Late Xmas

Hey! Sorry I took a little break, can I call out sick? I kinda was, so I prioritized couch slacking over picture commenting. My friend and I took a trip up to the "Big City" and must have picked up a common cold as a souvenir. The trip itself was fun though, so enjoy some Big Apple pics!

Here's the train station! It's been a long time since we've done this, so it took a little bit of remembering to buy a ticket and pay for the parking. Train tickets were around $19 per way, and parking was another $7. So... $45? A little more, with some tax or whatever. I don't know how much tolls on the Turnpike are right now, but it seems like the train is a lot less expensive, probably.

Of course, you are at the mercy of the train schedule, so don't be in a hurry! It might be cold outside while you wait, too. I can see some advantages to driving yourself.

What happened to the train windows? Almost all of them were scratched up! This is going to be a boring ride if I can't look out the window! Boo!

The other side of the window had a small sliver I could look out of, but I had to sit backwards and watch the receding scenery. It was making me super dizzy, so I had to stop. Ugh.

Train 3836. Are there Four Thousand Trains? That number seems high, doesn't it? Is that in the whole world?

Off the train! No need to pay attention, this is the final stop for the trip up.

This giant lobby for New York Penn Station should be a little more iconic that it is. Not sure what they need to add here, but it could use... something.

The train station is right at the entrance to Madison Square Garden. So it's easy to go watch a show there. I don't even know what's playing today. Probably some Christmas thing?

Weeeeee! It's New York City! Look at all this city!

I think the last time we visited the city, we also made the mistake of hitting the first pizza place we saw, and over-payed. Just too excited to have "New York Pizza" which is indeed magically more-delicious. You can't understand until you try it, and once you do, you simply cannot disagree. It doesn't matter where you go in it, ALL pizza is better from New York City.

Anybody remember the Cake Boss TV show? There's the shop! Go get some choowk-lit. You have to say "chocolate" with that Jersey accent.

Ah! That's the pizza place we should have gone to! John's Pizzeria is inside an old church so the decor is amazing! They famously don't sell pizza by the slice, so we would have seriously over-bought for a whole pizza, if we did go there.

John's is across the street from the theatre showing Aladdin. How did we remember that? They've both been here for a long time!

Times Square! This is where all the tourists go. That's why we're here, too!

Look up and see the big 2025 New Years Eve sphere. That's where the New Years TV show happens. Whoops that probably says 2026 by now. Happy New Years!?

Let's not glaze-over (heh) the amazing scrolling odd-shaped digital banner, on the Krispy Kreme shop. Cool tech.

I feel like this could have said 'Christmas' somewhere on it, but it was Christmas time, and I thought the big Jesus um... ad (?) was neat to see.

Radio City! It was comforting knowing I was able to recognize where I was, considering how long it's been since I've been here. At least knowing my way around the tourist center parts.

Yeowch. Line down the avenue, to get into the FAO Schwarz toy store. All things considered, it probably wouldn't have been too long of a wait, but we didn't find out. I've seen the giant keyboard you step on, years ago, so I didn't prioritize seeing it again.

We did follow the line over to Rockefeller Plaza where the giant tree is! It's still bright out, but you can see it's full of colorful lights. They don't mind keeping the lights on in the daytime, even though that's gotta be expensive.

Through that window is where they film the NBC Today Show! If it was earlier in the morning, you could switch to the channel and watch us wave frantically from over here.

NBC puts up the barriers over here, and this is where the Today Show cast goes out to greet tourists during the show. Say "hi!" to Al Roker!

Here's another angle at the line down the avenue for FAO Schwarz. Hmmmm.... On second glance, it might have been a good wait to get in.

There was a barrier, so I couldn't get a better view of the ice rink down there. Everybody recognizes that gold statue.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the tree, but don't forget to look up, and be amazed at the size of the actual Rockefeller Plaza building. That's a tall building, even around here.

It's gotta be more impressive that this church is so amazingly detailed, right among all these other massive buildings. Would it be funny to imagine all the surrounding buildings having that much detail?

Hey. It's the Trump Tower. Should get a picture of that, I guess. Hey, it's a place in New York City.

