NY Trip - Sunday

We checked out of the Roger Smith, aka Gorilla in the Mist Hotel, left out bags with the bell boy and jetted off to our first day in New York City. We had breakfast at a diner that would best be described as a Denny's with flair. After our $45 eggs and toast, we decided to walk to Central Park in search of a playground for Little Miss. We entered Central Park, the walks lined with benches and huge beautiful trees in yellows, reds, and oranges. Street vendors were singing, playing saxophones and drums, drawing portraits, and selling all manner of pictures. There were tons of people meandering about or playing soccer or doing yoga. I fell in love with the Park, from almost the first steps we took into it. Searching for all the places that I could remember in the movies was fun, I even sang the "How Do You know" song from Enchanted while circling around by the bridge. Daddy took a great video of my madness.
We finally found the playground, and Little Miss went haywire. She tunnelled, she ran, she slid, she climbed, she ran, she swung, she... where is she? LITTLE MISS!! LITTLE MISS!! Daddy and I looked frantically for her. In the first 4 minutes I was just mildly curious as to where she went, at 5 minutes I was heart thumping, at 5 minutes and 30 seconds I remembered we were in NEW YORK, and at 6 minutes we were at full out HEART ATTACK. Several minutes after that, when Daddy and I had laid out a cris cross search pattern, we found Little Miss in a concrete tunnel on an adjacent park. Daddy didn't let her feet touch the ground the rest of the time in the Park. We had a long long long too long discussion about safety, which she probably didn't retain at all. Whew. Still. I loved the Park. We rode the old time carousel, watched people ice skate, and ate the first of many hot dogs from street carts.
We walked back for our bags and had the doorman hail us a cab. More than 8 cabs stopped, but when they found out we were only going to the Village and not the airport they took off. Finally we got a cab and made our way (very late) to our condo for the week. Our gracious landlord gave us the tour and left. The condo was smaller than my bedroom, on the 4th floor with no elevator, and hot as the dickens. But it was cheap, clean and a fantastic central location for our travels.
We took our first adventure on the subways that evening to Madison Square Garden for the Knicks v Rockets game. We came to love the subway, taking it everywhere. We are Masters of the Subway. We ate pizza at a corner bistro, YUMMY!! and I put Little Miss's Snapple in the inside pocket of my jacket. When walking into the Garden, security made Daddy throw away the Coke in his hand. We no more than got through the metal turnstiles than Little Miss yells "THANKS MOM FOR HIDING MY DRINK IN YOUR JACKET". It was hilarious and we SSsshshhhhhhhhhh'd her. She must have thanked me a million times during the game, all whispering in my ear. The tickets that we got through a favor were unbelievable. We were on the floor of the Garden! Little Miss actually loved the game yelling DE- FENSE all night and almost always at the wrong times. We had blow up whacking sticks to make noise and put up when the Rockets shot free throws.. very fun. Little Miss was asleep across our laps by the middle of the 4th quarter, so when the Rockets sealed the win with 8 minutes to go we took the subway home. It had been a Great Long Day. We got home and fell asleep shortly before midnight.