Where do I start

In order to keep this digestible, I will break the trip recap into NYC and Ireland portions.  Unfortunately that means if you want to read things chronologically you will need to start here and work your way up.

I had hoped to possibly drop an entry or two in here during the trip to break up the massive amounts of recollection I will have to do.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen and instead I am using some brief notes I made along the journey to help trigger my brain.

Our flight to NYC left EARLY, like 6:30 early so we got up at 3:45 am.  Mom had arrived the day before where we went over her checklist of items regarding home/dog maintenance.  She was asleep when we pulled out after saying goodbye to the dogs.

Our flight to NYC was on JetBlue, an airline I never flew before.  Going into the flight I had mixed feelings about the airline.  I saw that they actually don’t charge you for the first checked bag, as long as it is under 50 pounds.  However if it is over 50 pounds you get slammed with a $50 charge.  If it is over 70 pounds they nail you with an extra $100 fee.  You know before we left I spent some time on the bathroom scale holding the bags to make sure we were safely under the 50 pound mark.  Luckily we were packing light, relying on the ability to do laundry during the trip.

I was further annoyed with JetBlue when we checked in at a kiosk and saw their option for “extra room seats”  JetBlue has no first class seating but they have a bunch pf these extra room seats that they are happy to give to you for an extra $40 per person.  I had seen on their website that they also charge you for items like blankets and pillows.  All of this add on fee bullshit really soured my viewpoint of the airline before I even stepped foot on the plane.  Of course I do realize that outside of Southwest, Jetblue’s policies are actually better than most other major airlines today which is not saying much.

Once I stepped on the plane my viewpoint of the airline improved.  My ghetto, no extra room seat was just fine and had more than enough legroom for my lanky legs.  The plane also had a video screen in the back of every seat where you could watch a bunch of Directv channels or listen to XM music for free, that was a nice bonus.

The flight up to JFK was uneventful and we landed ahead of schedule, touching down before 9 am. Ali and I made a quick bathroom stop on the way to baggage claim.  We sat down and waited for our luggage to come out.  We saw there was a Dunkin Donuts in the baggage area so I decided to grab a cup of coffee to make the wait more enjoyable.

When I went up to the counter I noticed something odd next to all of the donut names, calorie counts.  I forgot that NYC passed a law that required the amount of calories in items on a shelf to be clearly displayed.  I found it quite interesting comparing the calories of the different donut varieties.  I think this is a GREAT idea and I wish it was done on a more widespread basis.  There was more than one time where my food purchase decision was influenced by the calorie count of the items I was considering, just as it was intended to do.

So after getting my coffee I returned to the bench next to Ali, starting to wonder where our luggage was, it was now taking longer than you would expect. Ali and I continued to wait and wait.  Now we were at the 45 minute mark.  Not only did we not see our luggage, I didn’t even see any familiar faces from our flight, WTF is going on?

Ali walked over to an information desk and asked if they know about any luggage issues with our flight? They did not but they directed Ali down to a baggage claim office further down the terminal.  I followed Ali to the office.  Imagine our surprise when we turned the corner into the office and saw both of our bags sitting there!  It seemed impossible that stopping to take a leak would have delayed us enough to have our bags yanked off the carousel but apparently that is what happened.  That was a first, an airline getting bags off too quickly.

Ok, so now the next step was to contact the van service we paid for to take us into Manhattan.  We went to the transportation desk with our voucher.  The woman picked up the phone and placed a call to the company and told us to wait, we would be called when the van arrives.  Well wait we did, at least another 45 minutes we waited until the van arrived.  So much for getting an early start in the city, we didn’t leave the airport until around 10:45.

Our van was a “shared ride” van.  When we stepped up to it there were already a number of people in it, 6 or 7 along with all of their luggage.  I was concerned we wouldn’t be able to jam our bags into the back of the van but the little hispanic woman driver was able to do so after doing some rearranging.  Ali and I crawled into the back of the van.  We were cramped but glad to at least be in a vehicle.

The drive into Manhattan was very lengthy, around 2 hours.  While it was interesting taking in the sights and sounds of NYC, what I found most interesting was the technique used to drive in New York traffic.  Everyone cuts everyone off, you just assume it is going to happen.  There is a lot of hard acceleration and hard braking as well.

