Thanksgiving in NYC 2008

We left our hotel in Nashville at 5:30 am to get to the airport.  Our flight left at 7:00 am central time.  We arrived at JFK airport at 10:30 am.  Our trip was quick and un-eventful.  We took a taxi to Manhattan and on the way we called the owner of the apartment we were renting as he was supposed to meet us there.  He told us that he was doing some last minute improvements and that it would be a little later before it would be ready.  Well...I was relieved to know we did have a place to stay but still concerned as to what it would be like.  He said we could leave our luggage there so we went ahead and went to the address. 
 
The location is indeed fantastic - right around the corner from Broadway and 2 blocks from all the action.  The apartment did not exceed my expectations but I wasn't dissapointment either. It does have a locked private outside entrance so we did not have to worry about it being open to the public.  It is larger than a standard hotel room with two queen size beds, a large closet, small bathroom and very small kitchen area with a full size refrigerator, microwave, stove.  It was not stocked with hardly anything to use in the kitchen.  It has a balcony that you can sit outside and look all around Manhattan. 

It was about 11:30 am and we left our luggage and decided to walk to the area where the balloon inflation was supposed to be going on from 3pm - 10 pm.  It was in the upper west side, north of Central park.  By the time we arrived we had walked 30 blocks!  The weather was nice though.  We were very hungry and didn't see but a few balloons being inflated so we ate lunch at UNO's - we laughed because our first stop in NYC was a Chicago restaurant.    After eating we still had time to kill so we went into the American Museum of Natural History.  We watched the IMAX film on Sea Monsters.  We also took the girls to the gallery on human evolution which is very vast and all about the history of our species.  Totally evolution based.  We couldn't resist taking the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Ape!  We looked around at the different galleries (probably only 1/2 of what was there) but we were tired of walking.  We looked for the different parts that reminded us of the movie "Night at the Museum".  We then left the museum and walked along 2 streets and looked at some of the balloons.  The crowds by now were extremely bad so we decided to get on the Subway and head back to Midtown.  We purchased an unlimited 7 day pass for all of us to use. 

We stopped at the TKTS booth near TImes Square where they sell same day tickets to shows for 1/2 price.  Bart waited in line for a long time while we walked around the area.  He purchased tickets to the Little Mermaid.  We did get to see the Naked Cowboy which is a TImes Square icon - a guy wearing only his white briefs with the words "naked cowboy" written on the butt with a gutar around his neck and a cowboy hat and boots on.  We couldn't image him walking around in such cold weather.  The girls were amazed!   We crossed the street to eat at Roxie's which was totally overpriced - $10 for a piece of cheesecake, etc.  We then went to the Rite Aid to pick up some milk, soda, etc. and headed to the room.  We only stayed long enough to unpack our clothes and then we walked to the Little Mermaid show.  It was awesome - the sets and props and costumes was fantastic.  All the broadway theaters are fairly small so any seat you get is pretty good.  We were on the orchestra level but almost to the back. 

It was about 11:00 pm by the time we made it back and we were all exhausted as we got up at 5:00 am but very happy to be in NYC!