The Big 3-0 in the Big Apple

A week ago at this time, we were on our way to the airport to head to NYC for a long weekend. Saturday was my 30th birthday and Jim agreed to take me on a getaway to celebrate. Having only been to New York twice before (both times on one day bus trips with no overnight stay), it was our first chance to get a real feel for the city. And I LOVED it. It was a perfect way to celebrate the occasion. We arrived Friday evening and departed Monday evening, and in those 3 days, we packed a LOT in. See for yourself...

The Raddisson Lexington, where we stayed, a few blocks from the Chrysler building in Midtown Manhattan.
The hotel lobby

Our tiny room (this was the first of 2 rooms we stayed in there, and the second one was bigger, but it's a long story)...

On Friday night, we headed to Lombardi's Pizza in Soho, the oldest Pizzaria in New York (opened 1905). Don't know that I'd ever had coal oven pizza before. It was delicious.

After dinner we headed over to Times Square. Take note of the photo bar at the top of the blog. Those are separate photos that Jim took while in Times Square and then used Photoshop to create a panorama. Pretty cool, huh?

Here's a quick video panorama as well...

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Saturday was the big day! Although the weather prediction was for rain (as seen here), it ended up being nice all day with not one raindrop, so we lucked out...

After hitting up the in-hotel Starbucks, we met our guide in the lobby and headed out on our private tour through Real New York Tours. Although it ended up being pretty history-based, we still saw some interesting stuff. Here's George Washington in front of Federal Hall (once the Capitol building).

The N.Y.S.E...

Front view of the Stock Exchange...

This was our first visit to Ground Zero which right now is pretty much a construction site. This is the new Freedom Tower going up. We were able to visit the Memorial Preview Site where they had models of what the area will look like when completed

One more shot of the Freedom Tower going up...

At Washington Square Park (you can see the Empire State Building through the arch)...

All ready to go out to dinner at the River Cafe in Brooklyn...

My Brooklyn Bridge dessert complete with candle and Happy Birthday plaque (made from chocolate of course)... No, they did not sing, thank goodness.

At our table... I really loved this place.

Outside the restaurant... It was so cute. After dinner, enjoying the view from outside the restaurant...

After dinner, we walked back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was something everyone should experience once in their life. I wanted to go for a celebratory beverage, so we got changed and headed over to Rockefeller Center and went to the 'Rink Bar' which as you can guess, is set up where the ice skating rink is in the winter. We each had one delicious but very expensive drink. Ask me about this!

30 Rock...

From Rockefeller Center, we hopped over to Radio City for a few minutes...

What a great Birthday!

On Sunday morning, we hopped on the Subway (we did a LOT of subway riding- practically pros now) and made the hour long trip out to Coney Island. First stop, Nathan's, an institution in the world of Hot Dogs (home to the annual National Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th).

Next stop, Luna Park on the Boardwalk, as we made our way to the Cyclone. Love this shot...

Looking at the beach from the Boarwalk. Was surprised to see a "real" beach in NYC.

The famous Cyclone, a Roller Coaster mecca...

Waiting in line...

If you've never ridden this, I can't quite explain it. I was expecting it to be tame, but it was not at all. The drops were fast and steep and the whole thing was much more intense than the Thunderbolt at Kennywood (my gold standard in wooden coasters). I still like the Thunderbolt better, but this is certainly an interesting ride...

After we got back from Coney Island, we headed to Toy Tokyo in the East Village so Jim could check out their Robot selection. He found a tin friend to bring home. Next stop was the Mac Store on 5th Avenue. You can hardly see it, right? This huge glass box is all that sits above ground, with the actual store under the street.

We had some time to kill so we strolled around a bit and stumbled across a Bastille Day Festival with lots of yummy french food vendors.

Here's Jim enjoying a crepe...

I couldn't pass up a strawberry tart from Payard. Too delicious...

Next on the agenda was Circle Line Harbor Lights Cruise, so we headed down to the piers...