Once we got into the downtown area a new variable was introduced into the equation, pedestrians.  I was amazed how routinely people would walk out in front of vehicles without even so much a glance, assuming the driver would stop.  Our driver never acted like it was any sort of issue, she would just jam on the brakes, wait for the person to pass and then mash the gas before anyone else had a chance to walk out in front of the van.

We also were amazed at the balls of steel people riding bikes in the middle of traffic.  They weaved in and out of cars with inches to spare without batting an eye.  It was hard to believe.  Evidently crashing wasn’t of much concern either as most riders did not even have a helmet.

Finally we arrived at our hotel.  I tipped the woman 10 bucks, not sure if that was adequate by NYC standards but with a shared ride where hopefully everyone tips I thought I was in the ballpark.

We drug our bags into the beautiful lobby of the Sheraton and got into line.  The line wasn’t too bad, only 6 or 7 people long.  When we stepped up to the desk we had a few issues.  First the guy had a hard time swiping our credit card, he couldn’t get it to take until the 3rd or 4th attempt. Then when he was programming the room key card he had similar problems.  He actually discarded the first card and only got the 2nd one to program after multiple attempts.

We jumped in the elevator for a brisk ride up to our room on the 38th floor.  We found our room and I held the card up to the door, red light.  Ah I must have it the wrong direction, I try again, and again and again, red light.  Mother f, I knew that this would require another trip down to the lobby.  Ali said she would stay with the bags by the room while I got another card.

So I head down the elevator and am not pleased to see the line has swelled in length to probably 15 people or more. There was no way I was going to stand in that line twice to address a bad card that was given to me.  I elected to go stand in the “Preferred Member” line which was much shorter, despite not being a preferred member.  After a 5 or 10 minute wait I was able to get a new card that actually worked.

Our room seemed quite nice.  One glance down from the window confirmed we were indeed 38 floors up.  It was a unique perspective that I don’t know I ever experienced in a hotel room before.

Ali and I were quite hungry by this time as it was after 1pm.  We headed back downstairs and asked a security guard for the closet good pizza place.  He directed us to a place called Ray’s right across the street.

Ray’s was still pretty busy with the late lunchtime crowd.  NYC pizza is world famous so Ali and I were eager to give it a try as we are both certified pizza lovers.  I opted for two slices of mushroom and sausage pizza while Ali got a vegetarian variety.  We sat up on a small elevated dining area where you could look down at the pizza being made.

The pizza was very good indeed, made even better by our extreme hunger.  We knocked down the slices and were ready to embark on our foot tour of New York City.  We utilized both low tech and high tech to make our way around using both a tourist map I grabbed from the hotel lobby and the GPS functionality of our Iphones.

First we headed down towards the Times Square area.  It was odd being in the pedestrian side of things now.  The volume of human beings on the sidewalk was incredible.  Unlike the crowds that walked defiantly in front of oncoming vehicles, Ali and I clearly stood out as tourists as we would actually quickly jog across streets to avoid becoming roadkill.

On our walk we saw the famous Naked Cowboy playing guitar and singing songs in his underwear.  Despite my prodding, Ali declined to have her picture taken with him.

Times Square was visually impressive bringing back similar feelings as when we saw the glitz and glitter of Vegas for the first time.  The huge side of building video screens were pretty awesome to take in first hand.  It was a bit surreal being in the middle of an area that you only knew from Dick Clark New Year’s Eve broadcast.

We continued our walk, our next objective was to find a Crumb’s bakery, one of Ali’s must see’s.  Crumbs is famous for their decadent baked goods, specifically cupcakes.  A quick search on the Iphone showed three Crumb’s pushpins on the map all relatively close.  We walked around looking for the closest pin for awhile but couldn’t quite seem to locate it.  The high buildings in Manhattan were making the GPS a little less accurate than normal.  Our little blue “this is you” dot would jump around even as we were standing still.

