Travelicious

@mking8288 sadly, I have not been able to keep up with your live since getting to NYC. Maybe I can catch up over the sea days.

Have a great cruise!

Just shy of 35 miles over 4 days. Signing off until tomorrow.

We decided to walk to the Empire State building after a bit of a rest. When we arrived and were pointed to the entrance for those wanting to go to the top, we headed that way. There was a small line, and a guard-type person providing tickets. She said $44 per person. We said, "Nope." After all, we could get almost 2 cocktails each (okay - 1.5 cocktails) almost anywhere in Manhattan for that price! Made the block and hit the subway to get back to the hotel. We stopped in long enough to get ourselves on the "waitlist" for 2 coming to Crab House. By the time we arrived, there was no waiting and we were taken to a table. Before we left, I saw that I had received a text from Crab House saying, "Dear [Travelicious], we regret to inform you that due to your no-show, we will move on to the next customer in line . . . ." Almost immediately upon being seated, a waiter dropped off a sizzling tray of scallops and poured what I assume to be a butter mixture on top. We thought it was a "welcome" greeting, but soon realized they brought it to the wrong table. Too late! Crab House is a "buffet," but not in the traditional sense. You choose from a list, and it is freshly prepared. And you keep choosing until you are stuffed silly or until 2 hours elapse. We chose the former. No way we could keep eating for 2 hours. If anyone at the table chooses the lobster selections offset on the bottom left, the price is $115 pp. If not, it is $80 pp. We figured the latter was enough, and we also each had a mai tai. That I remember, we had the lobster cake, lobster ball, edamame, spring roll, snow crab legs, blue crab with cajun butter sauce (too much trouble for too little reward), spicy shrimp (terrific!), shrimp garlic noodle, and crispy flounder. Not all are pictured. Not all was ordered at once. We ordered a few things, and the waiter would come get the menu we marked on. After the food was delivered, a new menu was provided. We enjoyed the food, and declared this meal and the Mexican food from last night were superior to the steakhouse on Tuesday night. Satisfied and then some, we happily waddled the 7 blocks back to our hotel.

Thanks! We got in. Report to come.

The plan for tomorrow is to have a late breakfast (10ish or so) at Ole and Steen, for which we were also provided a 10% discount by the hotel. Our check-in time is 12:00, so we'll catch an Uber around 11:45. One of my credit cards offers a $15 per month Uber credit which, living in the middle of nowhere next door to chicken houses, mostly goes unused.

We started out a little after 9:00 this morning. We headed to the subway to catch the B train to Cathedral Parkway with the plan to see the upper part of the park and then cut through to the Upper East Side. Upon arrival, prior to entering the park, we checked out the Fredrick Douglass monument: We then headed into the northwest corner of the park. The main goal was to see the Reservoir and Belevedere Castle. It was a much more pleasant area and walk than the southern portion we visited on Tuesday. Less crowded, and more beautiful. At the Reservoir, we observed the cutest little black and white ducks that I have never seen before. They were smaller than regular ducks, and kept diving down under the water. I had to Google them when we got back to the hotel. They are called Buffleheads. Most of you may know that, but I didn't. I thought they kind of reminded me of tiny penguins. Not a great photo, but here you go (along with female counterparts): Also saw a goose just resting very close to the railing, not at all disturbed by us being within 10 feet. He seemed to tell us, "Mind your business!" The first below is over the Reservoir, and the second is over the turtle pond from Belvedere Castle. After exiting the park at 79th, we went in search of coffee. This took us just past Lexington, so we decided to walk back toward our hotel at 48th and Lexington, and to look for possible places to eat dinner along the way. We are going to try for Crab House, which takes reservations only for groups of 4 or more. We'll try to go around 5:00 or shortly thereafter, and maybe we'll be able to get in. Though the way people line up for food around here at all hours of the day, you never know. If that falls through, there is a Thai place a few blocks away we'll try. Good to have a back-up plan. The hotel we are staying at gave us a card for a complimentary "flight" of chocolates at Neuhaus. We stopped by there on the way back. The worker said a "flight" meant we could each sample one piece, but we could get 10% off whatever we chose to buy. I informed the worker that two pieces is not a flight, but that a flight generally consists of 5. He didn't buy it, apparently having never tried a flight of beer, whiskey or martinis. Anyhoo, we both had one piece. The prices, even with a 10% discount, were quite outrageous, but we decided to get one large bar for a bit under $10. He gave us a "gift" consisting of 2 pieces of dark chocolate and 2 pieces of milk chocolate. I would preferred my other 3 pieces of the specialty chocolates to complete my flight. We are now back at the hotel for a bit of a rest. This despite the fact that we have walked only 6 miles today. Guess we are getting lazy as we prepare for embarkation tomorrow.

