NY, NY (Part 2 of MANY)

A couple of things I forgot from Part 1 of MANY: On the way from the airport to Kelly's house, we drove through Chappequa, where the Clinton's live. After picking up Alison from the airport on Friday, we drove through IBM HQ in Armonk. (Kelly has access. :-) It wasn't what I was expecting. It's very secluded and very rural.

So... When I left you yesterday, I was standing by a taxi booth on Broadway, having just left Grand Central Terminal. We wandered up and down, in and around, on Fifth Avenue ...

probably the most famous shopping street in the world. There is certainly LOTS of shopping to be had, and endless ways to spend LOTS of $$$. At places like ...

the diamond district ...

ALDO ...

Teuscher Chocolatier (oh my... so much chocolate ... so little time (and not NEARLY enough money--champagne truffles were $75/pound)) ...

Jimmy Choo ...

Cartier (jewelry) ...

Tiffany & Co. (and those famous blue boxes and bags--even the stuff on the third floor, "Fashion Jewelry" cost an arm and a leg and at this point I wasn't willing to give up a leg) ....

Trump Tower.

We stopped at Rockefeller Tower

and Plaza (it's much smaller than I thought).

We peeked in on the TODAY show set.

Should you tire of walking, there were alternate means of transportation.

For dinner, we stopped at The Volstead

which was under street level and it was hopping with the Friday-after-work crowd.

We all had the Southwestern Salad (I didn't get any pix!) with steak on top. I had a Blueberry Lemonade (alcoholic) and they had Bikini Martinis. For dessert, Kelly said " ... they have really good chocolate fondue". She was 101% right. It ROCKED.

A lush, creamy chocolate (I'm pretty sure the recipe would not be featured in Cooking Light) and strawberries, bananas, blackberries, marble pound cake and my fave ... really dense Rice Krispie Treats for dipping. It was fabulous. Good thing we were walking all over Manhattan!

Then it was through Times Square to the Palace Theater for West Side Story.

It was very good. Really enjoyed the music and those dancers' bodies are amazing. Not a wiggle or jiggle to be seen. ANYWHERE. We hoofed it back to GCT for a late train and collapsed in bed sometime after midnight, closer to 1 AM actually. A very full day.

Saturday brought a 10.26 mile run for me, including a stop at Shop Rite for some Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips so I could make cookies ...

for Kelly and Ben.

They turned out great. The cookies that is. Well who am I trying to kid ... Kelly and Ben are great too!! After waiting for the rain to let up (it did, a little) it was off to the train station ...

for another full day in NY, NY. This time, mostly shopping was on the agenda, to keep us out of the rain. Fun NY facts to know and tell: the different areas in Manhattan have meanings--SoHo (South of Houston St, pronounced Hoston with a long "o") NoHo (North of Houston St)  TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal St)  NoLIta (North of Little Italy). I had no idea!! This would be my first trip on the Subway, which was very much like the "T" in Boston.

First stop, Chelsea Market.

What all did we find inside? Stop back here tomorrow and find out. Here's a teaser ...

Good night!