Getting frustrated we asked a couple policeman where the Crumbs was.  They said it was down the street, hidden back under the scaffolding that covered the sidewalk.  Speaking of scaffolding, Ali and I were amazed how much scaffolding there was over sidewalks in NYC, even in spots where there was no apparent construction going on.  I am not sure if it just a way to provide cover for pedestrians or just somebody didn’t feel like taking it back down.

The Crumbs store was very small with barely enough room for a few customers.  Ali got a glimpse of their cupcake display and was in love.  The cupcakes were works of art.  Of course I appreciated the cupcakes but also found myself examining the calorie counts, wow you can jam a lot of calories into a single cupcake.

Ali and I each got a cupcake and headed over to nearby Bryant Park to sit down and eat them.  We found a couple chairs sitting out in the middle of the park and sat down among tons of other people enjoying the day.  It seemed odd to be sitting in a park in the middle of the endless walls of skyscrapers but in a good way.

We both enjoyed our cupcakes as we sat out in the sun.  After polishing them off we walked around the park.  I was surprised by some of the stuff we saw.  One such thing was a large carousel with a long line to ride it.  Another were the various outdoor activities on the outside edge of the park.

The first thing to catch my eye were two guys playing speed chess.  They were making moves nearly instantly, it was fascinating to watch.  We witnessed a mini-argument when the guy in the foreground took his hand off a piece for a moment and his opponent cried foul.

I also found the outdoor ping pong tables which was very cool with their metal “nets”.  I would have liked to get on a table and play a bit but there was a line to do so.  Ali and I enjoyed just sitting there and watching others play for a little while.

Finally as we left we saw a game that resembled Italian bocce ball.  The one guy was a serious player as he carried a rag in his back pocket that he used to clean his balls before every throw.

So we continued our walk around town.  I saw an interesting sign on a corner, “$300 fine for honking horn in this area”.  New York used to have a bunch of problems, excessive noise was one of them.  Evidently this was one way they addressed it, socking impatient drivers with a big fine.  I was surprised by the sign but like the posted calorie count thing, I kind of liked the idea behind it.

Ali and I passed by the building where Howard does his radio show in Sirius headquarters.  Ali and I went inside, hoping to at least get access to the Sirius lobby.  We were told there was no public access to their offices which I found odd, too bad.

Ali and I made our way over to Rockefeller Plaza.  We saw the area that they turn into an ice rink in the winter.  During the summer the same area is used as an outdoor restaurant.  We also saw the Today show studio from the outside and went into the NBC store.

While walking in the NBC store we saw a sign about taking the studio tour.  We took the Paramount studio tour when we were out in California and we really enjoyed it so we thought we would look into taking the NBC version of a tour.  The tour for the rest of the day was booked solid but they said we could book a spot for 8:30 Friday morning.  After a brief discussion Ali and I decided we would get the tickets.  We did a combo deal which also included a ride to the top of Rockefeller Tower.

We wanted to go for a run in Central Park so we headed back to the room.  On the way back we talked about how it was cool to have the studio tour to look forward to the next day.  Once we got to the room we changed into running duds and headed north, the entrance to the park was only a few blocks away.

Once we got in the park we found a wall and did some stretching to loosen up.  As we were doing so some guy with a strong accent came up and asked if he could interview us.  It was very hard to understand him.

He started asking us odd questions about NYC which made little sense.  I immediately had my “scam alert” antenna go up.  I pretty much ignored the guy and continued to stretch as Ali tried to answer the questions.  Evidently whatever the guy was looking for he didn’t get from our answers and he bailed after a minute or two.

So after we finished stretching we started our run, not knowing exactly where we were going.  The park was a very busy place, evidently New Yorkers really appreciate having such a huge green space in the middle of the apex of urban living.  There was activity everywhere.

Ali and I ran a loop and found ourselves back where we started in less than 2 miles.  I knew Central park was much bigger than that.  Ali mentioned she saw a sign that pointed in a different direction for runners so we took that turn the 2nd time around.  We were now on the outer BIG loop that more or less circles the park.

As we ran we saw a ton of interesting things, some of which required me to stop and snap a few pictures.  One of those things was a water fountain that had levels for both human and canine water consumption.  We of course found this very cool.

