New York City.... roar!

In an attempt to celebrate Amanda's return from Chile and the end of Kris' seclusion, we took a trip to a place as different from the Atacama Desert as possible and in which it is practically impossible to find oneself alone: New York City. We went as part of an organized excursion through Cornell, so transportation to and from the city and tickets for The Lion King were all included in one convenient package...
decidedly convenient, since we did not have to worry about driving, parking, or staying awake on the way home. Our only tasks were not to get lost between noon and 6pm and to successfully navigate the maybe four city blocks between where the bus dropped us off and picked us up at the end of the day.

Soon after arriving at the bus at six in the morning, we quickly noticed that we were the only people not over the age of forty or under the age of ten. While I was wondering whether this was a reflection of the audience base for the show we were going to see, Kris made the probably more accurate supposition that we are probably the only students who bother to read the flyers posted in our buildings. The bus ride was relatively uneventful, excluding perhaps a pit-stop at a McDonalds, an amusing "do not pee while standing" sign in the bus bathroom, and the truly terrible film "The Astronaut Farmer."

After frantically climbing off the bus to hopefully save our driver from a mob of angry taxi drivers for stopping on a busy street, we pulled out our little map to find out where we were. Before the map was all the way out, however, Kris simply pointed in the general "up" direction and said "I think we're in Time Square." Well, no wonder the taxi drivers had been so angry. After taking the obligatory pictures (see below) we headed out in search of food in the two hours we had before the start of the show.






Trying to find a lunch option beyond the chains like the Hard Rock Cafe and ESPN Zone and numerous carts selling various types of meat impaled on small skewers we saw another icon of Time Square: the Naked Cowboy. As you can see below, he is not, in fact, naked, as full nudity would probably not only result in a somewhat forceful removal, but would also likely massively decrease the number of people (particularly young women) who stop to take pictures with him. I guess a cowboy hat, underwear, boots, and a guitar define the line between "bold and cool" and "inappropriate and creepy" on Time Square.



Eventually we came across a restaurant that had caught Kris' eye from the bus window. Though the picture below is somewhat obscured by vans, I think you can see why. Despite arriving directly in the middle of lunch rush, Kris were seated within a minute, given water and menus within two, and had an expectant waitress waiting for our orders by the third. Before seeing what anyone around us was eating, we had decided to split a meal and get a piece of the glorious-looking cheesecake we had seen in the window, but after the first towering and steaming plate passed us by, we were very grateful that we had made that decision. Four minutes after ordering our table was covered by coleslaw, pickles, a generous piece of cheesecake, and what can only be described as a Reuben of epic proportions (see below). For those of you saying "hey, Amanda, I thought you were lactose intolerant," my answer is simply, "some things are just worth eating." Even pausing to have the waitress take our photo, we were done with our meal 18 minutes after sitting down.


Maxie's Restaurant from across the street


Inside the restaurant


Gigantic reuben


Glorious triple chocolate brownie cheesecake

With happy bellies, a giant take out container stuffed in Amanda's bag, and feelings of awe at the efficiency-to-satisfaction ratio of our recent meal, we set back out to look around a few stores before heading to the theater. The highlight (and most photogenic) was the three-story Toys-R-Us ... in this case I think it is best to let the photos do the talking.


Not actually outside of Toys-R-Us, but a nice view of the street


Ferris wheel inside Toys-R-Us


Lego Empire State Building, complete with King Kong


Some more giant lego creations


Rexie


Amanda expressing her long-held feelings about this Candyland character


Kris showing his ability to match the powers of Spiderman

After indulging each or our not-so-inner-child, we headed to the theater to take our seats. As there are no photos allowed in the theater this part of the entry will be relatively brief. I know it sounds cheesy and like a bunch of people running around dressed up as animals and breaking out into song for no apparent reason, but The Lion King is a really unique and extremely enjoyable show. If you haven't seen it, you haven't seen anything like it... guaranteed. With seats in row L, our view was fantastic and the brilliance of the costume and set design was impossible not to appreciate.

Extremely content, we made our way to Bryant Park to meet the bus. Though the majority of people on our trip tried to cram as much shopping and tourist-ing as possible into this time, we had had our fill of crowds, noise, and impending-doom style traffic. Sitting at a table under the trees we enjoyed the breeze, watched a few ruthless games of Pentaque (kind of like bocce, but not), and ate the remainder of our lunch, the leftovers of which made a hefty dinner in themselves.









Eventually the bus arrived and we bent ourselves as comfortably as possible into our seats in hope of sleeping on the way home, but the under-ten crowd, another McDonalds pit-stop, and an epic-but-losing battle with the DVD player left us without much sleep. Though we were falling on our faces (and getting up at five the next morning to drive to Cleveland) we agreed that the day had been very much well spent.


This photo didn't really fit neatly anywhere into the blog, but it needed to be included. Yes, that billboard is actually advertising for "TruBlood: the Synthetic Blood Nourishment Beverage" ... I don't know how you feel about this, but they are quite clear in expressing the sentiment that "Real Blood is for Suckers"... well, the next time I get the urge to drink blood, I'll be glad to know that there is a delectable synthetic alternative....