Day 4 of Fun in NYC!

Yes I know, I've been home 3 weeks and I'm still not done blogging about it! :p

Thursday, Day 4 was the first time Kimberly & I were going to make the trip into the city without Linda. What started out as a peaceful morning changed for Kimberly when she realized she lost her drivers license sometime during the week. The last she remembers having it was at the airport in Tampa on Monday. So panic started to set in because she wouldn't be able to fly home on Saturday without a picture ID. There was nothing we could do about it right then, she was still hoping to find it somewhere. I started to call cab's for someone to pick us up and I had to call 4 places before I could find a cab. I told them the address we were at and just said we needed to go to the train station that goes to NYC. So a few minutes later we were in a cab... which turned out to be the best cab ride ever! The cabby was also a comedian at night. He talked and told us jokes the whole way! I'm sure he got some new material too after we told him why we were there in NYC and how many times we went to see Grease! :)

So he pulls up to the train station and I looked out the window. This wasn't the same place we went the first two days. I asked him if he was sure this was the train station? He laughed and said yes! And I told him again, this isn't the place we need to go! So he called his boss who then figured out I needed to go to a different train station. So by this time we were getting really close to the departure time of the train. So he drove fast and still told jokes all of the way. We made it about 5 min early. I told Kimberly, go over to the machine and get our tickets and I'll go over to the donut shop to get us a donut and coffee for her since we didn't have breakfast. I met her outside and she looked down and only had one ticket in her hand! She had lost one of the tickets just from the machine over to me! She then really paniced. It just wasn't her day. So the train is sitting there... we are thinking we'll miss it and have to wait 2 hours for the next one. So we run back over to the machine and buy another ticket! We run up to the train and the doors are all shut. OMG why weren't they seeing us and opening the doors? Finally another lady came over and said the trains doors were closed because the train was delayed 20 min and they won't let anyone go on board that early. WHEW all of that rushing and the train was running late! LOL

So we walked back down by the donut shop just to walk and relax and there on the ground was the other ticket that Kimberly had lost! So now we had 3 tickets! So I told her to stand over by the machine, when someone came to buy a ticket sell them the extra. That worked!

A few minutes later we were on the train, having our donut and trying to relax.

The weather on Thursday was really nice and sunny. Our first stop was Central Park. I really wanted to go to Strawberry Fields and to the Dakota.

Jessica had me on a mision to visit a NYC Firestation and get her a t-shirt. So we asked someone where the nearest firestation was, she said oh just down the road and make a right. So we walked for about 30 min and asked someone else. They said just walk up to the next street and it will be on down there on the right. So we walked to the next street and walked for a good 45min until we came to a 911 dispatch center :( No firetrucks there!

So we kept walking, we had no idea where we were but we could see the tall buildings ahead so we knew we were walking in the right direction to get back to town. Probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but we were fine.

So we get back to town and we are on the corner of Central Park again. We start to walk a little and this nice young man stops us and asks if we want a ride on his bicycle. He had a bike hooked up to a 2 seater trailer type thing. So we talked to him for awhile, he knew where there was a firestation and said it would be $30 to get us there. So off we went riding, which was really a lot nicer than all of that walking! He talked the whole time while we were riding, pointing out all of the points of interest. He asked us if we went through Central Park and I told him we just went to Strawberry Fields and then walked on the outside the rest of the time. So he said he would just take us through the park on the way to the firestation. He stopped for a moment at all of the touristy areas and explaned about it and let me take pictures. He was a great guy! He just got out of the service and was going to college.

This is the fountain in the opening of "Friends". They were getting ready for a Fall Festival, that is why there are crates of pumpkins there. They were also setting up for the NYC Marathon.

We finally arrive at the firestation to have them get a call, the doors opened, the firemen piled in the truck and away they went. The captain was still there so we talked with him for a while. He was very nice and let us take pics of their dept, etc. He said we could take a pictures of everything except their memorial wall. They had 12 firefighters die in the line of duty on 911. Very sad. He had two t-shirts to select from so I called Jess to see which one she wanted. Oh course she said, Can I have them both? So she got both of them and then he gave me one of their patches since she is also a firefighter. Kimberly also has a nephew that is a Firefighter so she got him a shirt and patch too.

Then off we went to find something to eat. We knew we wanted some real food since we hadn't had that much to eat all week. We found a really cool deli and we split a Ruben Knish. mmm it was so good and so big! It cost $27 and then they charged us $3 to split it! Only in NYC! There was enough corned beef on it to make lunches for a week!

On our way back to Times Square I found the Naked Cowboy! I still can't believe this guy stands there in the cold in his Tightie Whities! 00ps :)

You never know what you will see on the streets of NYC!

Next stop was Virgin Records. We walked in and there was a huge picture of Ace's album cover!

That's me standing behind it. I was too short so Kimberly had a good idea to find something to stand on. Had to go to the checkout counter and beg a store clerk to let me use a crate that was behind the counter. She wasn't too thrilled about it but she handed it to me anyway.

The rest of the day we shopped a little in the stores in Times Square and then made our way down to the theatre.

Of course the show was just fantastic again! Day 4 and I still haven't seen all of the show! For some reason my eyes stay focused on Kenickie the whole time. ;-)

We got to talk with Ace before the show for about 10 minutes and then after the show he invited us backstage.

After being backstage with us, Ace went out and greeted all of the fans that were waiting for him. He just loves to meet his fans and always stays and signs everyone's playbills and also takes pics with anyone who wants one. How many celebrities do you know that do that?

On our way to the train station we decided to stop and have a drink or two at O'Lunneys. It was a very nice Irish sports bar so I was able to see the end of one of the Rays games!

Day 4 over... stay tuned for day 5.. hopefully it won't take me another week to write it!