NYC Day 4: A Walk (lost) in the Park and crashing on floors

We checked out of the New Yorker, had them stow our luggage, and first stop was the New York Public Library, you know, the one with the lions out front. It was very cool, the architecture magnificent. I didn't spend a lot of time in there because the BF couldn't go in with his Starbucks, which was fine.

We didn't really have a plan. We'd intended to go to Long Island to visit my friend Gae, but she had an opportunity come up she couldn't pass up, to see the screening of Fat Kid Rules the World, a film by Matthew Lillard, based on the book by Gae's friend, K.L. Going. So she wasn't going to be home until around midnight, meaning we had all day in the city, which was kind of nice. We were contemplating going to the screening, but were playing things by ear as we were fairly exhausted after two days of walking and the movie didn't start until 9:00 pm.

We decided to go back to Central Park since we didn't really get to see much of it. But first we stopped at Trump Tower, which is pretty impressive, almost as tall as the Sears Tower. There's a restaurant, bar, Starbucks, and thankfully bathrooms. There's also a "public garden". I put this in quotes because there was about a tree in there, to me, not really equating it to a garden, but maybe to the Donald it is.

Then to Central Park. We rested on the grass for a bit, then did the Literary Walk. Lots of musicians in the park and a guy that wanted a buck to make me laugh. I laughed at him and didn't even have to pay. We walked around the lake, which was beautiful. Then we went searching for the John Lennon memorial in Strawberry Fields and got *cough*a little lost. We found our way once the BF realized I had the map upside down. *cough* We walked about 5 miles through the park and didn't even get halfway through.

Then we met up with a friend of the BFs and took him to McGarry's which we'd become very fond of, the guy who'd been watching people from our table the last time came out and counted money. The Sam Adams guy was there and he gave us not one, but TWO free buckets of beer, which was awesome, because 1) it's good beer and 2) it was a hot day.

BFs friend had to go and we walked back to the New Yorker and decided we were way too tired to wait until midnight to go to Long Island, so we began searching for hotels a little grudgingly, as we really didn't want to pay the money. I found a couple in the Times Square area that were reasonable, our hotel had some kind of health conference going on so it was booked.

Then the BF says, "get a hold of Theresa and see if we can crash there." I was reluctant. I felt bad just barging in on someone, but I did, and she was happy to host us. Her apartment was small, and clean, and cute. She took us to her dive bar (that's what she calls it) down the street and we listened to awesome music and played Yahtzee. Then we went back and crashed on an air mattress on her floor.

Very good day. Tomorrow, Long Island.