We ran past some sort of outdoor concert that was getting ready to start and we were treated to an impromptu solo concert.  The performance was from a wirey looking black man on top of a hill looking out over the road.  He was standing there with a beat up old boombox on his shoulder that had the speakers attached with white tape.  He was dancing while singing to the Michael Jackson song that was playing.  The funny thing was he wasn’t singing the words to the actual song.

The run incorporated an element that we aren’t that used to as Florida runners, substantial hills.  There are parts of the park that had steep and long hills that were pretty taxing.  As we returned to the south end of the park there was significantly more people as it was now after 5 pm. At certain points it was challenging finding a clear trajectory to run through. Originally we had talked about running 5 or 6 miles in the park.  By the time we were done we had logged close to eight.

When you add that on top of the mileage we put in walking the sidewalks you have a lot of energy expenditure.  I had joked to Ali that we needed to burn off those cupcakes from earlier.  I think we more than did so.

Ali and I walked back to the hotel and took showers before getting ready to go out to dinner.  Originally we had talked about finding someplace fancy to eat. However by the time dinner time came about we were both quite content to find something close and quaint.

We wound up eating outdoors at a place called Lindy’s.  Ali and I both enjoyed our meals which were wrapped up with a small pieces of Lindy’s famous cheesecake.  It was quite pleasant outside.  Eating a few feet off the busy sidewalk and street offered plenty of visual entertainment.

After dinner we were both very tired but we wanted to see a bit more of the city so we walked around a bit with no particular destination in mind.  We passed by a small place that we pegged as where we would eat breakfast the next morning.  Other than that we just walked around and enjoyed being in NYC, something that I would not have anticipated doing as much as I had.

On Friday morning we got up early and had our breakfast at Metro cafe.  After doing so we headed back to our room to pack up and check out.  The van for the airport was supposed to pick us up at 1:30 and checkout for the hotel was noon.  We knew getting back by noon was not likely.

I checked out and asked where we could store our bags.  The person chuckled as the pointed to the “Bag Check” sign down the hall.  I found the bag check area funny.

The hotel lobby is extravagant with marble everywhere and not a thing out of place.  When you get to the bag check area you are faced with a dungy room that looks like it never received any of the upgrades over the years that the rest of the hotel received.   The floor looks like dirty 1960’s vinyl tiles and the drop ceiling is stained and drooping.  The bags themselves are stored on beat up metal shelves that looked like they got pulled out of a subway.

To compound matters the bag check was manned by some grumpy guy that seemed annoyed to have to deal with us.  He informed us there was a $3.25 charge per bag, meaning we would be dropping close to 20 bucks. Oh well.

So we walked back to Rockefeller Center.  There was now a big crowd outside the Today Show.  Evidently they we going to be doing one of their outdoor mini-concerts that day.  Ali and I walked in front of the Today Show window a few times on the off chance we would get on tv, I don’t think we did.

As we were standing near the crowd we were approached by a normal looking guy in a baseball hat.  He said he was working for a tv show as he handed us two NYC baseball hats and said “here you go, these are yours”.   Of course my warning siren went off but the guy was very pleasant so we let him continue.  He saw my Naples Triathletes shirt I was wearing and he immediately struck up a conversation about tri’s as he said he did them as well, even showing us a picture of his road bike.  We engaged him in conversation, he was very personable but I knew there was a punchline coming.

Finally he says that he comes out there with some buddies of his every week with these hats and gives them away for donations to some charity.  Surprise, surprise, it had nothing to do with a tv show at all.  Despite knowing I was just worked, I liked the guy and was ok throwing him 20 bucks for the two hats.  Oh well, we now had our NYC souvenir I guess.

Well shortly before 8:30 when our tour was supposed to start I felt like I had to take a leak.  They posted there were no bathroom facilities available on the tour so I knew I better go relieve myself.  Unfortunately the closest bathroom was down in the basement of Rockefeller Center.  Ali and I quick stepped it down to the bathrooms and back just as the tour was getting ready to start.  We were the last ones to arrive in our group.

Unlike the Paramount tour where they welcomed you to take pictures, the NBC tour was much more restrictive.  No recording device of any sort was allowed and in fact they made everyone turn their phones off.

