NYC - the madness

Well hello there.  After we realized the kidney stone wasn't, in fact, going to kill me, we decided to take a mini vacation in NYC.  We've been a handful of times now, and we try to visit about once a year if we can.  Since one of us is from the south and the other is from a little bit o'everywhere, it's always...an experience for us, but never one we've blogged about.

I figured I'd divide the trip up into a few posts, starting with The Madness of It All.  Let's face it, part of Manhattan's charm is its complete cynicism.  You just are NOT going to shock a New Yorker and now I see why.  Anyone who knows us will say that we don't exactly lolly gag about.  We tend to have a purpose (even on vacation) and a schedule and goals (even on vacation).  But I have been almost knocked to the ground by people before who have then yelled at me IN MY FACE for getting in their way.  We've seen people with just teensy weensy shreds of "clothing" on, that left - let's just say - nothing to the imagination.  We've seen celebs and national news anchors and the most obnoxious tourists and the most outrageous locals.  And it's all part of the reason why we love to visit but could never in a billion years live there.

Our pictures fail to capture the true essence, of, say, being on an open top bus tour led by a left-of-left-of center tour guide (if you know what I'm sayin) who intersperses his tour with show tunes, whoops, and YOU GO GIRL!  You can guess which of us loved it and which of us white-knuckled the side of the bus.  But, here are a few pics that we did manage to take:

A small portion of Times Square.  The Sephora store is where the infamous Virgin Records store used to be.  We can sound like Ole Timers and say that we used to shop there.

A day shot of the Square taken from the bleachers people pay thousands of dollars to sit on and watch the ball drop at New Year's.

A night shot.  The lights are so bright it still feels like the day.

This video game ad is bigger than our house.

This would be a Ferris Wheel inside the Toys R Us Store.  There was an unbelievable line to ride it.  There was also an enormous T Rex (from Jurassic Park) that moved and roared loudly at everyone.  Between that, the general hubbub and ALL THE CHITLINS, let's just say we were a tad out of our element.

Typical shot - actually it was a miracle shot taken in between a million taxis.

A "concrete canyon" shot.  More about this later.

The Mickey D's in China Town.  Incidentally, there was also a recurring ad in Times Square for China's main news network.  Um, wow.

Bryant Park, where they have the fashion shows in tents.  Also, as you can see, where the locals go to commune with "nature."  It's the size of a typical southern back yard, people.

A good shot of the top of the bus.  We're in Harlem - very cool.

We didn't take pictures of the Naked Cowboy or the Black Zionist group or the Wall Street Demonstrators or the risque ads or the crazy-looking people.  I mean, we don't want to look like tourists or anything.

G heard somewhere that you lose athletic ability about 5 times faster than you gain it.  Considering that I haven't been to the gym in like weeks and weeks, and then we walked all over the place, I have to agree.  We were walking up some stairs in the NY Public Library and I actually had to stop.  I leaned over against the wall and put my hand over my heart for good measure.  Oh, do I have miles and miles to go to get back into shape.

More to come about the architecture and the arts!