New York City- Summer Vacation

In Canada, decimal 3% of all road accidents involve a Moose, so it's safer to fly. So off we went to NYC on Aeroplan points. But counting the time it takes to get to the airport, stand in line, check-in, go through US Customs, go through security (and forget that your kayak knife is buried in the secret pocket (but that's another story), board, fly, collect your luggage, get on a shuttle bus to the city, find your hotel and check-in, you could have driven in the same amount of time. But if the journey is as important as the destination, it does not really matter, does it?
We arrived by 9:30 am and after collecting our bags and finding the bus to Grand Central, we waited for the hotel shuttle. The concierge was new so he booked us onto a shuttle not knowing our hotel was outside the free zone. The driver took us anyway and we had a tour of Midtown as we were last to be dropped and and got to see some of the sights, like Times Square and Central Park. Good orientation, despite the fact that the air conditioning didn't work and it was pushing +35!
Based on our initial experience with traffic in NYC, we'd say it's a miracle that more people aren't run over by yellow taxis, however! One must keep their wits about them as pedestrians in this city!

From Blogger Pictures

Arriving at our Broadway and 75th Street Hotel Beacon, we settled in and immediately decided to walk across the street to Fairways grocery to get some eats. As I stepped out of the hotel, my iPhone rang and who do you think it was? The Late Night with David Letterman Show calling about my ticket request. Turns out we are slated for Monday's taping and all we have to do is show up at 2 pm at the Ed Sullivan Theatre and give the secret password (Paul's Gold List) and we'll be in.
The Hotel Beacon, promoted as "The Jewel of the Upper West Side, is on Broadway (yes, famous Broadway!) and 75th street in a really vibrant neighbourhood. Only 100 metres from the 72nd street Subway, across from the most amazing grocery stores we've ever seen and close to all sorts of places, such as Central Park and Strawberry Fields, the Lincoln Centre, Columbus Circle and the American Museum of Natural History, to name a few.
Fairways grocery, we discovered, had the most eclectic variety of cheeses, fish, fruit and vegetables, as well as beer!
We grabbed some dinner there ($20 for salmon and veggies).
Having promised ourselves that we would continue our strict walking regimen, we headed out towards Central Park, down to Columbus Circle and along Central Park South towards Fifth Avenue and, coincidentally, The Apple Store. Open 24/7, 365, the evening crowds, we were told, were average for a Thursday night. We could barely move inside. It's across from the Fairmont Manhattan and next to FAO Schwartz, the world's largest toy store.

From Blogger Pictures

We walked back to the hotel having enjoyed our first day in the "Big Apple!"