Going East: Times Square and Tired Feet

(Can you believe I'm still only in New York? I blame my inability to limit my picture taking). 

After Moma, we decided to head over to Times Square. 

It. Was. Overwhelming. 

Not being one for crowds (or bright lights, or chaos), Times Square wasn't necessarily my favorite part of New York. In fact, I was pretty eager to leave and don't really ever want to return but, nonetheless, I'm glad that I did get to see it in real life.

The problem was, the effect of Times Square was pretty far reaching.

While we had planned to hit up the Empire State Building after this, our feet were aching. 

We figured we could find a nice place to eat dinner around here (before arriving), but soon realized that the quiet romatic spot we envisioned wouldn't be showing up here any time soon. 

So, we decided that instead of dinner, we would just find someplace to take  a break; a place to let my dying feet rest en route to our next stop. 

So, it is without (too much) shame that I say we ended up at the Times Square Applebees, which fit the bill for drinks, snacks and a place to rest our feet. 

The bar was on the second floor, which allowed us a decent view (and made us feel slightly less lame for selling out to such a touristy place). 

We decided to get chips and salsa (as we were seriously missing Mexican food). We also each got a drink - a Jack and Coke for Ed and a Margarita for me :). 

After 40 or minutes, we were feeling quite revived and were ready to hit up the Empire State Building. 

Let's just say that New York weather had different plans for us. 

As we were walking, I felt something wet hit me. Yuck - was my first thought, because I couldn't think of what wet material would have been hitting me, besides somethin suspect. 

Within 10 seconds or so, the slight wet turned into a torrential downpour which immediately forced everyone to run towards whatever shelter could be gleaned. 

We found a food stand that we crowded under (along with 20 other people). 

As we stood and watched the sideways rain (and as our feet and lower extremities became soaked), I couldn't help but laugh. There really wasn't any way we were going up the Empire State Buildling now, especially as this rain didn't seem to be stopping any time soon. 

By lucky happenstance, we were next to a subway station and, as we kept seeing others running into its depth, we began wondering whether we should also be heading out underground to our hotel to wait out the storm. 

After 5 or so minutes where the storm got continusouly worse, we finally decided that we'd have to veer off plan - New York had different plans for us.

So, we ran down the steps into the dry underground, hopped onto a train,

and soon found ourselves on the Upper West Side in a dry neighborhood. 

We decided (or, rather, New York decided for us) that we'd have dinner first, and going back out for the Empire later. 

We wandered once we got off the subway, hoping that we would stumble upon the perfect place. 

And then, we found it. 

Upon walking in, we were struck with the ambiance - it was dark, almost entirely lit by candles. They had exactly one table left, and we were led to it immediately. 

Once we sat down, we realized it was so dark we could not read our menus. We kindly asked our waitress if we could aquire some more light, perhaps in form of another candle. 

She responded by saying that "this was ridiculous" and promptly turned up the house lights. 

Not two minutes later, and man came storming up, exclaiming as he turned off the lights, "has she never been in this restaurant before?!? What on earth does she think she's doing?!?" Ed gently interjected that it had been us, in fact who had asked for either more light or a candle. "She should have given you another candle, then," he responded, as he placed another candle at our table. Once again, we could barely make out the menu but this, apparently was the ambiance of the restaurant. 

Still, this meal was pretty incredible. 

We started by sharing this delicious arugula and parmesean salad (no pictures as is was way too dark to take them, unfortunately). 

Then, I ordered the homemade pasta with a delicious homemade ragu sauce. Ed got something else yummy (though, in my opinion, not as yummy as mine). We got a half bottle of white wine with dinner, and then a half bottle of dessert white wine with our banana bread pudding, which was delicious. 

We finished dinner ready to hit our last New York destination, feeling romantic, rested, and ready to see New York for the highest heights.