Full Day #1 and Day 2.

OK, where to begin...it's going to be disjointed because we've done SO much and the time for us has been so weirdly blurred into a two day (plus the redeye) extravaganza of input.

We got our nap. About 1-1/2 hours at 9am to catch up. Woke up and went to Central Park then walked north to find Tom's Diner. Be sure to check out the Flickr picture postings!! That was a 50+ block walk North followed by another 50+ block walk south. Tiring but awesome. Tom's diner doesn't look like the Seinfeld diner on the INSIDE but Kriss decided we should go in and WHAT A TREAT! We just sat and had $3 worth of coffee and watched people and it was great. Such personalities. One guy came in with a hungry pan-handling woman and made quite a scene with the restaurant staff as he paid for her meal and she protested and worried that there was some sort of 'catch' and she was going to cause trouble. Such commotion over this philanthropic cheeseburger. And such a NY experience.

RAIN: The whole first day it rained like a fucker on us. It was only like 40 degrees too so it was cold and miserable. We bought umprellas and referred to them as Ninjumbrellas as we were going to stealthily kick the ass of this city, rain or not! The backpack was soaked. We wrapped the laptop in a plastic bag so it was cool. Camera got a bit wet and got some moisture in it. I was worried but it dried overnight.

IMAGINE: The Strawberry Fields "pease park" at Central Park, built by Yoko for John, was fantastic and I actually teared up just being there (and now just thinking about it). VERY emotional. You'd never think it, but it was. We even went back the next day and same experience. The Dakota Hotel where Yoko currently lives and where John died is right there and we went and took pics of that hotel too. Damn.

CENTRAL PARK: Was great. Horrible rain, but apart from trying to keep the lenses of our cameras dry and keeping dry ourselves, it was great fun. Beautiful with all the leaf-less trees and remnants of snow from the recent snowstorm.

FAIRWAY GROCERY: A store like I've never seen. Stock to the ceiling. People everywhere. Hundreds in a store that is no bigger than a few 7-11's. Be sure to see pictures!

CILANTRO BISTRO: We had our first NY Restaurant experience at a great little restaurant serving (surprise) Mexican stuff. Great and cheap. Awesome.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER: "Top Of The Rock" the observation deck on the roof. Unbelievable. We got, on day two, FANTASTIC WEATHER! Warm (50) and sunny! We fit the tower into today's schedule based on the weather and it was perfect. Paid the extra $ to go up to the top twice so we could see in the DAY and in the NIGHT. SEE THE PIX!

TIMES SQUARE: As hustling and packed with people as all the guidebooks say. Amazing and huge. Not the thing I'd like to do every day, but I've seen it now. Probably will NOT do it for NY Eve. Maybe Central Park?

SCAMMER: Kriss ALMOST fell pray to the scam that I read about before arriving but had not told her about. Guys hand you a CD saying "check this out" and then after it's in your hand, they ask your name and say they will autograph it for you. Once your name is 'sharpied' on it, they demand you pay for it. They got the CD in her hand, asked her her name, had the sharpie poised as she was about to say her name when I turned to see the action and grabbed the CD from her and said 'she doesn't need that'. After a protest from the dude ("haven't you heard of free will?"), we walked away and I told her what was up. After that, we saw like 5 more dudes doing the same thing to other unsuspecting tourists.

B&H PHOTO: We went way out of our way (and took our first SUBWAY RIDE) to get to 34th street to see the coolest and largest camera/photo/video store EVER. Unbelievable. Seriously. Unbelievable.

STREET DOGS: Two kinds of street dogs. We ate (at the behest of Willie) street vendor hot dogs for lunch. Great. Some sweet onion sauce on top. Got mustard on ourselves. Cool.

STREET DOGS: SOOO MANY dogs being walked on the street. All sizes. Even in the rain. Central Park is "off leash" before 9am! Dogs all over the place! (a $350 fine for leaving poo on the sidewalks of NY doesn't deter all owners as there is poo everywhere). So many dogs Kriss started taking pix. We call 'em DONY's (Dogs Of New York). "Hey, Look: Another DONY!".

CAFE LECHE: Last night's Cuban dinner. Pork Chops Mole for me and Chicken 'Con Limon' for Kriss. Great.

WINE: Found a wine store (rough, eh?) right across the street from our hotel. Bought a couple different Argentine wines (I've had good luck with them lately). The clerk opened for us and we took back to our hotel for nightcaps.

PIZZA: We had to have some NY Pizza. Found a place that's been nominated for Best In NYC for ten years running and ate there. Thanks for the tip, Willie! Great Pizza! I had the Chicken-Broccoli and the Chicken Parmesan. Kriss had Pepperoni. All were fantastic (even when I skipped the crust for the most part).

SUBWAY: Bought a subway card for the week. Took a few rides so far. Don't know if we're GOOD at it yet, but we have been able to get back uptown without the 40-block walk! We will keep that up!

9:25pm: Reflecting on the day while waiting for Flight 234 to NYC. Exhausting Christmas Day. Didn't sleep well as worried about Kriss not finding out about the trip. A long day starting with gift exchange and coffee in the AM at our house then heading over to Mom & Dads for breakfast and more gift exchange and talk/ bs/ play with Lisa, Jeanne, Sakura, Akina, Jake, Kyle, Doug, Marilyn. After that it's hustle on over to Therese's house for more gift exchange and dinner. Nick, Tony, Chuck, Therese, Jake, Kyle, Casey, Tony and Kriss are there. Boys get their wish-list top-rank item of their a40 Gaming Headsets. Booh-Yah.

Got to the airport and through security no problems except for a cursury look at my Glucose Test Kit which looked like a weapon in the X-ray machine. Now we wait. I type and Kriss facebooks on the Blackberry.

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