TGIFri Day In The City

We left Thursday night, we got the tickets so long ago that the original flight we were on was no longer flying so we got bumped to a later flight….which meant we didn’t get into the city until that much later.  Originally we were planning on having time to go out on Thursdsay but by the time we got to the city it was almost 1:30 am….

Next morning I woke up hungry because the only food we’d had was some munchy things, so I nudged The Boyfriend and said “I’m hungry.” To which he replied, “Well go out and find some.” At first I was a little taken back, but then I realized…It’s New York City on a BUSINESS DAY!!!!  So I threw on my jeans and a shirt and went out in search of food.

It wasn’t hard to find, right across the street were all of these street vendors, one guy had a fruit stand set up, 3 bananas for a dollar, 2 apples for a dollar, a bunch of grapes for a dollar, the kind of stuff you could grab and eat on the go.  Next to him was a guy selling bagels, croissants and coffee, right next door was a guy selling fruit salad and fruit smoothies and getting set up next to him was The Soup Guy…it was fabulous.

So I gathered up our breakfast and headed back to the hotel, only gone 15 minutes not too bad, and I had food in tow, including hot chocolate from Starbucks!

After we gathered our senses we headed out for the day, our goal:  Meeting up with my cousin at The Brooklyn Museum.  Walking out of the hotel we took a left and two blocks over was Times Square and 10:00 am on a Friday – WOW, so many people!  We took a left on The Avenues of America and started walking south and we ran into Prospect Park and then walked by the New York Public Library on our way to Grand Central station where we bought 7 day metro cards and grabbed the F train to Brooklyn.

About 40 minutes later we ended up in Brooklyn where The Boyfriend surprised me by giving me a walking tour of his old neighborhood when he used to live there.  It was very cool to see where he used to hang out.  We walked around Prospect Park, saw the Grand Army Plaza and walked to The Museum.

We met up with Cuz, we had a very warm welcome since the last time we met we were both very small children and now we’re <<cough>> years old.  We chose the Museum because of the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, we got a bonus because there was an installation by Ron Mueck.  We grabbed a bite to eat at the museum, good because we were starving, that breakfast I had foraged from the streets had worn off about 30 minutes before.  Lunch gave us a great chance to catch up on basically EVERYTHING in our lives!

We enjoyed the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, if you know here you know what she does so I don’t need to explain.  The really interesting part of the visit was the Ron Mueck exhibit.  I had read about this guy a while ago so I was really excited to see his work, it’s difficult to explain here’s a good example this woman is totally lifelike, hair, fingernails, the mucus in her eyes, everything is so real….but as you can see in the picture that’s a woman sitting in a chair next to her, she’s HUGE.  Here’s some examples, This guy was so creepy I couldn’t look him in the face, here’s really good scale for the Lady in Bed.

After the museum we parted ways but promised to chat later in the evening after the show.

We ran back to the city, did some quick shopping and went back to the hotel to have a quick Cha-Cha Nap!  Oops we overslept, so got around and ran out the door.  We stopped at the deli on the way out (who knew that this would soon become our favorite eatery in the city) to grab a quick bite to eat and then off to the Theater to see A Chorus Line, we had both seen this show before but we were excited about it!  

We got to the theater with the rest of the audience, I’d forgotten how “electric” Broadway was, it’s so different when you go here in Chicago, you feel so disconnected from the performance.  We had perfect seats for the show, a perfect view!  The show was amazing, I don’t feel a need to review it because there are enough other reviews out there about it.

After the show we met up again with Cuz and had glass of wine at her hotel room before heading out to the bars.  It took us a while to find the first bar and when we got there, there was a line – Fuck!  Oh well, it is New York, right….so we went in search of another bar and tripped upon a different one…finally a safe haven – a gay Bar!  We found our way to the front door through all of the Smokers and headed to the bar.  We stayed for way too long and decided it was time to go home!  We walked out of the bar and headed towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  Well it really wasn’t a tunnel it was Times Square.

It’s overwhelming, even at 1:30 in the morning, lights everywhere but no noise, or not a lot of noise, compared to the day.  Even though we were ones of thousands we felt as though we were alone, it was creepy and cool all at the same time.

You need to go to Times Square, mere words can’t describe it!