Travel Diary

More sleeping in, especially considering the late bed time. Lesly and Elaine left a little early to visit the Central Park Zoo. I passed on that, but had I known that they had those awesome Red Pandas there, I might have chosen otherwise.

(I would later learn that I also did miss seeing some baby snow leopards though. Ooh, that news stung. Those photos may have been nothing short of epic.)

Terry and Bri went shopping so I went back to Central park for more photos. Again, there were crowds all over the place, but some nice quiet spots as well. It's just so cool to feel like you're in the middle of a calm forest when you're in the middle of a busy metropolis.

In time, I headed out of the park and southward into the city. I received word that Lesly and Bri were in FAO Schwartz so I journeyed into there, marveling at all the candy. Eventually, I picked up a Mango candy bar and some saltwater taffy. But the lines were too long so I put them back. Funny, as addicted to candy as I am, and yet here I won't buy it due to a 5-minute wait in line.

Then I was exiting and noticed a counter in the store middle with no line. So ... I went back for the mango bar and bought that. I figured I didn't want to be carrying around the taffy all day and it was now 2014 and I needed to start eating less candy anyway (the mango bar even didn't get opened until after the trip).

Leaving the store, I looked for Terry but couldn't find him and Bri. I then got cold.

I then got colder.

I was soon back in FAO Schwartz getting warm again.

Finally, I met up with the four of them as they were actually inside the store at the puppet section. I asked if they bought one. At $100 a puppet, they said, “NOPE!” A sock and a sharpie pen were much cheaper puppets.

We took the subway over to the ferry station and once again boarded it and rode out to Staten Island. I took more photos of the same icons as before, but since the weather was much grayer this time, I knew my first set of photos would be better. Still, never hurts to try.

We met Jeff on the island and then Tanya drove us back to the apartment. The dinner was great, though I stuck with small portions.

And then went back for more small portions.

This was repeated about three times. The food was just so delicious.

We spent more time talking in the living room until it was time to take the ferry back one last time. Now, it was nice and dark, so I could get a great night shot of the New York City skyline.

Lesly pointed out that most of the buildings didn't have many lights on.

What?! Hey, what's the big idea? The city is supposed to be 24/7. What's the deal with turning off the lights? I guess I didn't expect that at all. Certainly, there were enough lights to make a decent photo, but yeah, I guess it does make sense. People simply like to sleep in the dark.

We returned to Times Square again and checked out the lights and action once more. It's a fun place, though not on NYE proper. Visit any other time but then.

No outing would be complete without pizza. Terry wanted more of the to-go pizza, which was very good, though I was still surprised that anyone had any appetite after that big dinner.

It's probably something about the food in the city being so excellent, which doesn't explain why so many people are in such great shape. It's uncanny. NYC is just full of beautiful people--everywhere you look. Granted, many are foreigners, but many locals also keep fit. Other cities could learn a lesson or two.

It was a fun-filled, long day. I had no trouble sleeping as usual.

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