The Big Apple day 2-one busy day

After one day of walking in NY we were so flippin' sore. I knew I'd never make it through Wednesday with my feet hurting so bad so Tuesday night on the way home we stopped at a drug store and I had the good sense to get some feet cushions. Isaak on the other hand said he would just tough it out....ha ha. Oookaaay.

So Wednesday comes and we can barely roll out of bed. The feet cushions would be a life saver today, but the rest of my body was revolting against me, cursing me with every move I made. But, it's NY, and in NYC you walk, or take the subway. And since we were both so sore this morning we thought we'd try our hands at the subway.

We pull out our trusty subway map with all the lines and colors and letters, kiss our hotel goodbye for the day, and set off to the city down below the city....

going down....

after a few minutes of checking and rechecking and checking again to make sure we got on the right line, we stepped aboard...feeling very New Yorkie, but, uhhh, looking very touristy.

 on the subway! We totally rock.

And we made it to where we actually wanted to go...how awesome are we!

Behold...the Guggenheim. 

this place was an art piece in itself. This was the one place Isaak really wanted to see in NY so we circled our way up every.single.floor

and spent the next hour or so looking at a lot of these. This museum is stocked with some Picasso's, let me tell ya. There were camera nazi's lurking everywhere we went so Isaak ever so slyly took out his phone and sneaked this picture. Not that we needed a picture of a picture, but there's just something about being told "NO PICTURES!" that just begs to be defied.

After the Gugg we stumbled into this amazing church. Churches in NYC are something else. There will be skyscrapers bolting into the sky all around, and then right next to them will be a church. And not just any church. Not like the 'new build' churches you see everywhere else...these churches all look like this. Old. Towering. Jaw dropping. The kind of church you go in and then have to pick your mouth up off the floor before you drool all over the 200 year old stone. They're simply stunning.

after our little detour in the church we continued to make our way a few blocks over to Central Park. The Gugg is just a few blocks away from the East Dr. entrance right in the middle of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

it's massive, the reservoir and the park. Hard to believe this actually sits right in the middle of the city.

 (it was really windy, hence the crazy hair)

We walked a long way in Central Park.  It took roughly two hours for us to make our way from the East Dr. entrance down south to the 60th St. entrance. And we still only saw half of it.

There are lots of stone bridges and arches and little treasures tucked all over this park.

The fall colors were amazing. This was the happiest little tree! I love the bright red. We see so little of Fall colors in NE, and when we do they only last what seems momentarily, so I was soaking up every last drop of color I could while we walked.

 I made Isaak pose by the happy red tree too. He does, because he loves. :~)

The Great Lawn in its ever expansive greatness.

as we walked some more we saw this towering castle tucked cozily away between rocks and trees. The views from this castle/tower were something else.

view from the top of the castle.

 Finally make our way out of Central Park and hit up Serendipity (yes, the very one in the movie Serendipity with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack) to refuel for an hour. It must be said...the food was not that great. I would not go back for the food. BUT, the atmosphere and the frozen hot chocolate...oh yes I will! This place was so charming and whimsical.

the famous frozen hot chocolate. So rich. Like so so rich. But so so so so good.

Ooookaaaayy....this way I think. 

At this point we have one hour to make it to the Ed Sullivan Theater to pick up our free tickets to the David Letterman Show. We were told to pick them up between 2-3pm. But by 3:01, we're late. And we forfeit our tickets. So we were not going to be late. I was going to get my free ticket to that show.

Well the time did not appear to be a problem since we only had to go 14 blocks. But hey, it was 14 blocks and we had been walking alllll day, we were tired, so Isaak thought that since he was a pro at riding the subway we would hop on the line right by the restaurant and get dumped about 5 blocks away from the theater. Mmmm hmmmm. This is where things started to get a bit hairy.

We walk a few minutes to the station and are waiting for the train. It's taking its sweet loving time to show up. But giving us plenty of time to double check our trusty subway map. Isaak says that he is sure the next train is ours. But, it's taking a while so I mention just walking. No no, walking won't due, that idea is vetoed, so we stand and wait. Finally we board the subway train. It starts to move. But after a few minutes we notice it never stops.

"Isaak, you sure you got us on the right train?" 

"I think so." he says.

Oh great. We went from 'sure' to 'I think so'. And then quickly his 'I think so' turns into a big 'whoops'.

Not the right train. Figured that out when we got blinded by sunlight when we were suppose to be underground.

