the world has its ways to quiet us down

We are home.
We arrived in Toronto last night around 5.40 AM and were a little too exhausted to take the streetcar so we got a wonderful taxi ride, arrived home, swapped stories with our roommate and hit the pillow until now (1 in the afternoon).

We had an amazing trip, really wonderful. Yesterday topped it off fantastically.
After we (sadly) checked out of our hotel, we made our way over to NBC studios to pick up some tickets for the next tour, and walked over to Central Park with the plan to rent bikes (the NY Pass we had gave us a 3 hour bike rental around Central Park) - we learned they were closed, and the horrendous cost of getting one of those horse/buggy things, and the even more horrendous cost of renting bikes from other places... so we decided to (in the very nature of our trip) walk it.

Central Park with my best buddy :)

Central Park is probably much more beautiful in the summer than the winter, but with the boulders and bridges and ice, it's really a sight to see in the winter too. The park is huge (massive) and we realized pretty quickly that there was no way to see it all before getting back to NBC - so we took more of a stroll than a walk, and settled down near a bridge and tried to take in the massive contrast between the skyscrapers and the trees. It's a really special place.

Taking our way back to 30 Rockefeller Plaza (so awesome!!) we stopped for a smoothie & a pastry because it finally hit us that no, we hadn't even nearly spent all our money and yes, it was okay to indulge a little bit. Our view was of Carnegie Hall (construction, but behind that, beautiful architecture) and the most beautiful building (to us) that stands in NYC and I don't know the name of. It's beautiful because it's simple, it's not screaming for attention and it stands in the shadow of a landmark - with poise.

When we got back to NBC we took the tour (which I don't think I would recommend if you're actually paying the $20 to get into - if you have a NYC Pass, then do it) - and saw the set of Brian SomeNightTimeNewsGuy, Dr Oz & SNL (which is way smaller than I'd thought by a longshot) - and photos and stories but no Steve Carell or Tina Fey or Jim Carrey, who is in the house prepping for this week's show (cue heavenly hosts singing for joy).

After the tour I think we were hit by a wall of pure "holy crap, we saw too much this week and we walked too much this week and I'm tired" so we grabbed a (complimentary) drink at Moda and headed back through Times Square for one last, good, long look and then went for a sit down, shared, price fixe dinner at.. some place that had really good pasta.

Our trip back home was generally uneventful but I have to say, New York Port Authority (the one on 50th and 8th?) is the most unruly place in New York, in my opinion. One guy running around screaming about how nobody will give him money "Even though I'm not really a bum! Are you serious?!" and another guy pretending to be blind, conveniently walking directly up to peoples' faces with his hand out at just the right spot, soliciting money, and finally, some chick yelling on the phone. Unfortunately she sat behind us and yelled on the phone for the majority of the 10-hour bus ride.

Anyway, we're back. And New York was awesome. And the real world begins. Today I start class again & John's got some work to catch up on.