I have always loved Manhattan, even before I got to visit. All of the best sit-coms, talk shows, and movies are set there. In 1995 I got to take a spur-of-the-moment trip there over the 4th of July weekend. It was as wonderful as I had always known it would be. Everything was expensive, but you do get what you pay for.
An $18 club sandwich that I ordered for lunch could have fed an entire family. New York style cheesecake actually made in New York is the best you can get. It's huge and it's tasty. I was on this trip with my mother, who loves chicken. By chance we ventured into an eatery that made their own BBQ sauce. The BBQ chicken more than met with her approval. We never had a bad meal the entire trip even though we never asked anyone for a recommendation.
One of the fastest and cheapest ways to see the city is to take some tours by bus. You learn a lot more about the city than you would just wandering on your own as the city is described by the guide. He or she also points out sites of interest that you would otherwise miss. We also used them as a convenient means to travel once our car was parked.
We did not get the opportunity to see a Broadway show. I did notice many places to get last minute tickets to various shows, but we only had a few days in town and we were mostly sight seeing. I will take my girlfriend to a Broadway show some day.
One of the big stops for sight-seeing we wanted was the Statue of Liberty. I didn't get to go up the crown of the Statue. We didn't get there until three o'clock and by then the crown is closed. The Federal Marshall I talked to said that they do it so they can get the statue cleared out easier by the end of the day.
My first attempt to get to Las Vegas didn't work out. I had to work and was forced to give my ticket away. Many years later, with a new job, I got to go to Vegas for a conference. My girlfriend flew out on the second day to join me. The whole trip was great.
I don't gamble and no one believes that I spent a week in Las Vegas without gambling even once, but I had better things to do with my money. Even if you don't gamble, bring a LOT of money with you on vacation there. From the moment I stepped off the plane I began to hemmorage money. The hotel where the conference was held, and where I was staying was not on the strip and it cost me more than $30 to take a taxi there. The whole way there as I watched the meter run all I could think about was the fact that I had to go back the next day and pick up my girlfriend when her plane arrived. It was a good thing I don't gamble.
When we got to the hotel I saw why it waas so far out of town. The Las Vegas Marriott was massive, even compared to other hotels in the area. They had no choice but to build it on the edge of the open desert. Our room was magnificent. It was so large that the king sized bed appeared more like a full. You could park a full sized SUV in there and ignore it all week. The bathroom was just as stupendous. I have never seen a bathroom that large. It was larger than my living room. I'm glad I didn't have to foot the bill for my luxury accomodations.
One thing that I was looking forward to, that I knew my girlfriend would hate was the Star Trek Experience at the
Las Vegas Hilton. When I got to the Hilton and wandered past Quark's bar I wen't up to the entrance to the exhibit. As I was buying
all of my tickets to see everything, the cashier asked me the worst question possible for someone paying to get
into The Star Trek Experience. He asked, Would you like to have your picture taken in the big chair?
What
fan of Star Trek would NOT want their picture taken in the Captain's chair? The entire experience was great. They put a lot of effort into it. The actors and staff all deserve cudos for
making everyting perfect. I must try it again. I picked up a six pack of Romulan ale on my way out. I had planned
on making it last all week, but such didn't happen.
For the rest of the week, when I wan't in conference sessions, we did what we always do on vacation when we don't have any set plans. We slept, ate, and shopped. My girlfriend was just as enamored with our hotel as I was. While I was in sessions she spent time in the spa and the casino. After I was free we would to into the city to try our restaurants and the mall. Fortunately, there was a shuttle from our hotel directly to the mall. I wish I had known about the shuttle before I took a cab all the way over to the Hilton. It's a good sized mall and we went through it on two seperate occasions. There wasn't much in it that I hadn't seen in other malls, but it did have air conditioning. There were some nice eateries in it as well.
No trip to Vegas is complete without seeing a show. Choosing one wasn't difficult. As soon as you walk into the airport you see a giant sign talking about the Blue Man Group show. There are also ads for it in just about every cab. Since I hadn't planned ahead I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get tickets, but the concierge came through again. She got us tickets and she helped me make some last minute dinner reservations for the Luxor Steak House since the performance is in the Luxor Hotel's theater.