Hahaha! The airplane said I get to check ONE bag for free. Never said how big it could be!

This big area in front of Central Park was fenced off. Classic New York; there are holes in the lining so you can peek in. Looks like a new plaza hang out place in the future.

Plenty of statues in Central Park. I'm not in the mood to read all the plaques and stuff. what did this guy do, to deserve a statue? Probably something cool, you think?

This is a weird statue. Not sure this is supposed to be somebody important, it looks like some kind of art piece. Maybe illustrating how annoying bugs are?

I Googled what celebrity does the audio tour guide, and they said it was various people. Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, John Lithgow, and Matthew Broderick. That's Guinan, Black Widow, Lord Farquad, and Ferris Beuller.

Time-skip! I took a lot of pictures in Central Park, so I'll post all those together. I also took a break to re-charge the phone, but the charger battery was not working, so it would up not charging. Is that too much info? I'm back over at Bryant Park where they set up a whole thing each year for the holidays.

There's a big ice rink over here, too. and it's surrounded by those little booths for shopping and food goodies.

It was about time to eat a dinner, so we were scouting around for temptations. Fried Pickles? Looked good! But we saw somebody order one and it looked really tiny for $14...

WMD. Funny. Not Weapons of Mass Destructions, it's Waffles of Massive Deliciousness.

I almost splurged on the Waffle, but... Ouch. That's rough. The only way to order was on the screen, and they ask for the tip before you check out. So you just know that they will cheap-out on your portions if you cheap-out on the tip. I mean, they don't tell you that directly, and they might not do it, but... What a crummy tactic. I'm not wealthy enough to try and find out, so I bailed on the waffle. I... Waffled? I glanced over and saw another person's order, and it did not look like $16 worth of size, anyway.

Still hungry, but Let's wander around some more. Here's a view of the little rows of booths for shopping.

I think this artwork is pre-artificial-intelligence, but this is the type of thing you can generate easily these days on various websites by typing in request prompts.

Did I need another picture of the booth rows? There's a lot of them! So many various things to shop for.

Not for nothin', but they got a big tree over here, too. Not just Rockefeller Plaza, there's big trees all over this city.

There's the Bryant guy this Bryant Park is named for. That's the giant Public Library behind the statue. Yeah, the Library from the Ghostbusters movie.

I saw the guy making these potatoes, and they looked huge! Still, $20 is a lot, but the meal looked like it would be quite filling, at least. I still passed, but almost got one.

Okay, we wandered away from the faire, it was clear the food was either way expensive, or small portioned. It's not like we were starving, so it was okay to wander more. I feel like Tesla's street needed more lights. Or a giant Tesla Coil or something.

Should you buy the shirt before you leave? Are you certain you survived? Hehe I'm not trying to jinx anybody, I just thought it was a weird paradox to pre-buy a shirt like this. You'll probably be alright.

Strange sculptures around these random tables area. Let's get a picture?

These mannequins were wearing some crazy outfits! And I laughed when I thought... Maybe not so crazy, for this crazy place? Maybe not until the summer, it's cold outside right now.

Well, hunger finally caught up to us, as we wandered past Jollibee. We do have a Jollibee in New Jersey, but it's quite a drive away, and it's been a long time since we've been there.

Some kind of collaboration with a singing group? Sure! We already were going to go, this is not necessary, but fun anyway.

The statue was inside. Where he's safe. This is Jollibee, if you didn't know. He gets a statue to hug, when you visit the restaurant.

Hahahaha! Jollibee is such a boss! Surrounded by the singing group, this giant display was tucked in the corner.

We did get the special Jollibee x Katseye sandwich. It was some kind of spicy soy sauce Korean Barbecue dipped sandwich. Smothered in sauce. Super messy and tasty. 

Our battery did last long enough, but barely. Made it back to our station with 4%. Couldn't play games or anything while on the train, but we did check the time a couple of um... times.

Score!!!! We took the packed express train home, and the ticket person did not get to us. So we basically got a free ride! That's about $20! Tickets are good for a month, so we can just go again! Now we only need to buy one ticket for another round trip. Spoiler? I already used this ticket again, so there's more New York City picks for later.