With And Without Rain

When we left Houston for New York on Tuesday morning, we were prepared to face the rain every day of our stay. Thankfully, that forecast didn't hold up.

Since Friday was our last day (and Robin had walked me until my calves ached and the bottom of my feet were sore), we decided to take a bus tour of areas we had yet to see. Neither one of us had been in the Upper East Side, so we decided to take the Uptown Loop on a double-decker bus. (We should have gone with Robin's gut-feeling to wait on the next bus when we saw smoke boiling out from under the back wheels...instead we broke down about 15 minutes later and had to wait for another empty bus to come pick us up at Lincoln Center.)

This is how close our heads came to the traffic lights! It was a little bit freaky at times.

Once we got to the Central Park area, we spent a lot of time ducking the limbs too! It is hard to take pictures and watch for items that are going to smack you in the face at the same time.

We saw Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center, many churches and museums. We drove through the Upper East side, Columbia University, Harlem, Spanish Harlem and Museum Mile as we skirted the entire perimeter of Central Park.

It was neat seeing many of the famous landmarks...like the Apollo Theatre (which is much smaller than it looks on television), the Guggenheim (which looks like a giant toy top to me, others say it looks like the bow of a cruise ship), and the American Museum of Natural History (where they filmed Night at the Museum). I could post a hundred pictures that we took of the sights...but I chose two instead of boring you to death.

Robin was able to snap this picture of the elevated train in Harlem. I have seen this in the movies, but this is the first time we have seen it in person.

The most beautiful architecture we saw on our tour was this church near Columbia University. (I think it is Saint Paul's...but I can't find my notes right now.) This church has been 'under construction' since the 1800's. According to our tour guide, it is still not completed. It is wonderfully ornate while still being reverent. Gorgeous!

After the tour, we stopped for a late lunch-early dinner at Rosie O'Grady's where we each ordered a traditional Irish dish. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to upload pictures and get ready for the evening.

For our last night, we had tickets to see Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in A Steady Rain. It is an intense two man drama about two Chicago policemen who have been friends since childhood and their individual accounts of a few horrendous days that change their lives forever. It's run is only 12 weeks...and there was standing room only in the theatre.

We rushed out during the curtain call to try and get good pictures at the stage door.

Here is Hugh Jackman. He is really tall compared to most of the actors we have seen this week.

And a close up of Daniel Craig. (I think I like his James Bond look better with no moustache, though it's fits his character in this production quite well.)

We stopped for a small bite to eat on Times Square and then ran back into Lindy's for a piece of the 'best cheesecake in the world' to take back to our room as we packed. (As for the cheesecake being the best in the world, Ummm...not so much.)