Third time’s a charm.

My friends Eileen, MaryPat & I had planned to go to NYC last January and then I got the flu and couldn’t go.  Then we planned to go in June and I broke my foot and couldn’t go.

So I kept my fingers crossed that nothing would happen and I could go yesterday.

We took the Megabus down (for $7 ea) and discussed our activity options on the ride.  If the weather had been cold or rainy, we would have gotten tix to a show or Radio City.  But it was forecasted to be 50 degrees.  Yay us!

So we decided to be typical tourists and visit all the decorated windows and other decorated locations – Rockefeller Center, Saks, Trump Tower and walk around Central Park.

After a pit stop at Starbucks, we headed down Fifth Avenue and started by buying some touristy items (my friends not me).

Then one of our many photo ops.

We continued down Fifth trying on cheap hats & scarfs at every corner (I think we eventually all bought something.)

We looked at the windows at Lord and Taylor’s and then headed to Rockefeller Center.  Unfortunately, there was equipment everywhere since the lighting of tree ceremony was to be last night (Featured scheduled guests to perform in the star-studded show included: Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Goo Goo Dolls, Ariana Grande and Jewel.)

A quick stop there and then off to Central Park for what else?  A carriage ride.

After the relaxing ride, since we had reservations for a late lunch, we walked back down Fifth to do the rest of the touristy things on our list.

We visited Trump Tower and then we went inside FAO Schwartz.  MaryPat played the BIG piano and I stole a photo.

They take pics before you can play the piano and then they try to sell them to you. We didn’t want to spend the money so I snapped a pic of the screen with my iphone.

Then we looked at the windows at Saks –

And all of a sudden, while we were on line, the tree at Rockefeller Center lit up!!! So cool.  They were testing it and so we did get to see the lighting of the tree!!

We continued our walk to Bryant Square, browsed in some of the shops and watched the ice skaters.

Then we headed back down Broadway towards Times Square to get to our restaurant, the Glass House Tavern (I ate there in October).

The meal was very good…just the right amount of food (I even had room for dessert.)

We had decided to take the train home instead of the Megabus to have more time in the city (an extra 1 1/2 hrs).  So we headed toward 34th street to see the windows at Macy’s and of course, get our pic with Santa.

Finally, it was time to head to Penn Station.

A fun day in the Big Apple.  We laughed a lot.  The weather was awesome. A great time was had by all.

MaryPat has FitBit and it said that we walked 9.5 miles!! (Is my RWRunStreak broken cuz I didn’t run?? I think that it should count as a 1 mile rest day!!!)

I do hope that the next time I am in NYC, I will be running in Central Park!!!

Happy Running! Besides the NYC Marathon, what is the best race to run in Central Park? Can my 9.5 miles walking count as 1 mile in the Streak?