The tour stopped first at the NBC News studios.  We actually got to stand in the studio where Brian Williams broadcasts the news every weeknight.  It was interesting getting a behind the scenes look of how the studio works.  Being in IT I was impressed by the huge, stuffed cable ladders that ran along the ceiling.  I can’t even imagine the amount of tech that goes into that place.

Next up we went to the studio where Dr Oz tapes his show.  This is also the same set that used to be used for the David Letterman show and later the Conan O’Brien show.

The final stop was the set of Saturday Night Live.  It was interesting hearing the description of how a show is laid out.  The tour guide said the odds of getting a ticket to be in the live audience are pretty remote and is handled via lottery system.

At the end of the tour we went into a small recording studio where two little girls were able to play the roles of anchorwoman and weather girl complete with green screens, teleprompters and video feeds.  It was cute watching them struggle with their lines.

That was the end of the tour, it was a bit brief for my liking and the fact that you weren’t able to take any pictures was a bit of a bummer.  However both Ali and I thought it was worth the $20 admission price.

Next up was our trip to the top of the rock, Rockefeller Center.  Like I mentioned we bought a combo ticket.  It was a bit annoying the way they handled entry into the tour.  When I paid for the ticket the day before they handed me a voucher for the top of the rock.  Well you can’t actually get in with the voucher.  Instead you have to wait in another line to hand in the voucher so they give you a ticket which seemed sort of dumb to me.

After a wait in lines for both a ticket and the elevator that takes you to the top of the building we were on our way.  The views from the roof are pretty amazing, an unobstructed 360 degrees of the city.

Ali and I took our time walking around the roof, spotting various famous landmarks as we did.  Seeing New York from that high perspective really allows you to fully appreciate the wonder of it all.  It’s just so much stuff crammed into such a relatively small space it really does blow your mind.  When I thought about all the effort that went into the construction of everything that was laid out in front of me it seemed borderline impossible to do, but there it was.

We cut short our time up top a little bit because I had one more place I wanted to see before we had to head back to the hotel, Tompkins Square Park.  Tompkins Square Park is the home of the Bar-barians, the body weight/bar exercise masters whose message forum I am a regular participant in and is the sponsor of the monthly contests that you see me posting so many videos about.

There was one issue, the park was pretty far away from where we were.  Looking at our watch which was creeping into the late morning time period, we knew that walking to and from the park would take too long.  We decided to take our chance on the NYC subway.

Both Ali and I were intimidated by the prospect of taking the subway.  We knew nothing about it, where it went, what it cost, or if it really was as dangerous as some people describe.  There was a subway terminal right under Rockefeller Center so we used it as our launching pad.

The first thing we had to figure out was how do you pay for a subway ride. There were no cashiers handing out tickets, only ATM style machines near the gate.  We went to a machine and bought a card housing $20 worth of credit, hoping that was enough to get us to TSP and back.  I was quite surprised when I saw it only cost Ali and I something like $2.25 to enter the turnstile which gave you unlimited access to all of the subway to whatever destination you preferred.  Wow, pretty sweet.

The subway itself was not visually impressive.  It was ancient looking and filthy.  The layers of black dust clung to almost every surface you looked at.

We went down to one of the ramps and had to now figure out which train we needed to board.  The information board we looked at seemed pretty confusing to two subway nubs like Ali and myself.  Luckily there was a nice guy standing near us that was able to tell us which train to get on to meet up with the L train which heads east into Brooklyn.

Once we hopped on the train we soon became much more at ease.  The stops along the route are clearly marked and easy to follow.  We were able to get to the station near TSP quickly, cheaply and without fuss besides heading down the wrong ramp a couple times.  Both Ali and I agreed that we wished we hadn’t been tentative about using the subway prior to this.  It is a great way to get around the city without spending a ton for a taxi or dealing with the human logjam on the sidewalks.

The area Tompkins Square Park is located is a much more residential area with a lot of small shops and businesses.  It was cool seeing a different type of New York landscape.  The park was a short 2 or 3 block walk from the subway.

