Because nothing says serenity, rest, and relaxation like Times Square, New York that is exactly where we decided to spend 5 days in celebration and rejuvenation of finishing our six week class. I'll say it again, it's always an adventure with the Crack Team.
Our flight left from Austin at 6am. In the collection of previous posts, I am sure you are readily aware that we are not morning people. And by morning we mean the hours of 7am - 10am. So, leaving our home at 4am was really closer to our bedtime than our wake up time. Needless to say, we slept almost the entire Jet Blue flight...and I was really looking forward to the tv's. I figured they had more than the 6 channels we have.
Once we landed in NY we got our luggage and called the same car service my company uses (or my old company, reference previous post). Although Chris would much prefer the adventure and frugal options of the subway or a yellow cab, we had big bags, empty stomachs (we both get carsick) and were more than ready to be in the city which is no short trip in public transportation. I pushed for the car service and the beautiful Lincoln town car got us from airport to hotel quickly, comfortably, and actually turned out to be the same as a yellow cab. Let me know if you are going to NYC and need the service number!
We dropped our luggage at the Hampton and headed to lunch. As we were walking there, a couple was openly and loudly arguing in the street. He would yell "If you walk away from me one more time, that is IT!" She would yell back "Oh just watch me...." and let the record state I have omitted many expletives because here at the Crack Team Chronicles we like to keep things PG. Anyway we awkwardly walked by, felt horribly for them, and weren't sure what we should do. We noticed other people walking on the street as though nothing were going on. It was then that we realized we weren't in Austin anymore. We collectively determined that since people are always around you in NY things that we are used to doing in private, people in NY do wherever since privacy is utterly unaffordable. We celebrated our thesis with a make out right in the middle of the sidewalk on 51st. Why not?
For lunch we went to Eatery. It was a short walk from our hotel and really good. We LOVED the edamame and recommend it. Chris had a burger that he also really enjoyed and I had the Southwestern Panini...yum!
Next we headed to Times Square to kill some time while they were preparing our room...and because after eating so much walking around seemed like a great way to make sure our pants would still fit. We went into the Hershey store because Chris loves chocolate. It was packed and really not too interesting - very NY touristy. The last thing we needed was a regular old Hershey bar for $5 because it had a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it. No offense Ms. Liberty. So we headed right across the street to M&M world. While it was equally as touristy in some ways, it was larger and more fun in enough other ways. The pic with this post is me with Disco M. There was also a whole wall with two story tubes filled with many colors of M&M. You could make your own combination. We love M&M's and the chance to make ours pretty seemed brilliant. We also found one of those machines where you put in $0.50 and a penny, crank the handle and it magically embosses a commemorative design on it. I put in the money, Chris cranked the handle, and out it came - an M&M penny. We were like kids in a candy store...and to some people we literally were!!
Finally it was back to the hotel for a little nap before our big night on the town. Even with glorious shopping in spitting distance, lights and action a block away, and the naked cowboy playing his guitar in the middle of Times Square, there was no denying that these night owls had started their day at a painful and ridiculous hour of the morning. If only coffee was an option for us....
Awake and dressed for a night out, we ventured across the street from our hotel to the subway. I was a little uncertain of the subway, especially at night. I've seen the movies, people! Well, it turns out that danger in the subway is like Texans riding horses everywhere...only in the movies. We got our tickets, got on the A train, and headed to the upper west side for an Italian feast.
We went to Regional for dinner. It was FABULOUS! Another strong recommendation from the Crack Team. Our waitress was so sweet and informative, the ambiance was perfect, and the food was unreal! They start you off with an appetizer plate of chickpeas and toasted Italian bread. We also enjoyed a glad of red wine (I wish I could remember the name!). For dinner, Chris had Maccheroni con Salsa di Melenzane e Pomodori - a plate from Sicily that was, in Texan terms, wide rigatoni noodles, with eggplant, tomato and dry ricotta cheese. I had the Culingionis al Pomodoro - a plate from Sardegna. It was sheep milk cheese ravioli, in tomato sauce, with pecorino cheese. If we were thinking with our heads instead of our taste buds we'd have saved some room for dessert but instead polished off our entire plates. We loved our whole Regional experience.
We headed back to the hotel for some sleep - big things were still ahead and since breakfast was free in the morning we couldn't sleep in too much or we'd miss it. Day 2, coming soon....
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