New York City - 2005

Normally, Thanksgiving happens locally, which it does anyway since that's where most of the things for which I'm thankful are. But this Thanksgiving (November 2005), we were busy thanking remotely from New York City. We had some thanks for the locals there as well.

Here's what the roadtrip to NYC is like: Calm, considerate, attentive, and safe driver in the upper left; back of the passenger's head as she strives to see the road better to add safety to the already safe driving experience; yelling kid in the back because she wants something good to drink and not this yellow mush that she has to hold all the way to NYC that she won't eat anyway; yellow mush; kid after getting something that costs money.

Entering the City thru the Holland Tunnel

Here's how we get there - the Holland Tunnel. Its straight and low lying. Without the equivalent of dikes holding back the Hudson River, it would be flooded. For these reasons, its called the "Holland" tunnel.

This is a digital reprensenation of how the table looked before we started giving thanks by eating all this food. Thomas Turkey takes center stage with baked apples and brussels sprouts showing up in the top left corner. Mush is over on the right center, with white creamy onions below and some pickeled watermellon and assorted italian berries and carrots alongside to the bottom left. Manner conscious viewers may note the salad is mislocated at the top right instead of top left. That's why the water glass is displaced to the top center. Keen observers may note an eighth pound of butter and knife.

That night, to work off all the power chow above, we thought we'd take in one of New York City's famous theater-district shows. These are live performances where a bunch of real people act out a situation, usually with lots of singing and dancing. So we go to "Rent." Its about a bunch of people dying and not paying their rent. It was a fitting tribute to the day - another thing for which to be thankful - being better off than those folks, at least their characters - I expect those actors are pulling down some large coin.

Here's the set for Rent - obviously a few coin spared. We had the seats in the next to the top row. It was pretty good because the make up looked realistic.

Here are some of the stars of Rent. Junior hustled down to get a pic taken with the two main stars. One is named and so is the other. Note the smiles on both actors. I was glad they did this and the coin that paid for this pic went to charity.

Junior on the Roof, (camera) looking into Midtown (Northwest). She likes to sing and dance too. She gets this from, hmm, not me, not mom. Guess she gets it from books and history class.

Street Hogs - there is little room for anything on the public streets other than these things. Some of them have little tents on the roofs with an advertisement; others just have a little sign with their number and a couple of yellow lights. Other than that they are 100% identical Ford Crown Vics with little medallions on the front hood.

This is Times Square. Its pretty bright there - I didn't use a flash. It used to be called Longacre Square. In 1904, It was renamed after the New York Times building that became the cornerstone of the new district. According to Trav S.D., its a perpetual explosion of color and motion.

We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and bought some clothes so we could look like everyone else. .

Here are the ladies waiting for a light so they can do battle with the cloned yellow taxis. They all have hats which is important in the style-conscious Empire City. Junior is gleeful due to the funny little New York monkey on her hat.

If you need any goods, they are available on the street - literally. Here is a nice selection of videos.

Next Day - we get ready for walking around Gotham City - it was cold - 35 degrees. We had more color than the majority of the natives, who where mostly black or dark blue with some dark maroon or forest green occasionally.

Here are four family members checking out Greenwich Village (pronounced gren'-ich, not green'-which). Can you tell who are the natives and who are the tourists?

A couple of things to note about commuting in the city. One, you need to put a plastic bag on your bike seat. That disguises them from seat stealers and keeps the spit from drying on the seat. The other is the need to park tight - if you don't bump the cars in front and in back when parking, get a bigger car.

Junior checks out the Village. Just like Friends - I can see Phebes playing "Smelly Cat" right oustide the Bello Restaurant.

This is a test. We put Junior between a Limo (riches), a street vendor (spending), and a Tatoo parlor (vagrant) to see which she preferred. Thankfully, she's pointing towards the Limo.

This is art that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had to rest the camera on something to get this without the flash, because flashes wear out the old paint.

Another photo of Times Square from that night - notice anything unusual? Note the excitement that one gets for chomping down on a stick of Wrigleys.

This is where we saw the odd couple, which is just like the last time I saw it. But it was fun to see Matt Broderick and Nathan Lane. It had the tall guy named Brad from Everyone Love's Raymond too. He is real tall - had to stoop to get under the stage doors.

No visit to the City that Never Sleeps is complete without a look at the Eddy Sullivan theater where David Letterman does his show. The deli Rupert Jee operates was "dark" (NYC speak for closed).

This is how the building owner's decorate their buildings. Its pretty hard to dind six foot wide ribbon and harder to find guys to tape it on.

This is Proof that I went up to the top of the Empire State Building. I did this while the rest of them went to see Hairspray, another broadway show that features lots of singing and dancing. Instead of that, I waited for an hour to have this picture taken and then spend about 20 minutes on top of an 86 story building. It was pretty cool outside and hot inside.

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