Monday day 3- Dumb and Dumber

Well, we got up rather late, I couldn't sleep last night. I got up and exercised, then we got ready to go on our hop on hop off tours. I was really excited to go on them.

Here is us on our first subway ride. The station as well as the train is usually much more crowded. I think it is because it is the station near our apt. which is almost all residential.


The hop on hop off bus is a double decker bus that takes you on 4 loops around Manhattan and Brooklyn. The forecast for the day was rain, at first we were sad about it, but then after we were on the bus we were glad. We only felt a couple of drops, and the cloud coverage with a slight breeze, made it perfect for us fair weather people. The first loop was pretty good. It was of uptown, Manhattan. Then we ate lunch at some corner restaurant. Mine was a goood salad, dads was a mediocre sandwich. Then we got on the subway to go to the next loop-Brooklyn. I thought I knew the right subway, but we foolishly didn't take Lizzie's great subway map, MISTAKE. We even asked for help, but the actual subway people assume too much and don't' know how to communicate. We learned 4 subway changes later, to only ask locals on the subway. Hence the dumb and dumber. First we got on a local stop subway, the right one, but the stop he told us to take never showed up. So we get off, ask another employee, and he tells us to take a certain subway, we take that and then realize we aren't going the right way. We go back to the same guy again, and get on the express, and we go and go and go, and finally ask some locals and they tell us that we are on the wrong subway and that we are in Brooklyn. Way past where we were supposed to be. They the tell us the right subway to take and two trains later we are where we are supposed to be. Needless to say our taking the subway instead of the bus because it would save us so much time, failed miserably. Steve doesn't really like the subway, maybe because of all the things he has heard, and maybe the guy peeing against the wall right after we got down there. I explained that the reason we got lost was because we didn't have the map!!! After all that we decided not to take the Brooklyn loop after all.
This is a pic of the temple amidst all the hubbub!

We went through Harlem, it was actually nicer than I thought it would be. This is the Apollo,this is where most of the famous blacks were discovered along with Buddy Holly. It was much smaller than I thought it would be. Most of the theaters are small, even the ones downtown.



They really do have these horse drawn carriages you see on TV. Steve and I wondered how anyone would want to though, because they carry thier poop along with them. The smell even from up on the bus wasn't very nice!!



We were passing central park, and I wanted you to see how neat it is, this is a very small part of it. It is 2 1/2 miles long and about 3-4 blocks wide. I also put this in here to show how careful Steve is when he doesn't want to take pictures.



Here are my artsy pics of the empire state bldg.

My favorite

Even though I don't know if I will ever be able to shop here, (Steve is afraid for me to be w/o him) I had to at least document that I was there. :-( You can't read the sign in this little pic, but it says fashion district.


An interesting thing about the fashion district- a long time ago women weren't aloud to shop in New York City by themselves, they always had to have a man accompany them. So all the wealthy women of New York got together and bought up a mile of New York and filled it with womens clothes. That way they could go shopping w/o an escort! Maybe that's what I need an escort!!

Typical New York streets- just like you see on TV.



We're still on the bus.

We decided to take the downtown loop which was the main fun stuff anyway. I loved that one, but as we neared the end, it was starting to be repetitive and the main stuff we had seen, and it was rush hour. We were crawling at a snails pace. We had a dinner reservation, and I felt like I was in a movie, I said to Steve that I thought it was time to get off and walk. So we did, and got to our destination just 5 blocks away, at a good time.

We ate at a really nice restaurant, we were told about on the plane. It was Osteria Al Doge. It was in the theater district and Italian. It was good.



We then decided to brave the subway again, walked 3 blocks to that station and got on the right one. The fun part of that was that we walked through the theater district. It was neat to see all the Theaters, and especially two of the ones that we were going to.

We are home now watching a little TV before bed.

Amy, dad loves his shorts and sandals, it wasn't weird for him at all!

Tomorrow we are planning on walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We love you all!!