YAU (Yet Another Update)

Not much to report. Heavy rains. The winds have not been enough to notice from out our window. We can see the streets, including Times Square, nearly empty, which is eerie. Height of the storm is supposed to hit early morning. More then.

More updatery...

Okay, about 8 pm local time, the rain has started coming down heavy.

We can vouch for this, as we were out taking a walk.

Inside and changed into dry clothes. I am thinking we are in for the duration.

Update -- Hurricane watch

Yesterday the news was predicting winds to start up around 5 pm.

Hasn't happened yet. I don't know if that is good news or not.

We walked around a little bit--turns out the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood is just a few blocks from Times Square (hey, I'm a west coast boy, how should I know?) and found a lovely blue-collar wine bar. Yeah, that's the kind of thing we love. We hung out there for a bit, and then returned to the hotel, probably for the duration.

We'll let you know as events progress. So far, nothing to panic over.

Of Broadway and Waiting for the Hurricane

Sorry I have been slow in posting. We have been busy, trying to get in as much touristing before we are shut up in our hotel during the hurricane (more on that below).

Actually we spent some time in the morning trying to help our German friends see if there was some way they could leave early, but it seems all flights are full. It seems we are better off just staying here and waiting out the storm.



After chasing down a wild goose (long story and irrelevant) we went by Rockerfeller Center, where there was a farmer's market. We bought cheese, fruit, and bread, in preparation for picnics in our rooms.



Then we went to Central Park and had an enjoyable couple of hours renting bicycles and riding around. It was a sunny day with high, light clouds, so while humid it was not too hot.

Our friends were tired so they went back to the hotel. We rode the subway down to the Strand, a famous book store, buying several books of books.

Then we went out for a nice dinner (I had butternut squash gnocchi), and then for a wonderful Broadway musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Laroquette. It was excellent and great fun.

Radcliffe did a credible job, in his singing and dancing and American accent. But what always impresses me is just how much amazing talent is out there; Radcliffe was a good singer, but some of the cast were fantastic. (Actually it's somewhat ironic, that Radcliffe stars in a show about someone succeeding in business mostly by accident, which is somewhat how Radcliffe became famous. With that in mind, it was clear that he was not taking his good fortune for granted and was serious about working very hard as an actor.)





John Laroquette also managed to make a joke about a hurricane party.

We were very lucky in choosing our tickets for Friday night. All shows for Saturday and Sunday have been cancelled.





This morning we thought about trying museums, but they are all closed. We walked around Central park and then down Fifth Avenue, back through Rockerfeller Center again (the famous flags were all down, but underground a cafe was open where we waited out a shower), and are back to our hotel room for a while now.

More news when we have it. We are safe, no matter what.

The Big Apple

We had a great day. We started off walking up Broadway, along the edge of Central Park, up to the Natural History Museum.

With dinosaurs!!!



Plenty of dinosaurs!




After the Natural History Museum and a late lunch, we paused at our hotel, then went to the Empire State Building. We splurged for going all the way to the 102nd floor (there is an observatory on merely the 86th floor). It was a fabulous view of the city at twilight.




We stayed through sunset, and were able to spot Times square near our hotel. From this enormous height it looked tiny.



And for our concerned fans, we are following the situation with Hurricane Irene closely. Sunday will probably be a washout, so to speak; the only question is, will we have to evacuate? Not clear yet. We will play it by ear. Stay tuned.

Times Square at night

New York never sleeps.

We had a good trip out to the Big Apple. San Diego was smooth. The flight out of Denver was delayed, but it didn't matter as La Guardia was our last stop. We even got moved to the exit row, which has extra room. Got our bags, caught a taxi, and to the Novotel Times square.

The for our friends from Germany was also late--they didn't arrive until almost midnight. But we were all on west coast time (they were coming from San Francisco), so we took a walk around Times Square, only a couple of blocks from our hotel. We even have a lovely view from our hotel window:


New York never sleeps, but we must. More later!

Off to the Big Apple

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we head off to NYC, where we'll meet up with our friends Uli, Karin, and Anja. A real...I think the word is..."vacation"...for us. (Shrug.) Stay tuned!