Empire State of Mind

This wasn't a holiday in the chill out and relax sense of the word. This was a berserker smash and grab through as much of New York could offer us, in as quick and preferably as cheap a fashion as possible. This left no pause for thought as Riot and Mo, free from Derby commitments for the day, beat a path back to Times Square to procure tickets for something on Broadway. This ended up being a recently relaunched Annie, starring Jane Lynch from Glee as Miss Hannigan.

We had sometime before that so we hurried on towards the Rockefeller center to check out their supreme view of Manhattan. We had to sit through some right twaddle on the way up, but once onto the viewing decks up the top it was worth the wait. Another surreal moment to see such a famous city from that perspective for yourself.

Returning to Earth we headed to the theatre for Annie. Decent enough. Jane Lynch was great as expected. Once again as the curtain closed we marched on to the next spot. Which was the East Village. As we came out of the Subway, there were TV crews everywhere and lots of marriage equality flags. Turned out the DOMA had been ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. It seemed like a historic place to be that day, as the community came onto the streets in celebration.

We went on till we found the Manhattan High-line and took a little stroll along a section. It was pretty amazing, as everyone who'd been to New York had told me it would be. Downstairs we found cheap Thai food for dinner. Then returned to the Village.

The party was still going on, we popped into Stonewalls and every TV above the bar had a news reporter doing a piece to camera with Stonewalls in the background. Once again. Surreal.

The last target of the night was McSorleys Irish Tavern. The oldest Irish Bar in NYC. Saw dust floors. Frothy mugs of stout flung at you two at a time. Crazy collection of mementos that have built up all over the bar down the years.

[Pic: The Empire State Building and Manhattan from the Rockefeller center]
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