Friday November 20 (pt. 2 of journal entry)

(This section should be read after reading the first Friday Nov 20 entry)

Then we decided to take the subway to the twin tower site. I was surprised at how big the footprint was. There wasn't much information about the site other than the planned look of the memorial on the fences surrounding the site. We looked for an observation point, but were unsuccessful. We walked around a bit and then off to our next site.

Luke needed to get some lunch so we went to one of his Must Eats place on the list Katz's Deli. It is located on Houston (pronounced how-stun) in the lower east side. We got there about 1 pm. It was still PACKED. The setup was overwhelming, we didn't know how to order or did we seat ourselved and be served or what- who took the money etc.

We were greeted by a bouncer who handed us each a ticket. He told us that we needed to present a ticket to get out the door, Keep your ticket. I asked him after taking a quick glance around- how do we do this? He said go find what you want and then cut in line. I thought cut in line thats not fair. But here is how it goes. The food counter is 100-150 feet long. There were small 8x11 signs far up above the counter that had useless bits of advertising, some willy nilly information about prices etc. The first section we came to was stuffed with lots of waiting customers. We figured out that that's where the hot dogs and soup and cold sandwiches. Like hard and soft salami, liverwurst, knoblewurst, knockwurst etc. The center section was less busy because I think the people in the first section didn't know where to go.

The center section was hot sandwiches where we got ours. Luke got a fat pastrami on rye with mustard. I got a rueben on rye with not enough cheese, too much sauerkraut and too much corned beef. We waited in a bulk line by the center section, then as a person in front went to an individual man at the counter then ordered, handed the ticket to the man who put a total price on the ticket. Then the nex person in line went to the next open man. There were like 4 dudes making sandwiches in that section. They cut the whole pastrami/ corned beef roast or meat chunk off individually for each sandwich. Luke said they were really quick. I noticed that all my slices were absolutely uniform. I thought a machine cut the slices.

The place was really loud. The guys behind the counter were yelling and talking fast, Luke said he could hardly understand them. Many times he just nodded. I managed to find a vacant table where I could watch Luke order. I was too chicken to even stand with him up there. We got a huge plate of variety pickles. One was a really green pickle that tasted fresh like a cucumber and just mildly mildly pickled. That was my favorite. The other pickle looked normal but was made with a different kind of vinegar or something- maybe it was missing some spice that helps detract from the vinegar flavor. It wasn't particularly dilly. I don't know. Luke bargained with the sandwich maker for a green pickled tomato. He ate it, he said it was firm. I didn't try it.

I got some courage and got us some pop and a dish of potato salad. It was a salad with big thin slices of potato with only a white dressing. No onions, no mustard, no celery. Just a creamy dressing. I thought it looked the most unique of the salads. It was tasty. Different from anything I've ever tasted. Simple. It must have been “dressing” and mayo maybe- a touch of vinegar- I don't know.

The prices were expensive. Our sandwiches cost like 12-15$ each. The salad plate of potato salad was 3.50. The pop was probably the same. Our total bill was 38$. We see that tax is 8.99%. After we went to the bathroom and filled our water bottle (we knew we'd be thirsty w/ all that salty food) Luke went to pay at the booth on your way out the door. Apparently- they don't take visa. We BARELY had enough money. Luke had 2 dollars and change left. It is just like a restaurant in Paris we only had like 25 euro cents to spare. I would have had to do dishes. We got a picture outside the deli. We walked around the neighborhood a bit, went into a little grocery store, looking for Mac n Cheese or Ramen. Still too overpriced.

When we walked out we passed a Russ and Daughter's delicattessen place. I read about it in one of my books. It was mainly smoked salmon and bagles and fish and pate and stuff like that. Whole smoked fish, etc. We looked but didn't buy. I was this close to getting a bagel- even though I was mostly stuffed from my Rueben. Luke couldn't even look at food. Poor guy.

We paused for reflection on what we should do next. We decided FAO Schwartz. We took a metro trip to 5^th Ave and walked along it for quite a ways. We walked along the shopping mecca by accident. We got to see Cartiers and Tiffanys and all these fancy stores. Some I'd never heard of. We went in to tiffanys, but I think the fancy stuff at Tiffanys is up the stairs. The diamonds sure were SPARKLEY. More sparkle that Ive seen before. I was surprised.

We walked, saw bell ringers, people asking for money for the homeless, lots of shoppers with abercrombie bags and juicy coture bags etc. We walked by this store I can't remember if it was Hollister or American eagle or what but they had these two guys standing outside the door wearing the shops clothing standing there as MODELS. They weren't particularly cute or hot but they had their hair all done spikey and had sunglasses on – it looked like a young Tom Cruise in that movie where he slides across the floor in his underwear playing air guitar. Luke just laughed. How embarrasing.

We got to FAO and the first thing we saw were TONS of different neat stuffed animals. I was surprised that the prices were reasonable! There were lots of bunnys and foxes and doggies, but none really were the right size and shape for my special bunny requirements. One came close but he wasn't made to be cuddled- he was hard and kind of stiff. We did see a huge display of Folkmans hand puppets. Luke got me a few bunny hand puppets that were that brand when he was in Boston for Celestica. We weren't that lucky this time. Oh well. We went downstairs to the baby area. Found a section of “Bunnies by the Bay” I have seen this brand before- I don't know where though. They had LOTS of pricey bunny clothes, a fur bunny jacket with a little carrot in the pocket. The caveat was, they were either boy or girl. There was no gender neutral. It was sad. Not even the bunny slippers were fit for either sex. I did find some very very cute bunny books that I bought.

