New York Adventure Day #2

We awoke Thursday morning with a song in our hearts, smoke in our lungs and scratchy throats. We had much to accomplish today, but the number 1 priority was switching rooms. I talked to a desk agent who said, pack your bags, leave them in your room and we will switch you to a non-smoking floor.
We headed out the door to discover a rare New York City first. Jackie leaving the hotel for breakfast (as opposed to Clin bringing it back to her). We walked up 7th Avenue to Central Park South. After going the wrong way for a bit, we found the restaurant Sarabeth's . After indulging in a current scone and omelet and Jackie's lemon ricotta pancakes, we walked up 5th Avenue to the Frick Museum. Before we went in, I called the Letterman show to try to get stand by tickets. I had to answer a trivia question (which luckily I knew) and we were assigned number #7 and 8. On our way to Sarabeth's, we stopped by NBC to get standby tix for Conan. We were in the mid-50's there so I hoped we'd have good luck with Letterman.

After getting in the Frick (see Jackie's Blog for my trying to get a discount story), we went on the self-guided audio tour. My favorites were these:

These fresco's by Boucher depict arts, sciences and humanities- as demonstrated by 3 year olds. It's hard to see the detail, but they were very funny. Another favorite was this:

of Sir Thomas Moore (it looks amazing in person).

Finally, Jackie's favorite was this:

I guess at one point the codpiece was painted over in the early 1900's. I tried to buy Jackie a magnet of the painting but she would have none of it.

After that it was over to Jean-Georges in the Trump building for lunch. They do a gourmet 3 course lunch for $24 (considering that dinner there is over $100, that's a pretty good deal. Paparazzi were waiting for someone outside the hotel, but Jackie refused to ask who they were waiting for. Here's what the restaurant looks like inside. They even sat us wearing jeans. That's Central Park out the window:

After a great lunch (and an expensive house-made soda), we split up so Jackie could resolve the room situation and I could get tickets for the musical 13.
I got a great deal on tickets ($25 for orchestra seats) and off we went for Letterman. Long story short, we got in (barely), made friends with a couple from Alabama, had a crazy homeless black man tell us that Obama was the Anti-Christ while waiting to get in the studio, we stood in line forever because the guest was John McCain and they had to do security sweeps of the entire building, they physically watch you turn your phone off (no honor system here), and Letterman told us he had profuse snot due to a cold. After that, we grabbed a quick bite to eat (a hot dog), and we were off to 13.

The composer (Jason Robert Brown) was there in the audience and he signed my program. After the show (which was really good), we went up to a Mexican Restaurant called Rosa Mexicano. Jackie didn't want to go, but I'm glad I made her (and I think she was too) because the food was great. As you go in, they have this really cool waterfall with 100's of diver statues. It looks cool (and the mole was tasty):

After that, it was time for bed in a cool, comfortable smoke free room. A night that (so far) was tear-free!