Day Three

Back to New York

Tuesday began with an amble up Broadway through the Upper West Side to Cafe Lalo where we ate breakfast. This is where Meg Ryan was supposed to meet her elusive correspondent in You've God Mail but Tom Hanks showed up instead. The scones were delicious and we came back for dessert and coffee on Wednesday.

With a belly full of breakfast, we wandered back down Broadway at a more leisurely pace, stopping in at Zabars (also featured in You've Got Mail), Westsider Books, and H&H Bagels.

For lunch we took some Gray's Papaya hot dogs over to the Bethesda Fountain. In Fool's Rush In, Matthew Perry raves that there are no better hot dogs than those found at Gray's Papaya, only a few blocks from his apartment. And when Salma Hayeck tells him of a canyon in Central Mexico where nothing ever happens, "and then you die," Matthew Perry tells of the Bethesda Fountain in New York where you can sit and watch the whole city walk by. Since it was a Tuesday afternoon, most of the city was at work so we only saw a couple groups of tourists and a couple getting wedding pictures taken. The hot dogs were good, but not worth shipping overnight to be eaten in Las Vegas.

A talented street performer under the beautiful Bethesda Terrace.

After a stroll through Central Park, we made our way to the Grand Central Station to watch the hustle and bustle of people trying to get from here to there. Since there was a sign prohibiting sitting on the stairs, I was pretty happy to find a chair! While I sat, Mom poked around, determined not to miss anything.

Next stop was the New York Library. The plaque reads:
A good Booke
is the precious lifeblood of a
master spirit, imbalm'd and treasur'd
up on purose to a life beyond life.

We endured one more walk through Times Square to eat dinner at Planet Hollywood. We saw such renowned movie props as the Enterpise model (from the first three films) pictured above, both Darth Vader's and Chewbacca's suits, and the outfits made from the drapes in Sound of Music.