We looked around some more, didn't find anything else I couldn't live without. Saw a Lego batman and Chewbacca, saw the floor piano that you play with your feet that Tom Hanks plays in BIG. Saw the barbie section- which had a very limited selection- I was thinking wall to wall Barbie variety. Saw a 25 foot hallway that was lined with girls dress up dresses. I took a picture of that. Also, I liked a jack in the box of the bunny from “Guess How Much I love you” book. I think the books are great, but not the plush bunnies so much.

Luke was tricked to letting us get some candy from the bulk candy aisle. The price was $3.25 per ¼ pound of candy. Ouch. It wasn't anything fancy. What I wanted was the sour patch things. They were delicious. I ate the sour candies and Luke got the regular Blue and Red gummies. What a rip off- like 8.00 sheesh. I guess that part of the store was called FAO Schweetz. He he.

After that we decided that it was stil like only 4pm and we had lots more daylight to kill so we went to Rockafeller Center. Looked at the giant Christmas tree which was surrounded by scaffolding. They were trimming the tree. We saw the brush pile. The tree smelled good, I'll tell you that. Lotta sap, Lotta sap. The plaza was filled with people that were people watching. There were people ice skating and doing spins and fun stuff. I didn't look at the prices but I'm sure it was expensive. It was a nice downtown area.

The main reason we came to this area is that I wanted to tour the NBC studios. We made our way to the NBC store (which took us asking 2 people within the Rock center- mall thing) to find where the tour started. Our tickets were only $15 each. They were discounted because we only got to see one studio. Thankfully it was the SNL studio. I was so thrilled.

We got this funny little video about the history of NBC studios and blah blah blah. I'm not sure if I learned anything from this... Then we went through security, yes security. And were warned that if we took any pictures, our camera would be confiscated due to extensive copywright laws. We took the elevator to 8! We were escorted to the SNL studio! We stood at a big picture window and looked out at the CAST. They were practicing a skit. Joseph Gordon Levitt was the host and Dave Matthew's Band is the musical guest.

We got to walk down the hallway with alll the pictures on the wall. The place where they did laser cats. Luke LOVES the laser cats. They didn't have a big enough laser cats t shirt to fit my Lukie- so we had to skip that.

We got to see a video on the make-up process for SNL. Then we got to get a demonstration of a teleprompter and green screen. We got our picture taken behind a news desk- the photo was for purchase for $25 for a 5x7. DUR!!!! Of course we didn't get that. Just like we didn't buy anything at the NBC store. We are misers!

Then we were going to either walk home or walk just as far to get to our subway line and then walk a good ways to the hotel. So we said, screw it and we decided to walk all the way home. We went a block in the wrong direction at first, so we turned around. Luke said, instead of turning around and seeing what we have already seen, lets go a block over and then walk the drection we need to go. I couldn't argue with that. So we did. And you will never guess what we came upon.

You have heard of by chance or luck or serendipity. Well, we HAD THAT. We accidentally walked upon a bakery called Magnolia. Just earlier that day when we were deciding what to do, I said I wanted to go to that famous bakery that has pretty cupcakes. I couldn't remember the name of it for the life of me. We were going to call Tina to look it up for us. I remembered later. It was called Magnolia. Well we found this one location by ACCIDENT. In all the streets in New York, we happened accidentally to find this place. I got a glimpse of the sign on the store front, I said “Luke do you know what this is?” I was SO so so so very happy. What a gift. We went in, got 6 cupcakes at $3.00 each. A Hummingbird with cream cheese frosting, pecans and I think a spice cake bottom, a red velvet cake with the real cooked frosting- except it was really fluffy. And then the rest were a variation of chocolate and yellow cake with buttercream and chocolate frosting. YUMMY!!! I was SO happy.

Then we walked our 15 blocks to times square. Luke put his foot down for a REAL New York pizza. Not a slice. So we found a Ray's Pizza- even though it probably wasn't the real “Rays”. We ordered a pizza and shoppped around until it was ready. It cost $20. We went to a liquor store because Luke wanted some BEER with his pizza. The liquor store only had that, liquor. No beer of any kind. So we went to a Duane Reade store (that had milk today) and luke got 3 Coors light tall boys. I got 2 half gallons of milk and a box of mac and cheese- generic. It was much better priced. We didn't account the distance we had to walk home with our heavy purchases and a pizza. I swore my fingers would be blistered from carrying the bag. I finally told luke about my heavy load and he kind of chastised me for not talking to him sooner- he took the bag. I carried the pizza.

We walked and walked and walked. The hard part was walking through all the people on the streets. We got to the hotel, tired, and mostly THIRSTY. We had our pizza- I had to warm mine up a little. Luke drank his 2 beers (a little too fast). We each ate a cupcake. They were delicious. They were actually cakey and crumbley. They tasted homemade. The frosting was especially good too.

I went to blog and Luke was going to read his book. Well, that lasted like 10 minutes. I see him twitching out of the corner of my eye and his eyes are closed. It is only 8.15. Poor Lukie.

I blog for not much longer- actually forced myself to stay up until 8.45 and then succumed to the call of our comfy bed. We slept until 8 am.