new york - day two

Picking one day in New York as better than the others is difficult because they were all so enjoyable, but, if forced to choose, I would have to say the second day was the most fun. After going to bed sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning, we slept in until about 10 and left the hotel around 11 or 11:30. We stopped for a quick bite at a diner we had noticed the day before, which was just around the corner from our hotel. The food was good and relatively inexpensive.

Mother Nature decided it would be a good idea if we experienced an extremely light, but constant rain all day long. We did bring umbrellas with us, but barely used them because the rain was so light. It was slightly annoying, but other than that didn't affect our plans at all.

After lunch, we decided to head over to Times Square again in search of the Nintendo World Store. It was a fun place to visit with lots of Nintendo clothing and a small section that was almost a museum of old systems. They also had a large inventory of Wii Nunchucks, so Jeremiah picked up one of those along with a really cool hat displaying the original Nintendo controller and the words "role model". I picked up a shirt with the original Nintendo controller that said "old school". I was disappointed the store did not have any Kirby figures, but the store wasn't terribly big and there's no way they could have carried figures for every character Nintendo has ever invented. Thanks to my awesome friend Don for giving me the directions after calling him from the diner.

The Nintendo store was located on Rockefeller Plaza, so we were able to stop and see the famous ice rink there and watch some people skating. It was neat to see something that is such an icon and depicted in just about every film that takes place in New York. It was smaller than I had expected, but like many other things I've experienced it just proves how easy it is to deceive on TV or in movies.

After visiting the Nintendo store we made our way over to the theater to see if we could pick up our tickets early. The driving force behind our whole visit was the show we had bought tickets to, Evil Dead the Musical. Unfortunately, Jeremiah had taken the precaution of leaving his credit cards in the hotel room in case he lost his wallet or we were mugged and the box office required the credit card to pick up the tickets. At least we were able to find the theater for later reference. The tickets we had bought were in the front row, designated as the "Splatter Zone," which meant we were going to get covered in fake blood. We had even bought white clothes for the specific purpose of getting red on us.

One of the things I enjoyed about going to NYC with Jeremiah and Autumn was that they were not too concerned with making detailed plans. We spent most of our time just walking around and experiencing the city, which I don't think we could have enjoyed if we had tried to cram a lot of different attractions into our short time visiting. I would recommend this approach to anyone who can visit NYC and will have the ability to go back again. The city is an attraction all by itself and if you try to see too many things at once you could miss what NYC really is. Don't take my word for it, experience it for yourself.

We were in no rush to pick up our tickets, so we decided to leave that until later and instead made our way to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). We lost our bearings for a bit while searching for the MoMA, but were able to find it after a short detour. I'm sure it would have been interesting to see, but the price of admission was close to $30 and none of us had our hearts set on stepping inside, so we bypassed it.

Instead, we went to visit Central Park. Of all the places we visited during our time in NY, I think we spent the most time in Central Park. It was such an amazing place of calm in the big, busy city. The Park itself was much larger than I had expected and even though we walked for a few hours, we did not come close to seeing all of it. There was a zoo in the middle that seemed interesting, but because of the cool, damp conditions we thought the animals might not be as active as they could be and were content with seeing as much of the rest of the Park as we could. Central Park is Jeremiah's favorite park about NYC, and it's easy to see why.

This depiction of Alice in Wonderland was dedicated to someone's family, which we thought was an odd tribute considering the content of the book and the history of its author. Still, the statue was interesting and the picture gives a good idea of the day, overcast and wet.

The only thing remotely like Central Park that we have in DC is the National Mall, which is like comparing the actual Statue of Liberty to an overpriced souvenir. The Mall is completely flat, where Central Park is full of hills and rocks. And trees. This point cannot be overstated. The Mall has almost no trees, at least on the main part, while Central Park is nothing but huge trees, blocking out the skyscrapers and buildings that surround the Park to the point where you almost forget you are in the middle of New York City. Sure, the Mall can be used for things Central Park cannot (Screen on the Green was a really unique experience), but I would love to have a place like Central Park here in the city I work in.

By the time we emerged from Central Park it was getting late and we decided to grab some dinner and head to the theater for the show. We stopped back at the hotel, picked up Jeremiah's credit card, and finished off the remainder of the beer we had purchased the night before. We changed into the clothes we had purchased specifically for this show, which was a little weird because now Jeremiah and I were wearing the same outfit. Autumn said we looked like her bodyguards and insisted on taking a picture of us looking angry with a pretty flower between us.

After picking up our tickets at the box office, we stopped at a very small sushi place just a block or so down from the theater. The problem with eating amazing food is that it forever ruins your future enjoyment of that particular food, and that's what we experienced at Sushi Jun (302 W 50th St, New York, NY). I haven't had sushi since then, but Autumn assured me that it pales in comparison to what we ate that night.

After sushi we went to the theater. Finally, it was time to see the show that was the reason we were in NY in the first place. Almost. We had about an hour before the show started so we had a drink at the bar located in the theater. Slightly buzzed, we made our way into the theater and took our seats in the front row.

The show surpassed all of my expectations. Going in, I was a little worried that it would not live up to the joy I had extracted from watching the movies, but I my fears were unfounded. Although it seems impossible, the show may have actually been better than the movies, combining hilarious jokes, talented performers, and blood. Lots and lots of blood. It sprayed all over the stage and once it started it never stopped coming. It was easy to see the actors took immense enjoyment from what they were doing, pouring gallons of blood on the audience and interacting with us whenever possible.

[Actress wipes blood off the stage onto everyone in the first row.]
Jeremiah: "Why do you keep doing that?!"
Actress: [Makes mocking crying noise at Jeremiah.]

Another actor poured blood directly onto Jeremiah and one of the actresses grabbed my arm.

Possibly the funniest part of the whole show was when one actor was supposed to throw a few pages of paper into a trap door in the stage and missed, prompting him to curse, "Get the fuck down there!" The other actors could barely maintain their composure, grinning on stage and nearly bursting out laughing as the audience enjoyed this joke with the cast. Because the cast enjoyed what they were doing so much and didn't take themselves too seriously, this only added to the show and I'm thankful it happened.

Walking back to the hotel, we received a number of very strange looks, possibly because I was carrying a garbage bag of unknown contents while covered in blood. Possibly because we just looked like freaks. We returned to the hotel, changed our clothes, and, because we were still wired from the show, Jeremiah and I went out in search of food. Being used to DC where everything shuts down at about the same time the metro does, I was amazed by how active the city remained at 4 in the morning. The number of lights, billboards, and flashing signs lit the night as day. It was incredible. Even at 4 am we had to fight the crowds as we made our way through the streets, finally picking up some pizza and beer before returning the hotel.

What a day! We indulged our inner dork, wandered through a forest in the middle of an enormous city, enjoyed the best sushi of our lives, laughed until we cried, and got red on us. What more could a guy ask for?