Sorry, I digress. My point is to tell you about the insanity of being a tour guide in a city you are still getting to know. As I mentioned, I had visitors this weekend: Mr. Nathan Miller and Mr. Justin Croft. Both descending on the Big Apple with little time and a lot on their to-do list. Thursday contained Union Square, Restorante Il Cantinori (so delicious!), Greenwich Village, Chelsea Pier, and the Statue Liberty. Not bad for one evening if you ask me! Too-bad for Justin I still had to work on Friday so he was alone, but still alive when I got-off, so it couldn't have gone that badly.
Friday evening we caught The Dark Knight and both agreed with the critics: it's INCREDIBLE. That movie is truly the best movie I've seen in a LONG time. I recommend it to anyone. Even if you aren't the biggest superhero movie-watcher, doesn't matter. Nothing short of brilliant.
After the movie we headed down to Times Square, because if you haven't seen Times Square at night, you haven't seen it at all. It's just totally different to see it in all of its majestic ad illuminated glory. I can't imagine a more iconic place in NYC. For dessert we grabbed some PinkBerry as we waited for Nathan's bus to arrive. And finally, my dear Nathan was here! How I love my twin brother!
By now it was late, but we had to map out our Saturday, because there is no way you can be a tourist in this city without a plan. There are just too many options so I don't advise ever coming here if you don't know what you want to see. I made it very clear to the boys that we HAD to make a plan if we were going to make the most of their 48 hours, no lollygagging! Not while they were here, no sirree! Here's another plug: http://www.hopstop.com/?city=newyork (the ONLY way to travel in NYC unless you want to waste money on cabs)!
Saturday's Itinerary: Central Park, China Town, Little Italy, Brooklyn, Coney Island, Washington Square Park, Chelsea Pier/Statue of Liberty, Times Square
We departed from Union Square and hit Central Park. Nathan was super excited mostly because apparently a lot of Cloverfield was filmed there. We walked around a little, gave Nathan a chance to take some pictures underneath a bridge while reenacting an expression of terror, he looked exactly like the kids from the movie. He's gonna be famous. China Town and Little Italy are next door neighbors, not next door to Central Park though. Took us a little while to get over to that side of town, but it's always worth the ride when you are going to two new countries! 
Walked through China Town, ran in to Zaran Fabrics, Real Housewives anyone? We stopped in Little Italy for some "authentic" Italian cuisine, which I thought was very good, but we definitely had to wait a very long time for it. We were all pretty famished at this point so not being fed immediately was slightly hard to endure, hence this expression of starvation/anger from Nathan:
We were refueled after leaving Giovanna's, noticed we weren't too far from Coney Island so took the train even farther away. Now Coney was crazy. People EVERYWHERE, beach covered by bare skin and umbrellas... The fact that it is the hometown of hot dogs made it all better though, for the boys anyway. Despite that we had eaten a mere hour before, they hit up Nathan's Famous Hot Dog stand and ordered two dogs each. If you didn't know, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog stand on Coney is the home of the equally famous hot dog eating contest on ESPN annually.
And I am not joking about this, y'all. 
Now the boys were really full (I think...) so we walked the beach briefly and hopped back on the train to Manhattan. The train was excellent for seeing Brooklyn, which killed two birds with one stone. Once back in Manhattan, we took a short break, and then hit Washington Square Park, where they filmed a lot of I Am Legend, so again, Nathan was very excited. Despite that we were starting to get achey feet, we walked down to Chelsea Pier and the boys got a view of Lady Liberty. It was at this time that we agreed it was time to eat again and hit up Tortilla Flats, my suggestion of course! Unfortunately we ended up waiting about an hour, but the food was so worth it. Never disappoints. And then for the Grande Finale: TIMES SQUARE for Nathan! It really never gets old, well I guess it would if you don't like bright lights and can't stand crowds... However, even for someone who might not have been very impressed with Times Square, that person couldn't possibly deny the splendor of the upcoming event. As we are walking back to Union Square, I randomly pick a street, and turns out we are the back side/exit of one of the Broadway theaters. A hoard of people, mostly girls, are giggling with cameras ready, I knew something was going down. Justin's opinion was "they are waiting to get into the show," I knew there was no way a show was starting at the present hour, someone was coming OUT of the theater, and it was someone good. Moments later, the back door swings open, several huge bouncer-esque men come out, followed by none other than Mario Lopez! That's right, my first celebrity sighting! Now I know he's no A-lister, but that doesn't mean he's not way famous. A successful day? I think so!
Sunday's Itinerary: Harlem/Rucker Park, Ground Zero, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange
Sunday offered a little less time for us so we had to go to Harlem first. Rucker Park, located in Harlem, is the supposed home of street basketball, Nathan so graciously informed me. According to the web, lots of basketball greats played there back in the day and still come randomly, which gave us hope that we would see someone ridiculous ballin', but unfortunately when we reached the court all we found was a bunch of girls. Oh well, that didn't subtract from the excitement of being extremely, shall we say, aware of our "cracker"-ness. I decided it would be wiser to capture our visit to Harlem while we were still underground, before the sun could reflect off our skin, i.e., the picture:
Harlem was quickly followed by Ground Zero, Wall Street, and the Bull! I wanted to see the Bull Statue so badly. It was too bad that hundreds of other people wanted to see it too so I didn't get the best pic, but I still got to mark it off my list of things so see. 
Then time to eat! Now, the boys had been nagging me all weekend to pick fast food (those 2 are so cheap!), I wouldn't give in. Aside: I made a resolve when I arrived here that I would not eat anywhere that is a chain/a place that I can eat back in Texas. Those two cheapies went to Burger King while I grabbed some delicious food from a toss bar next door and they joined me there. Then the day was wrapped up with a trip into the Virgin MegaStore and then it was time to say goodbye.
The whole weekend was jam-packed and I'm still exhausted a day later. Not to mention the minor cold symptons now pulsing through my head.
But it doesn't matter one bit because Lindsey and Candace will be here THURSDAY!!!!!!! Oh, the madness to come and I can't wait for it :)
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