The Garden, Village and Rockettes

We are headed back to Seattle after a whirlwind trip to New York City.


Our final day was basketball at Madison Square Garden where the Huskies lost to Duke.


They started out slow and seemed intimidated. By the time they found their grove they were in a deep hole. They were down by 19 at one point and lost by 6. It was a great experience going to the garden nonetheless.


People sometimes give off the attitude when we go to an away game and the team looses that we must be sorry we went. That's most often not the case. More than anything we want the team to play competitively - which they did in the second half. As much as anything it's also about the travel experience. We always pack in great activities. We have also been to so many places here in the US that traveling to an away game gives us a excuse to head back to a familiar destination. Our next sports travel experience will be between Christmas and New Year when we travel to San Antonio, Texas for the Alamo Bowl. Just like Duke was for the Basketball Team - Baylor will be a difficult for the football team to beat. The quarterback for Baylor just yesterday was selected as the winner of the 2011 Heismen. Regardless if we win or lose - we will have a great time. It's of course an added bonus for the team to pull off a win!

As it turns out the place we stayed although fine - was not the same as staying in Manhattan. We really have finally learned our lesson! In the last several years we have been to New York several times and the last time we stayed near Bryant Park which was perfect! Sometimes we let the price convince us to stay elsewhere and always regret it. Although logistically the condo was fine - 7 minutes to Grand Central Station it was not in the kind of neighborhood we typically like. It was not necessarily a bad neighborhood but it was certainly not a walkable, hang out kinda place. The building was fairly new and because the condos were not selling some are rented out. Design wise it was pretty nice although if you lived there some things would drive you crazy. It seems like in some cases design took precedence over function and the finish work was not top quality. One last thing - the place was furnished with nice furniture, but it was sparsely furnished which resulted in the place echoing. Okay enough said - we won't be staying there again.

We very well may have packed in a few to many activities - we were on the go from the time we landed until we arrived at the airport to fly home. Yesterday following the game we went to the Village for some shopping and diner. It's a great walkable neighborhood with a lot of great restaurants.


There was some kind of 5 Burrow run where the runners all dressed in Santa suits. It was hilarious to see so many Santa's all over town. By the end of the day there were a lot of what we began to call "hot drunk Santa's" all over town!


There really are a lot of good looking guys in New York City!



We never did connect with Cuyler in person while in New York. We texted several times but our schedules never did march up. Perhaps next time.






While walking around the village we happened upon the pride tree above and made our way to the site of the original Stonewall riots.
We went to Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. It was fun albeit a bit cheesy. We knew what we were getting into however and had a great time. The sets were very good. Hard to believe that 30 + years ago I was there for the same show while in New York visiting my sister Rose.


We arranged for car service to the airport as opposed to taking the subway. We were able to get on an earlier flight since we arrived so early and got through security fast. We arrived home 2 hours earlier than we otherwise would have.

Glad to be home and looking forward to the next few weeks leading up to Christmas.

Have a good one!

Jim


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