Take me out to the ballgame

What a day, started and finished with loud bangs and flashes.

Woke up to a New York thunder storm, with rain for most of the day.  Mooched about, trying to stay dry, and ended up with a late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. Mid afternoon, we headed to Money for the baseball. At one point, it looked like the game would be rained off, but in the end it went ahead with just a short delay.

Unfortunately the Cyclones lost to the SI Yankees but hopefully they'll turn the tables tomorrow! We're back for their next home game on Wednesday.

End of the game they had a pre-4th July fireworks display. If the video turns out ok, I'll upload it once we get home.

Independence Day tomorrow. Be fun to see the Macy's fireworks from the Hudson.

This little piggy went to market

Again, we had no fixed plans today, except for a bot of shopping. So, we left the hotel, turned left onto 6th Avenue - and walked into a huge market.  They'd closed off a 3/4 of a mile stretch of on of the busiest avenues, just for a street fair for the USO. Can you imagine them doing that on Oxford Street!?  Made for an unexpected but interesting diversion for the morning.

In the afternoon we headed to Union Square and had a look round the farmers' market, before replacing my Sony e-reader, which had just died on me. The staff in Best Buy were less than helpful, so we headed to Barnes and Noble, where a very helpful young man called Bryce set up my new Nook for me, and rescued what he could from my Sony reader. He has ensured that any time we're over, we'll be shopping there.

Next, was a walk up Broadway towards the Flatiron building and Madison Square park. We thought about grabbing a burger from Shake Shack for a late lunch, but no matter how good their burgers are rumoured to be, the can't be worth the queue that snaked halfway round the park. Finished off the afternoon with some clothes shopping and after some people watching in Times Square, we are enjoying a lazy evening.

Off to the baseball tomorrow night - hometown derby again the Staten Island Yankee. Back to Coney, so I must remember my sunscreen!!

Lazy Day

First day we haven't had anything planned, so we pretty much just mooched. Headed down to Brooklyn and ended up at Coney Island. Warning, impromptu trip to the seaside when you don't have extra sunscreen? Bad idea! A walk down the boardwalk eating ice cream has left my shoulders a lovely shade of pink.  Ouch.

The evening was spent people watching at Times Square including a look round ToysRus with their 60ft ferris wheel.

Been a lazy day, but just what we needed.

Have some random pics, including Big Daddy Cane and his moll at Times Square.

It's only taken us four years...

After four years of trying, we finally got tickets for a filming of the Daily Show.  Now, given the blank looks I got when I went into work squeeing about tickets, I'd better explain.  The Daily Show is one of Comedy Central's headline shows, and offers a satirical look at the news.  It's also recognised as a more reliable news source than Fox News!  As with Richard Cheese, YouTube is your friend, but again, NSFW!

So, the day involved a lot of queueing and hanging around.  As with any show, they over subscribe the tickets to prevent empty seats.

We turned up at the studio around 1pm, for tickets being issued at 2.30.  This put us pretty much head of the line.  We were then told to come back for 4.45, when you're split into seating groups.  The rules about what you can and can't do in the studio are straightforward and well explained but it's amazing how many people had iphones confiscated!

Once we're seated, the warm up guy comes out and explains how loudly we need to cheer for the mics - very - and gives us some practice.  Then Jon Stewart, the host of the show, takes some q&as before filming begins.

The actual taping seemed to be over really quickly. Basically, what you see on screen is pretty much as filmed. As ever, the show was funny, my only moan would be that we missed Tom Hanks as a guest by one day.

Seeing the set was weird, looking at the, I guess, optical illusions used to create what we see on screen.  A lot of what looks like 3d sets are flat matt backdrops but work really well on screen.

We're now watching back the show on tv, just to see what, if anything was edited!

Not sure what we've got planned for tomorrow - first day we haven't got anything booked.

Lunchtime break, so let's recap

So, yesterday, headed to Queens in the morning, for some odd shopping.  They have a Costco and an Aldi, and we wondered how the American ones would differ from the UK ones. Very strange! So familiar and at the same time so different!

Found a fab place for lunch as part of out quest to find the ultimate burger - Five Guys, Burger and Fries. Everything is cooked to order, just the way you want it, and the fries are delish!  will definitely be going back there!

In the evening, Chris finally got his birthday present - he got tickets to see Richard Cheese on a paddle steamer.  The review is mixed. The music was fab, and we'd see the band again in a heartbeat. On dry land. The facilities and organisation on the other hand left a lot to be desired, with too many people crammed into too small a space, and the rest of the floors not utilised as well as they could be. Still, it was an exerience and the views of the skyline are impressive as ever.

This morning we wandered round Times Square, and we're now heading off for the Daily Show tickets.

All cheesed out

Totally knackered, shopping this morning, and just got back from seeing Richard Cheese, on a paddle steamer. He'll be on youtube if you haven't heard of him, but be warned, it's VERY NSFW!!!

Details tomorrow when I'm a bit more awake.

Been a long, fab day

Don't you love jet lag? Woke up by half four this morning. And I am NOT a morning person! Went out for breakfast, followed by a long, leisurely walk up to Central Park for some people watching, before heading shopping, first to Herald Square, then down to Union Square. By now it was time for a late lunch, and then a chill out, before heading back out for the evening. We had a few drinks in Hard Rock Cafe, before heading off to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Fab-u-lous. I even got a pink feather boa, although Chris isn't too keen on it! Few changes from the London show, but it was a really great night!

Lazy day tomorrow, and then Richard Cheese in the evening!

Oh, and for thosecwho complain we never post pics of ourselves, have a where's wally, from the photo billboard in Times Square!