The boat was nothing fancy but the tour was great...

Now this was a cool looking boat...With the tour leaving dock at 7pm we had great sunset lighting for some nice shots...

Love how this one has a red, white and blue sky...

Of course, the Brooklyn Bridge...

At the bottom and to the right of the bridge, you can see the back of the River Cafe where we had dinner on Saturday (it's actually on a barge)

This one's the Manhattan Bridge...

After the cruise, I insisted we visit Juniors in Time's Square for a piece of their famous cheesecake...

So worth it - a great way to end the day...

On Monday morning, we rode the Subway to Herald Square for a stroll through Macy's... This Macy's had no less than four, yes four Starbucks INSIDE the store. Can you believe it?

Love those wooden escalators...

Next on Jim's agenda was a stop at a great guitar shop, so we headed to Rudy's in Time's Square and it did not disappoint. They had a large selection for being a fairly small place. They also had some vintage guitars on display that were for sale. If only we had $29,000, we could have brought one home! :)

One more pass by Rockefeller Center on our way to the next destination...

Which was Central Park. Here's the whimsical Alice in Wonderland Statue...

Miniature sailboats on the pond...

Taking a break...

We wandered through Shakespeare Garden...

It's strange that it can be so quiet in the park when the city is bustling just beyond it's boundaries...

After enjoying Central Park, it was on to the subway and then the bus to head back to the airport. It was sad to leave but our legs had reached their maximum limit on walking for 3 days. I don't think I could think of many better ways to spend celebrating my 30th. Thanks to Jim for putting up with my plan and going along happily with every minute of it!

Jim's Concert Corner...

Last weekend we ventured out to the Melon Arena to catch the James Taylor and Carole King concert. We have seen James Taylor many times before, and he's always money in the bank, performance-wise. However, I had seen him on several TV appearances lateley, and he wasn't quite up to snuff (gasp!), so I wasn't sure what to expect this time around. Plus, I can't say that I'm a Carole King fan, so I wasn't anticipating this JT concert as much as previous shows.

Titled the Troubadour Reunion Tour, the show is a reuniting of the two singer/songwriter legends. The idea for the tour was conceived after a series of six performances Taylor and King gave at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 2007 to celebrate the famous venue's 50th Anniversary. The shows sold out immediately, and got rave reviews from fans and critics. For the new tour, they were also joined on stage by their original bandmates guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, famous in their own right as "The Section."

Here's an additional informative snippet that I found online ..."King and Taylor's historic performance together at the Troubadour in November 1970 heralded King's transition to solo stage performer, after penning 22 Top 40 hits for artists ranging from Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" to the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday", while Taylor was supporting his self-titled Apple Records release featuring classics such as "Carolina In My Mind" and "Something In The Way She Moves."

Now that you're all caught up, let's talk about the actual concert. The show was in the round (a constantly revolving stage gave everyone a good view) and both King and Taylor were on stage at all times, alternating their hits and joining each other on most songs. Like I said, I wasn't really looking forward to seeing Carole King, but wow — has she written a lot of hit songs! Google a list of her tunes sometime, and you will be amazed at how many, and how varied a list that it is. And let me just say this — I hope that at age 68 that I will be as energetic and enthusiastic about what I do as this woman. She was all over the place, jumping and running around the stage. It seemed to be contagious — even JT was more lively than I've ever seen him.

Both performers really seemed to be enjoying this tour, and it showed in their performances. It must be a real kick for them to be doing something like this 40 years after the first time around. King sounded great, and much to my relief, Taylor was his pitch-perfect self. He even played a few of his songs that I had never heard before.

Since this was the last event to ever be held at the Melon Arena, the whole show was given an extra bittersweet feel. It made for a great night and a wonderful concert experience. If you a fan of one or both of these artists, try to catch them in another city, or after the tour ends, pick up a copy of the DVD that was being filmed at the show.