New York, Day 3

Day 3 in New York brought with it Carly and Camille to join the fun. They got in late last night and were ready for a day of sight-seeing. We started off by walking to Broadway where we bought tickets for the Lion King, which we will be seeing Saturday night. (So exciting!) We walked through Times Square and took a peek at Macy's, then finally got to Chelsea and met her for lunch at an Irish pub.

After lunch, and after taking care of some banking and subway pass needs, we went to the main attraction of the day: The Statue of Liberty. We were at first deterred to ride the ferry to Liberty Island because of the fees and long lines, so we ended up taking the Stanton Island Ferry. This is free and runs every half an hour, giving great views of Miss Liberty and the skyline of New York. Although it was a bit chilly, overall it was a great trip.

Once we were off of the ferry, we hopped on the subway and headed to Soho, where we were going to do a little shopping and then meet Chelsea for dinner. Here is where I had my first "subway story": The crowd getting off the subway was moving slowly, so when there finally was a space to get in, I jumped in quickly. The man in front of me all of a sudden said, "Ma'am, is that your family?" I turned to see Robby, Carly, and Camille on the other side of the window with the subway doors closed tight. If you know the subway, you know that when the door is shut, the door is shut. The subway took off, and there were my husband and two sisters disappearing before my eyes with me stuck on the dumb thing. I got off at the next stop, and luckily they knew to meet me there (no cell phones work), so it all was okay. But of course we had a good laugh.

Soho was really neat. It is a bustling area of high end stores, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, bars, and artists. The architecture is also really beautiful. I was expecting it to be quiet like Greenwich Village was, but it is not. It is busy, busy, busy. We had a great time walking along Spring Street and popped into many stores, although most of them were out of our price range. It was fun looking at all the great clothes, though, and we even finally tried on a few things here and there.

Chelsea met us in Soho, then we grabbed a taxi and headed to East Village, where she had to have us try these amazing meatball sandwiches. They were incredible! The seating was family style, elbow to elbow along a big table in the middle of the small restaurant. Their main dish is the meatball smash, which is two meatballs on a warm, crusty baguette-like bread. You have your choice of meat (beef, chicken, pork, veggie), sauce (red sauce, spicy meat, parmesan, and their special), and cheese (mozzarella or provolone), and get a tasty arugula and apple salad on the side. We were all very impressed and licked our plates clean (almost). We shopped a bit more and then headed back to our apartment, where we sat around talking about the day and having a grand ol' time.

Tomorrow's plans include Central Park (perhaps bikes) and some more sight-seeing, then we divide into two groups: the sisters and the couple celebrating their fifth anniversary!