It really wasn’t so bad. We still had a great day, just had to make a few adjustments.

We may party hard, but not well into the night! 🥱

Thanks. We were using Google Maps, and it has been quite helpful. Still, the buses headed back to Manhattan from Brighton Beach were quite limited. We knew it would work out. Just needed a bit of patience.

Q was what we needed. It all worked out eventually. We haven’t been to any of the upper parts of Manhattan yet, so will do that tomorrow.

Having eaten way too much, and being slightly miserable, we stopped at the hotel bar for a sambuca. Now relaxing in the room and calling it a day. The feet, calves, shins and hips are feeling it.

We weren’t sure where to eat, but looked for places as we made our way back to the hotel. There was a Mexican place we have been eyeing, and ultimately decided to go there. Y’all. It was so good! Maybe the best Mexican we’ve had. Pookie had the burria tacos and I had the enchiladas de queso with mole sauce. We each had a margarita.

I forgot that we stopped along the way for a drink. Pookie had a spicy margarita, and I had a pomegranate martini.

We stopped back by one of the restaurants and split a lobster roll and a beer. The lobster roll was the cold variety. It was good, but I prefer hot. Anyway, it was only enough for a few bites each. On the advice of other CCers, we walked on down to Brighton Beach and the in a block to check out some of the Russian neighborhood and businesses. It wasn’t long before we were ready to head back to Manhattan. Since it was still early, we were thinking of going to the upper part of Central Park, as we didn’t make it that far on Tuesday. The plan was to explore Little Italy and eat at Katz tomorrow. But, alas, plans changed due to necessity. We entered the subway station near Brighton Beach only to find out that no trains had run in some time. We were told there must be a problem. We later heard there was a fire somewhere along the line, though I didn’t find out exactly where. We decided to find somewhere to sit down and have a drink while we figured it out. We couldn’t seem to find such a place while looking, though I’m sure there are plenty around. Instead, we found a shady spot to try to figure out how to get back to Manhattan. It appeared a bus would be along in about 30 minutes, so we found the bus stop and began the wait. I looked up something else, and when I put to info back in Google maps that particular bus option had disappeared. So we weren’t sure if it was coming. I checked out the price of Uber, which was $101. We decided to wait another 10 minutes to see if the bus was going to come, and if not we’d bite the bullet and summon an Uber. A few minutes later, we heard an overhead noise and Pookie said, “Is that the train?” Sure enough! We headed up to the subway station and asked the attendant to make sure before paying to pass through the turnstiles. He said only Uptown was running. Perfect! We hopped on and made a new plan to get off at Canal Street and go ahead with the things we had planned for tomorrow in the lower East side. Not being hungry yet, we wondered toward Little Italy. OMG! The aromas were fantastic, and we would have eaten there if I didn’t have my mind set on Katz. Before long, we were winding through Chinatown before heading on to Katz. By now, it was getting a bit warm, and the layers we had on for the quite cold morning were starting to come off. Pookie was getting tired, which is kind of surprising considering she used to walk 15 miles per day for work. But that was before the middle of last September when she fell and broke her shoulder, which kept her out on worker’s comp until retirement. Anyhoo, we finally made it to Katz only to find a line about half a block long. No thanks! No telling how long that would take. So we found the nearest subway station that would get us back to Midtown.