New York, New York! Day 1

For Neal's 30th birthday we went to St. Louis to see Radiohead (Neal's all time favorite band) and so I informed him early on that he was under obligation to do something fantastic for my 30th birthday- which also happened to be my Golden Birthday too.  So a very wise Neal decided we should go to New York!  Very exciting indeed.  Unfortunately New York is VERY VERY expensive so we only had 2 days (not on my birthday because that would be 1 day before New Years Eve and if you think NY is expensive, just see what it costs around New Years Eve!).  So we headed off on the 27th via train at 5:30am.

We only had backpacks since we couldn't check into the hotel until 11am and we got to NY at 9am, but luckily the hotel held our bags for us while they got our room ready.  We headed to the subway to make our way down south so we could see the Statue of Liberty.

NY subway crazies are a different breed than the DC crazies we're a little more used to.  One lady on the train just started complaining about sitting on her *#@ for the rest of her career and he cheated on her, etc.  Then some guy kept looking frantically around, became suddenly calm, then started belting a song about "people are suffering, suffering" over and over again.  Then, the best crazy, we stopped and the doors opened to which could be hear a lot of colorful language from an Asian lady dressed in a suit rocking back and forth.  For some reason the door stayed open really long so we got to hear a lot of her "red, white, and blue" rants.  Something about public transportation really brings out the crazies!

The Statue of Liberty was closed for maintenance so we took the Staten Island Ferry to New Jersey where you get off then stand in line to get back on to NY- and boy are those NJ accents strong!  Before the ferry we took a walk through Battery Park.

I've got liberty in my hands.  We are so creative with our pictures!

A very friendly British lady took a picture of us (imagine me saying this with a British accent)

Never fear!  The coast guard is near!  I think they had heard Neal is a Ron Paul supporter.

There she is!  (Lady Liberty of course)

After our ferry we walked around and saw our best friend...

This lady is actually an Asian superstar, which is why we we are all taking pictures of her.

And we wanted a picture of the stock market bull so it worked out perfectly.

We wanted to go see the 9/11 memorial fountains, but they were heavily fenced, and you could only go in if you had tickets, and the line was really long, and there was tons of construction, and there were tons of construction workers just standing around so we skipped that.  How very patriotic NY.  Thanks.
Speaking of heavily fenced- the stock exchange protesters were gone and Zuccotti Park was heavily guarded and fenced so I couldn't get my protestor sign picture.  How very patriotic NY.  Thanks.
We continued to walk around and found a cool cemetery at St. Trinity's church (once I figure out how to get pictures off my phone I'll add it) and a nice cement park (lower Manhattan's parks are all cement).

Ta-dah!  I did it!

We headed uptown, tried to do the Empire State building but it was raining and very cloudy, so we went to the library instead...

I didn't see any books, but I did see this ferocious looking Lego lion.  And they had a lot of neat displays about historical things.
By then we needed to eat so we went to some Chinese-Thai-Vietnemese fusion restaurant which was really good.  In case you're wondering our breakfast was really good at some diner- tons of food- we only needed 2 meals a day here.  We did pretty good finding good food until the last meal.
We got ready for Mary Popins and headed off.
The theater was right at Times Square- which is amazing at night.  Unfortunately my phone was dying so  I couldn't get any pictures.  The theater was very ornate- and small.  Our knees where right up to the seats in front of us.  The first half of the show the sound wasn't working so that was pretty annoying that at a broadway show you hear a lot of buzzing.  The second half was a lot better, and the songs were more fun, and they did more effects.  The chimney sweep dances up the sides of the stage, then on the ceiling, then back down.  At the end of the show Mary Poppins flies over the audience.  It was fun.  We waited to leave because it was packed and once we did we headed for the stairs amongst the throng of people.  I felt a little tap on my behind.  Then another.  Then another.  Some teenage girl behind me was spanking my on my booty with her umbrella.  I stopped and turned around to give her a look but she stepped back to get back with her family.  I think she was just twirling her umbrella and didn't realize she was spanking me, at least that's what I tell myself late at night.
We walked back to the hotel- my feet were killing me from all the walking and crashed for the night.