Glistening City Rats to Sparkly City Show Girls

This may be a long one as I’m playing catch up from 2 busy full days in the City. We last got home from Fire Island ,if I recall so this will report from our morning yesterday until now while it’s midnight on our last night together.

We finally slept in and got a later start at Tals Bagel again. Sharing another Everything Bagel perfectly toasted with lox and cream cheese, we boarded our subway for the long commute to DOWNtown. We exit at Battery Park, grab our Starbucks and board the Brooklyn bound hop on/ hop off open air bus tour. Mind you the sun is beating down today and it’s 90+ degrees with serious humidity, you could slice through the air. We are dripping and lathering on sunscreen. This bus tour guide was a hoot and super educational. We like him way better than last recorded tour. He is cracking jokes, giving his N.Y. opinion about everything. Description of him…..he has lots of tattoos on his muscly arms that are exposed as he rolled up his sleeves to stay cool. We stay on the bus for 75 minutes, it goes around Battery Park, through Chinatown(very cool), and over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. We learn so much, see lots of sights, hear the history, and beautiful views of the City from this viewpoint. After driving around we get off before the bus head back over the bridge so we can explore more in Brooklyn by foot.

We jump off at Juniors, a yummy strawberry cheesecake slice we share on a sidewalk bench while we await our Via to transport us to the DUMBO area. It’s just too hot to walk, ugh! We are blessed this is our first yucky weather day. Danielle is mesmerized by the DUMBO area, I must say I love it too. That Brooklyn Bridge is seriously a beautiful complex structure. We snap lots of photos and are on a mission to see more neighborhoods and BROOKLYN. We got a great tip from my cousin Debbie/Molly and headed to Hotel 1, look it up…..OMG! We are both mesmerized by this lobby, the classiness of this gorgeous swanky place was a dream come true for our eyes and feet to relax in. We go to the rooftop bar, see FB photos. This place was our favorite spot, we had a cocktail and stared at the view of Manhattan skyline, boats in the Harbor, beautiful people walking around in both bathing suits, business suits, fancy outfits, heels, etc….we are the “City Rats”, always sweaty in comfy workoutish clothing and sneakers. Tourists could be tattooed on our forehead and we are proud of it. After our rest and relaxation- we do stop and smell the roses too. I know we have seriously packed SO much into these 6 days.

We exit dreamland and walk to explore the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. Another quiet beautiful dreamy area of N.Y. We stumbled upon a TV set, Law and Order -Special Victims. Danielle gets her way into the movie director chairs and we snap photos. Movie set guy, Angelo super friendly and loves her fun personality. She is a STAR!  We snap a photo of them hugging and are on our way to walk this stunning promenade. With views of the Statue of Liberty and this city across the water we spot Ice T. They are filming a scene right before our eyes. We make our way to the next activity…..Danielle convinced me it’s a lifetime bucket list item to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. FYI, for those of you who don’t know….we are both chatty friendly girls. We talk to everyone….on the street, wherever 🙂 This is a touristy area. We meet 3 girls from Dallas talk to them about there itinerary, food etc while stopped at a crosswalk, lol Always fun times and adventurous. Feeling like a kid and loving life. Over the Bridge we go. So glad I can say I did it, but not sure I need to do it again. 🙂 Danielle loved it and considers it A must experience. I really love seeing this City through her eyes as it has given me new perspectives. We exit and walk by street performers and make our way to meet Steven, a family friend from NJ who I had never really met in person yet.

We got a real treat to hang with another East Coast local. Always fun to experience a non-touristy spot. He chose a bar, Tavern 29 and has a table waiting upon our arrival. Omg, he is pure entertainment, so much fun with serious energy. An Aries, which he knows nothing about and he wants to know more. Our favorite topic, astrology. We chatted about so many things and truly chilled out for a while having a great time. Danielle and I have 2 cocktails here and split a tuna tartar, his treat. What a generous guy- Susan you have raised him well! We loved our time with him!! He cracks up at our packed itinerary, thinks we are total tourists and need to “feel the vibe of the city” We sure did and do……We all exit together after, as we finally have a reservation at a nice place for dinner and actually made it home to shower, blow dry these curls away and put on a dress.

Danielle and I walk to Boqueria for a Spanish tapas meal in the neighborhood. Yummy!! This place is as good as I remember it from last time. We shared 3 items….Because we had the cheesecake earlier we skipped dessert. Don’t worry we grab a bottle of wine on walk home with a Twix and have our earliest night yet. Bedtime by midnight…..how will I go back to reality??