The park was very nice just like all of the NYC parks we had visited so far.  I was surprised to see a baseball game taking place on a concrete “field” as we entered.  It took a bit of wandering around until we found the bar area where I have watched countless exercise videos take place.

As I approached I couldn’t believe my good fortune, Al Kavadlo was standing there.  I know Al via the Bar-barian forums.  He also runs his own web site that deals with health and fitness.  Not only is he very accomplished with bodyweight exercises, he has a great energy and attitude that I just love.

I walked up and introduced myself but he already knew who I was as well from my myriad of posts and videos on the forums.  Despite my general lack of being able to jump into conversations with most people I didn’t have any issue chatting up a storm with Al since we had a common interest.

He said he just got done with his workout but he would be happy to stick around for awhile.

I mentioned to him I was thinking about shooting an attempt for this month’s Bar-barian challenge since I was in the holy land of pull ups.  Al thought that was a great idea and told me to hop on the bar.  It felt weird grabbing onto the same bar that I have seen people do amazing things on time and again.

The bar was a thicker diameter than I expected, much thicker than what I have at home.  I was hoping to bust out a 20 rep effort but my grip failed halfway into the 20th rep. Ali recorded the attempt for me.

Al was also aware of my struggles getting my first muscle up and encouraged me to try again.  After he hopped on the bar and knocked out 5 or 6 of them I gave it a go and didn’t get real close.  Al immediately noticed that my body was way too close to the bar which prevents me from being able to pull to and over it.  He had me try a few things to work on getting the feel of how it should go.  I got real close on a couple attempts but couldn’t quite get on top of the bar.

Al even got Ali involved, having her do some slow negatives on a lower bar to demonstrate how she can start there and eventually work her way to full blown pull ups.  I was bummed that time was tight and we had to get going.  I told Al how much I appreciated his time. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to run into Al, I must have expressed it to Ali a dozen times later.  Here is a video of Ali and my session with the great Al Kavadlo.

On the subway ride back we ran into a couple snafus not realizing that to go certain directions you may need to get on an entrance on one side of the street versus the other.  At one point Ali swiped her ticket and walked through the turnstile before I paused and told her to come back through, realizing the train was going towards Brooklyn instead of back towards Manhattan.

When we got back to the hotel we only had maybe a half hour until our designated 1:30 pick up time.  We decided to hit up Ray’s for a second time for a quick lunch, it was a nice way to end up our whirlwind tour.  I fully expected the van driver to be late for the pickup.  I based this on the mess we witnessed on the way in.  I was amazed when he pulled up right on time, wow.

Unfortunately I was less impressed when I saw the attitude of the driver.  He seemed grumpy and annoyed and did nothing to interact with us or the other passengers on the van.  Again the drive was pretty maddening, weaving in out of traffic in the city and then getting stuck in logjams when we hit the surrounding highways.

As the ride went on the guy did actually talk to Ali and I a little bit.  Prior to this Ali and I had mumbled that this guy would only be pocketing a 5 spot since he was so grumpy.  But the brief conversation and the baby picture I spotted in his wallet softened my stance and I gave him a $10 bill when we got dropped off at the terminal.

Once we got into the terminal we found our way to the Aer Lingus terminal.  Check in was not bad.  I got a call from Torrin as we were in the security line saying that they were already by the departure gate eating at a nearby restaurant.  Todd, Caroline, Dad, Teresa, Meg and Pat were all carpooling together and were just arriving at the airport by last report.

We joined Torrin, Damon and the kids while they ate.  It had been awhile since we saw the crew, two western road trips ago I believe. As we finished up the rest of the bunch showed up.  Todd was walking and talking on his cell phone. We had our first issue of the trip, he left his wallet in the car.

Todd was on the phone with someone in the garage that was going to verify if the wallet was in the car.  He later found out it was.  The plan was for Todd to meet the guy outside the airport, grab the wallet and come back.  Unfortunately that meant getting rescreened on the way back in.  Initially we were worried he wouldn’t have time to do so but he got back to the gate with a few extra minutes to spare, crisis averted.

After our whirlwind but very enjoyable start to our trip Ali and I didn’t know what to expect when we hit the meat and potatoes of the journey, a visit to Ireland.  But that will be the rest of the story….