New York, New York -- June 2002: Day 3

Because of the marathon pace of the day before and probably too many cocktails at night, we overslept and never made it to the Today show.  Instead, we went to Lindy's and had a horrible, overpriced breakfast where the waiters bark gruffly at you.  At least we were sitting outside.

We proceeded as planned to the New York Public Library for a free tour.  It's little gems like this that I love.  Long before Carrie Bradshaw decided this would be a good place to get hitched, we explored this Fifth Avenue landmark.  The Beaux-Arts architecture is gorgeous, but we, of course, enjoyed the fun facts such as where Ghostbusters was filmed in the library.  There were so many nooks and crannies to check out, as well as exhibits and curiosities, it was worth the price of admission (ha!) and then some.

Because MoMA was being extensively renovated in 2002, they set up a highlights collection in Queens.  We decided our first NYC subway ride would be to check it out.  We someone boarded an express train (though we thought it had been marked as a local) and we whizzed right by our stop.  We were able to backtrack, fortunately, and get there in one piece.  The collection was like the museum's greatest hits.  Years after, we visited the remodeled Manhattan MoMA and it was ten times cooler, so I can't recommend that museum enough.

Monday seemed to turn into "Spot the Celebrity" day.  While near Central Park, we saw Richard Schiff (on West Wing at the time) carrying his daughter.  While on our way to dinner at Shun Lee Palace, we accidentally walked right through the set of a movie.  We were so busy gawking at the trucks and equipment, trying to figure out what was going on, that next thing we know, we're almost getting pelted by a rain machine.  We then realize we're standing next to Woody Allen, looking like a little flasher in his raincoat and hat.  He didn't seem to notice us, which was good, because I was afraid of getting yelled at.  The movie turned out to be the very obscure Anything Else, with Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci.  Oh well.  I don't think we made the final cut!

So, where was I? Oh yeah, Shun Lee Palace.  I had heard Howard Stern going on and on one day how this was his favorite Chinese restaurant in the city.  Luckily, it went along with the package deal we got through the NYC tourism site and we had $100 to spend.  The place was so different from Nobu.  Where Nobu was sleek and modern, Shun Lee was gilded and classic.  The waiters were the old school napkin-on-the-arm.  The restaurant was pretty empty at 7 p.m. on a Monday (we realized New Yorkers must eat after 8).  We knew spending $100 on Chinese food might be a challenge, so we opted for the splurge of Peking Duck and a sweet battered chicken.  The duck came out whole (they showed it to us, like a fine bottle of wine) and a team of waiters went to work carving it up.  They then made little roll-up from Chinese pancakes, scallions, and plum sauce.  It was so good and we ate a ton, but there was so much left.  We had a mini fridge in our room, so we figured why not wrap it up?  We spent maybe half of the gift certificate.  Next time, we should order way more for a picnic in Central Park the next day.

After dinner, we thought a night time glance off of the Empire State Building would be fun.  We were thinking it would be empty around 9, before all the shows got out.  Boy, were we wrong.  It was sweltering hot and crowded as heck.  It felt like we had to wait in three different lines just to get in line.  After two different elevators and a set of stairs, we were at the Observation Deck.  Finding a piece of wall to peer over was hard because of all the people, but we finally got some space and looked out at the city.  It was beautiful.  We then bought an I Love NY shot glass for our collection.  It was time to call it a night.