IF your still reading and ready for more, here starts TODAY- Friday!

i slept the latest I have yet and Danielle actually woke up before me which, is a first. We take our time getting ready and walk the East River promenade. It’s literraly behind our beautiful apartment. It’s a beautiful lush green tree park next to the flowing river- filled with nannies pushing strollers and aides pushing wheel chairs. I love the UES. It reminds me of the Bravo show, Odd Mom out. Watch it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Such a different way of life and reality here for sure! Make our way down to Starbucks. We rent our Citi Bike to bike across town to the Lincoln Center TKTS line for discounted day of Broadway Show tickets. Bear in mind we learned about this location from our good friend Irv from the FI train. What a hidden secret as it opens earlier than the location in Times Square and the line is half the size. We talk to so many people trying to decide which show to see. We are lucky…..we got 9th row, 40% off tickets for Come From Away. The night is planned and looking good. We know we want an Italian dinner and made our choice after studying 5 menus. Make a 5:45 reservation and now have a Laurie Sue Agenda for the day.

Funniest- serendipity moment….we walk outside and in a city with millions of people who does Danielle spot on the street…….yep- Irving 😉 We freak out and tell him we need a photo as we enjoyed him so much from the other night. He walks with us for a few blocks…..I’m telling you we are like locals ha ha lol. Again he is not wearing his hearing aid and says “ what” so much….we giggle and adore him. He leaves us at our entrance, We take a subway to the Lower East side as we have Katz Deli to cross off the list. This list by the way is being conquered!! I’m really impressed how much we have completed. Share our corn beef/pastrami combo on rye w/ Cole slaw after standing on the longest line with millions of foreigners. Danielle really wants to checkout Greenwich Village. We walk….make our way for photo ops on Carrie Bradshaw steps, in front of the Friends coffee shop, we walked these swanky tree lined quiet streets. Walked along Union Square, a few hotel lobby’s  etc before renting another Citi Bike. These bike stations are super easy and only charge $12 to use it for a 24 hr period as long as you return and re checkout every 30 min. Drum roll please………….

We biked from 66 Perry St all the way uptown to our home. Interpretation for those who don’t know….a 6 mile ride on a bike in nyc traffic on a Friday at 3:45pm from the bottom alllllll the way to the top. I’m happy to report at age 43 I’m in good enough shape that I survived. Danielle too…..we cruised up and over, zigging and zagging. Hills up and down, this was exhilarating, tiring, exciting, nerve wracking at times, but mostly a bit moist. It’s a hot day. We could not wait to get home and pound water. Lots of water we purchased on the last steps home. Just in time to get ready, shower and run out to dinner…..whew. We make it just in time, Via driver arrives.

We both love questioning drivers, Danielle more than me….if you can imagine 🙂 Susan is from Argentina and lives in a Queens, she no longer likes NY and had no problems telling us why. As disturbed as she may be in her life currently we enjoyed her company too. I SO much love conversing with people when traveling. All walks of life on this planet. We arrive at Parpadelle restaurant.

Delicious……..holy moly- I can’t wait to write my TA reviews. The service, the ambience, the food was all PERFECTION! Thank you Julie. I know you will never let me down when it comes to food. We shared an Arugula, Beet, and goat cheese salad, a Homemade Parpadelle Fungi pasta dish with white wine and truffle cream sauce- to die for, and the scrumptious Branzino fish. Wowzser……we licked up every last bite. Pay our bill and are off to get another Via as it’s raining. We were not expecting rain= no umbrella. Yikes

We get dropped off and it’s show time. I still can’t believe we biked this entire city today, feeling proud and accomplished. Our seats were perfect. The show started a bit slow but got way better and we really enjoyed it. We both rated it a 9. The theatre was a perfect size, seats comfy, performances spectacular. I have never sat this close before as I was really up close enough to see facial expressions etc. It was a treat for both of us. The play ended and it’s still raining. We embraced the rain and walked to the action of Time Square. All up in lights, we take photos, and dance in the rain. Choose Magnolias for dessert. Banana pudding is on a list,…oink oink This was yummy, held up to its expectations…..thank u Terri!

Via ordered for our ride home. Must stand outside in rain on street corner to get driver. We are laughing, taking photos of the radio city music , jimmy Fallon signs and making the most of the moment. Jump in a mini van with other riders. Via is much cheaper than Uber but it’s like a car pool. Danielle cracks me up as she questions everyone about living in NYC. Other passenger a sweet young girl who works in hopspitality, lives in our area, has been in city 3 yrs, if from S. Carolina and a broadway show lover. She shares all her opinions, rates shows, tells us how she manages her budget etc. People really enjoy sharing, I have decided as no one has had a problem opening up to us. We are a true dynamic team if I can say so myself 🙂

Alarm is set for 7 am as we must leave by 8am to walk to Subway to head to Harlem. I’m super psyched, another Danielle suggestion that excites me. A walking tour of Harlem. We are looking forward to a Fried Chicken Lunch, perhaps some Mac/Chz. Perhaps squeeze in one last slice of Pizza prior to her departure. Thank goodness we are tracking 12+ mile days of walking.

Sweet Dreams! Until next time…….

Love Laurie Sue XO 🙂