I *heart* New York - Day 1 and 2

My trip to NYC started out with me, standing on the platform at the Amtrak station and a drunk homeless woman standing on the other side of the tracks yelling "You just get on that train cracker!! That's right, cracker bitch, get on your train!!"

This was NOT in New York, by the way. I was still in my hometown. The actual train ride was not nearly as exciting. I arrived at Penn Station and checked into my hotel and decided I was really hungry. The New Yorker hotel has a great diner downstairs called the Tick Tock Diner - it is open 24 hours a day and I've never had anything there that wasn't good.

DAMN I was in the mood for a BLT so that's what I had for dinner. After that, believe it or not I was really tired so I went to bed early that night.

The next morning I got up early and went to the Natural History Museum. I walked by all the windows at Macy's on my way to the subway. They really are incredible. I was one of those gawking tourists standing on the sidewalk with my mouth gaping open.

The museum was amazing and HUGE. I didn't see even close to everything in the museum before I was starving and needed lunch. The museum was not very crowded either. There were several school groups, but they could be easily avoided and I found myself in many of the exhibits completely alone. It was just me and the security guard in the hall of gems, which was one of favorite exhibits. I love sparkly, what can I say?

After lunch it was time for shopping. I made my way back to Times Square and ventured into the giant Toys R Us. I have to say, it was crowded but not nearly as bad as I expected. I got a cheetah for Lisey and some legos for Marc. The line was long but moved so fast I felt the need to tell my cashier how impressed I was. Seriously, I've waited longer than that at my local Toys R Us with one person in front of me.

People watching is one of my favorite activities and Times Square is the best place in the world to do it. I settled myself into a window seat at Starbucks with a coffee and a slice of banana chocolate chip bread for the next hour or so, just watching the people pass by.

I had a few hours before my sister's train arrived, so I decided to take a nap. Aaaaaaaaaah, it felt nice. Once my sister joined me, our first order of business was FOOD.

New York is fun to visit with my sister Sara because she lived there and worked on Broadway and she knows all the good places to go that are not just for tourists. We decided on Mexican and she took me to Tacocita.

Lord almighty, that was some good eating. I had tamales, one chicken and one pork and BOTH fabulous. And the guacamole? I don't really like guacamole but I was scraping the bowl with the last remaining shards of chips to get it all.

After dinner we went to meet one of Sara's friends for drinks. She works on Curtains, so we grabbed a table at the Atrium in the Marriott Marquee and waited. I spent about an hour just watching the elevators go up and down. Okay that sounds kinda stupid, but seriously - these elevators are really cool. I felt like I was in a space port.

My other favorite activity of that evening was watching the mom and dad next to us downing several bottles of wine while their essentially unattended two boys (I am guessing 6 and 8 years old?) went apeshit all over the bar. I found it extremely entertaining but the bartenders didn't seem to enjoy it quite as much.

I learned very quickly that it is wise to order a frou frou drink in a frou frou bar. The Irish coffee I got first was awful. Really awful. So I got one of their signature drinks - a pear martini and Ooooooooh, that was tasty.

It was getting to be past midnight by then and I am old so I was ready for bed. We walked back to the hotel and I totally crashed. I forgot how much walking there was to do in New York!!