Merry Christmas! We did quite a bit today. We started with breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, home of the singing waitstaff. What a fun place! The servers take their turns singing full versions of songs. The food was good too. My only complaint is that the tables were only 6 inches apart from one another so it was like dining with strangers. Jim and I had forgotten that this seems to be the norm in big cities. The hostess had to pull the table out so that one person could get in. It was crazy and awkward.
Next up… a total waste of money for us. Jim bought tickets online for the World Trade Center Observatory. Tickets were $31 each. We got there and it was foggy. Staff said it was zero visibility. Tickets are purchased with a reserved time slot. We’d have to wait in a long line to reschedule. We didn’t see any point in rescheduling since we weren’t really sure on when our next opportunity to get there again would be and what the weather would be like at that time. We went ahead with the visit. As we made through various check points, the staff would constantly remind us about zero visibility and did we want to reschedule. It was nice to offer but after being asked this 6 times before making it atop, I was getting a little annoyed. Now I know what a parent feels like. No thanks.
Security check point, orientation videos, informational videos, upsell a device video, and finally up top. Guess what? We couldn’t see shit. Zero visibility. Honestly, we probably shouldn’t have even bothered with it. It’s just a view of the city which we’ve seen on past visits. Oh, and beverages were $5.50 each. Oh, and we initially headed the wrong way on the subway causing an added expense. It was an expensive look at gray. Oh well.
Once outside, we sat down in a little pocket-park and called our parents for Christmas. I stopped at a street vendor for a potato knish, something I haven’t had in years. Jim was unfamiliar with them and after a bite of mine, didn’t really care for what he’d been missing all his life.
Above: It’s a stock photo. Really, I only ate one.
Back over to Times Square. NYC is crazy busy. Too crowded for our liking to be honest with you.
Later we headed to Radio City Music Hall which is only a few blocks from the hotel. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes was very much amazing. The singing, dancing, and special effects were amazing. I said amazing, right? A couple of photos off the website. I couldn’t possibly take such great photos:
For dinner, we had reservations at Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. We wanted something simple for Christmas dinner. Something more our personality. This was it. It was tasty.
Above: My meal
Below: Jim’s
The place seemed very disorganized. We stood behind a party of 4 that seemed like they were negotiating a hostile takeover of the place. I’m really not sure what their issue was. It was great for some of the host staff to talk over them or beside them to help us but I was asked 3 times if we had reservations (we did). It’s like the 1st and 2nd person who asked this question did absolutely nothing with the information. On the 3rd time, we were sent downstairs to a different hostess station where once again, you guessed it, we were asked if we had reservations. The four-top tables were too close together making the back of some chairs between the chairs of the next table over. Awful. Again, it’s the big city way for restaurants I suppose. The service was slow as well and the place wasn’t even filled up. Jim ordered his burger with no tomato and no pickles. That thing had so many tomatoes and pickles it was ridiculous. The server passed by and mentioned it. He replied that he was sorry and that they make so many of these things that the runner probably grabbed the wrong one. The server left. No offer to make it over. Nothing. Jim picked everything off and hoped that the pickle juice wouldn’t contaminate the flavor.
After dinner we browsed the Saks 5th Ave windows and went to Rockefeller Center. The crowds were unbelievable.
You’ll notice a lack of photos. If I like what I see, I generally try to get a picture of us in it. I’m just not into too many photos of inanimate objects anymore.
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