June 22, 2008 New York City!

Here we are again, doing the mad tourist thing! I have a couple of spare hours as Dale has had to do a quick trip, so I am attempting to catch up on this whole, crazy adventure. I left Cyprus on Wednesday, overnighted in London, then arrived at JFK on Thursday midday. The bus system here is phenomenal - or at least the driver I had was, and I arrived at the hotel within an hour and a half of landing. Who needs drag racers?
Another great thing here is the food. I have decided that if I ever had to live in New York, I would never cook again. They have the most fabulous gourmet take out places that I have ever seen. I am sitting here enjoying a couple of avocado salad rolls with sweet chili sauce and an iced vanilla chai tea. Then of course there are the delicious deli's and the marvelous and ethnically diverse restaurants. So many choices, so little time!
Oh yes, the sights! Thursday evening we hit Broadway and saw the musical of 'Young Frankenstein'. It is a bit of a family thing (mostly Dale, Adam and Joel), but truly entertaining. And I do believe they managed to retain the most important parts, with a few current laughs thrown in for good measure.
We spent Friday mostly in line-ups to get to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but even that was worth it. You had to line-up for the subway, line-up for your ticket, line-up to get on the boat to the Statue, line-up to get to Ellis Island, line-up to get back to New York, then line-up again for the subway. But it was all very informative and interesting, especially Ellis Island. What thousands of people went through to get to a life we take for granted. We are very spoiled. The play we went to afterwards was called 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!' It has been running here for about 12 years. It was great fun.
Saturday found us in more line-ups - this time to see the Empire State Building. We were very lucky to have blue skies and only a bit of haze, so the view was excellent. What an amazing city. We also stopped in at the New York Library which had amazing murals and frescoes. We did take the evening off though, as Dale had to head off to work early.
This morning I attended the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church 1808-2008. They are celebrating 200 years of worship in November. It was a lovely service and very welcoming and inclusive. And the church itself was so beautiful - truly a work of art. A very enjoyable experience.
So, I am caught up for the present. I can't imagine maintaining this pace for the rest of the week, but will let you know what we are up to at some point.
Love,
Laurel