Christmas in the City

We left early Saturday morning for the big city to see the Christmas sights and sounds. This was my Christmas present a bit early. It was a complete madhouse from the train ride on down. The train was packed - every seat was filled. Our first stop was Macy's - the largest department store on the world. It was huge. And the crowds were a bit much. We didn't notice it coming in as we were in the "crush", but we saw it on our way out. Mark was so impressed he immediately announced he had to have a picture to show you everyone on the blog. So he braved this crush of people and went back up the escalator - you can see me in the picture if you look hard enough. While there we lots of people not many were buying - mostly gawkers we heard.

Next stop was Times Square - people would just stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk and talk to their friends. The corners were the worst. It was brisk, but in the sun a bit warmer. I was impressed with all the people wearing hats. I was trying to be fashionable and not mess up my hair - I gave up after the show and we bought a hat from a vendor for $5. Quite the score if you ask me. I love it.

Katie with a shot going South in Times Square

and Mark with a shot going north.

See the throng of people behind me - nuts. On a corner of course. This is on the way to the Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. We were staying down on 26th street. Times Square is on 42nd Street - or pretty close and Radio City is on 49th. It's a long ways to walk so we got a cab. Halfway their he told us we'd be better off getting out and walking. brrr.... We did get to see all the lights this way so it was sort of fun.

This is Rockefeller Plaza and the big tree - it's really cool. One guy said there were 200,000 people there. Probably more like 25,000.


Not sure what you'd call this park - it's across from Radio City Music Hall where we went to the show. The show was very good and fun to watch. Lots of singing and dancing. I loved it.

Now for the foodie report. Sad to say I didn't take pictures, but it would have been tough because we were really sitting with other people and I don't think they would have let us live it down. Becco's is excellent and seats are very tight and close making it tough to squeeze into your seats. We got there early at 2:00 and they had room for us so we decided to eat early. Very good choice as it was still the lunch menu and come to find out we like the choices for the pasta better at lunch and it was cheaper. The deal is you get three pasta courses and a ceasar salad. As much as you can eat. Needless to say we only took the first pass. Pasta #1 was spinach ravoli stuffed with pumpkin - Mark loved it (and I ate the middles for him). It was very good. Pasta #2 was a big rigatoni in a yummy red tomato sauce. This went really well with our order of meatballs. I swear it was a pound and there were only 3. They were soft and crumbly and came with a wonderful red sauce. Pasta #3 was a noddle dish with rabbit. Being I can't quite bring myself to eat something that could be a pet we asked for the alternative and since it was almost the dinner hour we got fettucine alfredo with wheat noodles. It was light and tasty. Not a thick alfredo. Of course the bread, cheese dippy stuff and olives also stole the show. Eating early worked out very well and we were able to recover in time for the show. What I like about Becco's is that every day is a different trio of pasta's so I probably won't be tired of going there any time soon.

After the show I cashed in the promise of dessert. Junior's just off Times Square looked very good - Mark got french onion soup and I got cherry cheese cake - both most excellent. We gave learned that looks can be decieving with food in NYC. This was not the case. We finally have some good places in mind for guests - whew. 46th Street going west off Times Square is full of great Italian places - I did choose the best one however from looking at the menu's and prices. Now I hope this satifies the foodie in you - if not you must come visit and I'll give you a tour.