NYC Day Two

We woke up and hit the streets headed for Central Park. We wanted to get in a good training run before next weekend's mini marathon. We didn't get much of a run in because we became tourists. Oops!
We got to walk through the Central Park Zoo which was kind of neat. We saw sea lions! That's awesome in the morning.
The dog park was huge and made us miss MacKenzie something fierce.
We wandered down to the fountain area often seen in movies to take a break and people watch.

I loved this fountain

Then we saw a miniature schnauzer running around and really, really missed MacK! Isn't that a gorgeous area? Ok, ok, I'll move on.
We went through "The Ramble" (a bunch of rocks) and got to the Central Park Castle. It was this awesome place I'd never even heard of with just amazing views. We had such good weather this trip. It was just gorgeous each day.

This is someone's office. Pretty cool, eh?

The flowers in the entire city were just beautiful. Central Park feels so far from midtown. It is easy to forget you're in the middle of a massive city when you're in the Park.
We happened upon the world's largest 4 mile run (why wouldn't we end up in an extra crowded area? We always do! Every single trip!) and kept pace with some of the runners for a bit. Sure they were in their third mile,but whatever. We kept up. We managed to exit Central Park where we entered (a true wonder based on how large it is) and headed for breakfast. We ate a Digby's Cafe home of the world's best bagel. Honestly. I've never had a piece of bread that tasted so good. That trip has ruined any other bagel for me which is really a positive for my diet.
We spent a lot of time walking up and down Park Ave. on our way here and there. The avenue's famed medians were home to thousands of tulips and were breathtaking.
We headed to Columbus Circle to get the view from the mall there which is one of my favorites. I also had to pee and knew there'd be a public restroom there. The worst part of NYC? If you have to pee, you're screwed. We're fortunate to have enough money to become "customers" of places that make you buy something to use the facilities. Not everyone has such a luxury and I find it so cruel to deny someone to right to relieve themselves. We're all humans, let's act like it. End of rant. For now.
I pretended to be a David Letterman fan since he brought Oprah to Ball State. He's OK. He's no Leno, though.
Finally, we headed back to our hotel to begin the migration to the airport for our 8 p.m. flight. First we sat down on this corner and watched the world go by for a bit and whined about having to go home so soon. In the distance you can see the famed "lipstick" building where Bernie Madoff's offices were before the scandal. I thought that was kind of neat. The taxi ride to the airport was awful. I will never complain about the subways again. These taxi drives are in such a hurry to get more and more fares that they drive like total idiots. I held on so tight in the backseat (praying to live) that my hand actually ached. There is a survey tool in the back of the taxis where I gave the guy bad marks for "following traffic laws." Jackson finds it funny to watch me be in agony in taxis. I find him to be an ass. :)
We made it to the airport in plenty of time thanks to our lightning fast taxi ride. Our plane was late getting in and we feared we'd be spending the night in our nation's capital instead of at "home." We didn't. Things went off about as smoothly as they can flying these days and we made our connection. Jackson did have to check his bag because the airline claimed a lack of space. They lied. I refused to check mine and it had plenty of room in the overhead bins. Airlines need to figure this out. Either allow bags to come on the plane with passengers or don't. Letting some get on and forcing some to be checked to the final destination is a huge waste of time. End of rant. For now.

We got home around 1 a.m., started laundry (of course!) and crashed. I had the morning off of work so I slept in until 9:30 or so. Jackson had to work, but went in later than normal. MacKenzie had been down in Evansville with Susie for the weekend so she didn't get home until this morning either. I enjoyed my lazy morning by finishing laundry, running errands and meeting my mom for lunch. I'd like to again note how jealous I am of her schedule. She actually knew that restaurants opened at 10:30 for lunch while I (who sits in an office all day each weekday) had no idea. It is the little things. I'm working from home this afternoon so that is a nice way to ease back in to the "real world."
Finally, after all those lovely sights we saw, the one above is my favorite: MacKenzie!

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