New York City, Day 1

Day 1- June 3, 2006
New York City

For a day that started well before the sun came up, the first day of our trip went pretty well. We had no issue making it to the airport for our 7:00am flight and settled in for the first leg of our trip. Shortly after sitting down on the plane, Amy got the feeling she knew the man sitting across the aisle from us. I instantly recognized him as Tim Blake Nelson (although at the time, I only knew him as one of the guys from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"). He was preoccupied with sleeping and talking on his cell phone, so we didn't bother him.

So, after a short flight, we landed in New York City. Since we had a long layover, we hopped on the subway and made our way to Manhattan. When we climbed out to street level, it was raining so hard that we had to duck into doorways to keep dry. A short stop at Walgreens provided us with an umbrella and we were on our way. When she was planning our trip, Amy had discovered a small, outdoor restaurant called "The Shake Shack". Since all the seating was outdoors, the weather nearly drove us to other lunch options, but we finally decided to order and retreat to the doorway of a nearby building. This may have been the best decision all day. There is nothing like an old fashioned burger and a frozen custard shake to raise your mood!

With the weather limiting our sightseeing ability, we made our way to the Empire State Building. We decided not to go up to the observation deck (since visibility was reported to be 0 miles) and instead sat down at a microbrewery in the lobby. There, over a sampler platter of the home brews, we heard a second reference to "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" when the song, "Man of Constant Sorrow" came over the sound system. Could this mean that we were in for an Odyssey? As long as we didn't spend the next 10 years walking home, we knew that would be fine.

We made our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral where we were going to 5:30pm Mass. In the time we had beforehand, we visited Rockefeller Center and caught a glance of NBC Studios and Radio City Music Hall. St. Patrick's is one of the most beautiful places we have ever attended Mass. It brought memories of the European Cathedrals I'd seen back in 1996, and got me excited to see what lay ahead in Ireland and Great Britain.

With Mass over, we made our way back to JFK and boarded our flight. After a "well timed" midnight meal (courtesy of Aer Lingus), we sat back and tried to sleep away our flight to Shannon, Ireland.

-Karl

Links

Day 1 Photos

Google Earth

Empire State Building

St. Patrick's Cathedral