Nope. This train is headed for Queens, non-stop, Express.

We're trapped! This very claustrophobic feeling starts to sink in, I'm wanting to bail, but I can't, because we're on a flippin' express train.

Of all the times to get on the wrong train! Of all the times!

Well, nothing to do at this point but sit and wait and ride that train all the way across the river to Queens. Oh, and sit and fume silently. Playing over and over in my head when I recommended we walk, but didn't. Grrrr.

We make it to Queens after 15 minutes or so. Disembark the train. Wait for another one. Ask somebody this time if the train we are waiting for is in fact headed back to Manhattan. It is. But oh, turns out this one is not an express. It's a local. So now we have to wait for it to make all its stops. Nice.

I give up. We're not going to make it to pick up our tickets. By the time we finally make it back we get out close to the Times Square station. Isaak looks at me, knowing I'm seriously mad and wanting to finish the vacation on my own at this point and says, "we're running there. We have 10 minutes. Keep up with me."

Ppsshhhh. Yeah. Right. Run? Uh uhhh. We were like 5 stories underground and Isaak starts running up the stairs, and I do, I do make an honest effort at first. I run up that first stair case just to get to a platform to see I have to run up four more. Mmmm, no thanks. Isaak is at the top waiting impatiently for me, sees me, waves to me to hurry up and I yell back at him, "I'm Tired!" And that was the last I saw him as he bolted down the street and started making a vain attempt to run 11 blocks in less than 10 minutes to get our tickets.

Yeah, I never thought he'd make it so I just started strolling along. Window shopping as I walked. Slowly. Still making my way to the theater but in a very nice slow manner. I wasn't going to run for something I new I'd never make it in time to get.

And then, Isaak calls me. It's 3:01. "Where are you?! "They will let us have our tickets if you hurry up and get here in the next two minutes!"

Aww man! He did make it. And now I have to run?! Crap. (this kinda just makes me madder at this point, because, well, I was just crabby due to the last hours events.)

So, I man up. And I start running. I don't know how many blocks I ran, I think I was only like 5 blocks away at this point, but after having been walking non-stop for two days, my legs felt like they were ready to split open.

(my feet on the other hand were holding up pretty well thanks to the trusty insoles I got last night)

I make it. They give us our free tickets. I think I wouldn't have given them a choice if they'd try to tell me no at this point.  And the show was amazing! After I took a few minutes to compose myself, to swallow my pride and not be mad at Isaak anymore, I was ready to enjoy myself.

The shows pages briefed everyone in line about the do's and don'ts while filming.

"Do laugh as loud as you can!"

"DON'T gurgle scream 'WAHHHHH' like you're at a Justin Beiber concert".

Rats. I was really wanting to bust out my gurgle scream too. 

The band was so energetic and played for us non-stop during the breaks they took in between guests. (one of whom was Jake Gyllenhall!) It was so cool to see what goes on behind the scenes. Like when they rolled away the "city" background to reveal shelves stacked with plastic trash cans and a wheel barrow. Who knew?!

The show got done filming late, it was 6pm when we left the theater, and we still had to get back to our hotel, change, and then come all the way back here to watch Wicked on Broadway at 8pm. We were dead tired. Like we could barely move. Dinner was out of the question. So we get back to the hotel and flop down for 10 minutes, call the girls, and then got up and get dressed. Even though, I don't know why I even bothered dressing up, I was so tired I wore my black flats instead of my heels, it was so cold I never ended up taking off my jacket, even in the theater, so I could of been wearing sweats!

Wicked. The seats were pretty good. The singing was amazing, loved the story, the characters. Everything. Except the camera nazi. We had a serious camera nazi right next to our seats actually threatening people against taking pictures saying it was against the law. Clearly she took her job very seriously. So these were the lone two pictures we got from the Gershwin Theater.

It's after 10pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so on our way back to the station we stopped by a very fancy hot dog cart and I grabbed a pretzel for our after theater dinner. Which, upon sinking my ever so hungry teeth into, I wouldn't recommend eating at ten o clock at night. Not fresh. Really really not fresh.

but we couldn't not grab something to eat at a hot dog stand while in NYC. It would have just felt wrong, leaving, and never having stopped by and eaten there. They just scream New York.

It was a great day. Not factoring in the slight mishap we had for an hour in the afternoon, it was awesome. Great 2nd day in the Big Apple.