Thursday, September 16, 2004
Times Square Here We Come!
After Steph and I arrived at the hotel, got checked in, and settled a bit in our room, we decided to take off on a walk down towards Times Square to find something to eat - we were both starving by that point.
On the way, Steph pointed out the building where John Lennon lived and where he was shot along with the Strawberry Fields area of Central Park. I was rather surprised since I always had the impression that his residence was more on the outskirts of the city and kind of tucked away from things rather than off a main drag. When we got close to Times Square and I saw the Sony Megatron billboard television, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. When you see those sorts of things in pictures and images on a television screen when you haven't ever seen them in person, the pictures and images tend to give a 'larger than life' sort of impression. I noticed this same phenomena with many of the places I visited in France and England too. Sure I was impressed by them, just not as much as I thought I would be.
Steph and I ended up stopping at a TGI Fridays to eat (I swear they were on every corner - about as plentiful at the Duane Reade drugstores). The one thing I really liked was that it was in an older building and built up rather than out as they are here where we have lots of space. This was one thing in particular (other than the traffic) that reminded me of the time I lived in London. I told Steph NYC was what I would call London on steroids and uppers since some of the shops like the Virgin Mega Store (one of my favorite places) doesn't close until midnight even on weekdays whereas in London 9 or 10pm brings about close at most places (or did when I was there last).
Our meal ended up costing almost double what it would in Des Moines but boy was it tasty! The portion size also justified the price too. One would have to work to eat that much food in one sitting. Although we ended up sitting in a bit of a draft, the waitstaff was friendly and our bellies were happy and full. :)
Once we were done eating, we wandered about some more going into the Planet Hollywood boutique and Virgin Mega Store then Steph got some pics. We both got thirsty and went to find something to drink. Now for those of you who don't know Steph, she is a total Cherry Pepsi addict. Unfortunately said drink was not overly plentiful for some reason so she found herself having to settle for regular Pepsi more often than not. Thankfully there was a Duane Reade close as the first stop we made didn't have anything which was cold.
When we came out of the shop, we decided it was time to start heading back to the hotel as it was getting rather late and we were kind of tired after traveling all day. At first we were just going to walk up the street which was just a couple of blocks down from the one that brought us to the area but once we noticed the street we were on was full of peepshow parlor type places, we decided we would just go back up to the other street. LOL We could have picked a better side street to get back up there though. The one we walked had trash bags piled over three feet high lining it and it smelled like a mixture of spoiled milk and fish - YUCK!
Steph and I finally got back to the hotel around one and according to her pedometer, we had walked between five and ten miles just in the few short hours we were out. WHEW! What a day!
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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