The drive in the mountains was beeeeauuutiful!! Some of the colorful Fall leaves were still on the trees, and it was another sunny day with temps in the 60's!
FINALLY entering New Jersey.... and seeing signs for New York City!! YAY!! 
After getting to our hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, just outside of Hoboken, we called Jason and set up a meeting place. At first we were going to take a shuttle to the train station and then go to a place by Jason's apartment. But we found out the shuttle only runs every hour. So we asked how much a taxi would cost.. $40!! (to go about 8 miles!)...so, Jason said he had a parking pass we could use, and we decided to drive into Hoboken ... it was a short and pretty easy drive there, thankfully!
So, from Jason's we found a parking place, walked to a bus stop and took it to Carlos' Bakery, home of THE CAKE BOSS!! We have watched that TV show many times, and since it was about 10 blocks or so away, we made it a stop. Jason was a good sport about taking us to all these goofy tourist sites..*L*
After Cake Boss, Jason took us on the train into Manhattan, Greenwich and the West Village to see some sites...
On the train .. heading into the city... (Jason and Kasey)
One of the places I had mentioned to Jason was a place I just had to check out... they have a TV show I've seen before too... so we went to the Obscura Antiques and Odditities store ... it is so much smaller than it seemed to be on TV ..but it had a lot of cool stuff...but a bit pricey for my tastes....
I had asked about several items there ... a metal hand, the piranha fish, and some old children's shoes with metal braces attached... but they were all way to expensive for me ... but they would have been pretty cool in an assemblage I might make ... instead, I opted for a small token purchase.. a replica of a shrunken head .. not sure what I'll use it for yet .. but it was easy to carry around at least..*L*
Jason took us to a few city parks ... This is Washington Square Park, which has a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, like in Paris ... pretty awesome ... and the lighting around it caused some great, and odd, photos of Kasey and Jason..*L*
This was the park where they filmed part of the movie "When Harry Met Sally", and other movies over the years as well... it was also the meeting place for many protests and demonstrations. Artists and performers use the park during the day and night too... we heard several singers at this one, but it was too dark to take a photo with my camera.
One advantage of having a "tour guide" who has lived in the area for about 9 years, is that he knows some cool and off beat places to eat .. we went to S'Mac's for dinner ... a small, but very popular, place to get some delicious mac n cheese with most anything you can think of added to it. Who says you can't eat cheap and good in NYC?? *L*
These pumpkins outside a market were no match for John-John's giant pumpkin back home! *L*
It was a great night for a walk, we stopped in at an old NYC pub for a drink, then we walked around Greenwich and the West Village. We passed by the Greek Restaurant where Jason works, and saw an apartment that is the narrowest one in all of New York City area, we joked that it was Jason's "future home", once he wins the Lottery..*L* It's for sale now too ...for only 3 or 4 million dollars!!
A short video of part of our stroll....
We passed by some buildings and streets that were used in many movies and tv shows ...the street that Glee was filmed on... the apartment building that was filmed as the building where "Friends" lived, below it was a restaurant, but Jason said there is NO Central Perk Cafe for real. We went by an old "speak easy" that was used back in the 1920's, and was often busted by the police.
We passed by quite a few Episcopal Churches too in our walking around the areas...
And it was time to get back on the train, then the bus back to our car in Hoboken, then to the hotel for the night.
It was a WONDERFUL night in NYC!! Thanks Jason for the places you took us to and for being a great tour guide!!
Tomorrow it's more fun ... heading to Central Park, Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial, Times Square and a Broadway Musical, and MORE...
No comments:
Post a Comment