”…its what caused the Bible time Jews to not believe that Jesus was not the Messiah, but just a prophet and to this very day, they still struggle with that.  What a great show to watch with so much culture that we just witnessed a few days earlier.  2.5 hours of great entertainment.   Thank You Lord for this blessing.

So we went 3 for 3 on the things that we wanted to do so far in NY.  We got back to the room at almost midnight and I was beat…ended up walking 14 miles today per my step o meter thing…about 1.5 miles of it was during my early morning workout, the rest was just from our adventures today.  I passed out in no time….didn’t wake up till 7:30am…that’s the most I slept at one time on this trip.  Thank You Lord. 

Well, today is our last day and we are going to go watch a Yankee game.  Looking forward to that.  Friday was a blessed day and a fulfillment to what I believe Lori had wanted us to do.  So blessed by everything.  Looking forward to today and then heading home tomorrow (Sunday). 

Thank  You Lord for everything!  The rest, the shows, the walking, the tulips, the food…everything.  Lord, thank You so much.  To You be the glory!!!

Love you all and God bless you all!!  Looking forward to seeing you all in a few days!!

Pictures having issues on Google Photo from Friday..will post what I can and will do a story movie when I get back of these last few days!!

Aloha from NYC!!