New York for Newbies (specifically Manhattan)

Last summer, my family visited Manhattan for the very first time as tourists! (I'd been there before for business, but how much fun could one have while working?) There were so many tourist-y things to do there was no way we could get to them all in one vacation. Besides, we had so much fun, we just have to go back!

But being that I'm getting up in years, I thought I better write down some of the stuff I learned as a first time tourist so I can remind myself before I go back the next time!

Getting Around

Do not, I repeat, do not rent a car. There a number of reasons for this, especially if you are not venturing off Manhattan, or at least very far from it.

Why do you need a car? As long as you stay somewhere reasonable, you can walk, take a cab, take a bus, or take the subway just about anywhere you want to go.

And where are you going to keep a car? Parking? Yeah, it's available, but at what cost? And the traffic? Well, it is New York City. Sometimes it wasn't so bad, but at other times it was pretty horrible.

And just what would be the cost? Our hotel would let us park it in their garage (and allow us to get to it once per day!) for only $55 per night. We saw some short term parking for $12 for 15 minutes. Yeah. No thanks.

The Right Way To Get Around

The two best ways we found of getting around are to 1) walk and 2) take the subway. Two other methods are taking the bus and/or a cab. We never had to do either of the latter two.

Must do #1: Buy a Metro Card. This will get you on the subway. We bought the 7-day unlimited pass. Very reasonable price. I believe it was $31 for summer 2014.

Must do #2: Download a copy of an app that knows the transportation systems around NYC. I used one called CityMapper for my iPhone. If you enter a start and end location, it will tell you how to get to your destination by walking, cab, subway, and/or bus, and the time it will take. I'd just enter the points, select a subway route and it'd tell me how to get to a subway station and which line to take.

Hint: You'll want to know that most subway routes will point you to either Brooklyn (south-ish) or to the Bronx (north-ish). Very important to know that if you're at Times Square and you want to go to the 9/11 Memorial, you need to head toward Brooklyn!

To/From the airport: Most of the family took a private shuttle service. Don't know if it's the case with all the shuttle drivers in NY, but if you sit up front, it's kind of like a death-defying thrill ride. Really. I'm thinking my daughter, who came a few days later, had a better idea. She got on a bus to the subway station and rode that in. Except for the luggage schlepping up and down the stairs, it seems to be at least as good a way to get to your hotel, and probably a lot cheaper!

Sleeps

We only know one place: The Hilton Garden Inn Central Park South on 54th. Very convenient to Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, 5th Avenue, and on and on. Smallish, but nice, rooms. The employees were quite nice too.

Eats

Hint: It's expensive in New York! My $1 large McDonalds soda in Utah was about $2. Kinda how most things are (but maybe not to that extent). Get used to it.

5 Napkin Burger: Burgers and more! But yeah, burgers. Definitely burgers.

Carnegie Deli: Fun little place. Tons o' meat on them sandwiches. I had Pastrami on Rye. Could only eat half, so I had the rest to go. The cheesecake also looked really good.

Doughnut Plant: Yum.

Dylan's Candy Bar: What's not to like? There's also a "vintage" candy section downstairs where I saw candy I hadn't seen in years!

John's Pizza: Mmmm... Pizza... Very good. Excellent garlic rolls!

Junior's Restaurant and Cheesecake: Good food. Very good cheesecake.

Il Palazzo: Little Italy. Yummy food. Creme brulee.

Luke's Lobster: Seafood sandwiches. Well worth the effort (walk) to get there. Look 'em up. Yum.

Pick A Bagel: Really good bagel sandwiches. We went there for breakfast.

Sarabeth's (Central Park South): Best French Toast ever. Most expensive French Toast ever.

Shake Shack: Yum. Worth the wait. Yes, you will be waiting. Fantastic shakes, very good burgers. Forget the hot dog.

Wasabi: Fast food Japanese. It was surprisingly good, actually.

Sees

9/11 Memorial: Definitely have to see. You'll know why when you get there.

Broadway Shows!: Well, duh! (Of course, this only applies if you're cultured, like me...) Best thing to do is to check out scheduling and available shows and buy tickets well before you get there. Barring that, and if you want to take a chance, see what shows you can "rush." Some (all?) shows will let you stand in a line a number of hours before the show for a chance to buy a few of the tickets available. We did that for "Newsies." Usually it's on a lottery type system. All four of us put our names in and my son and I made it! We were allowed two tickets each so all four of us were able to see the show. Unfortunately, only two of us were able to sit together. The other two were spread out in the theatre. They also weren't the best seats in the house either. However, if that doesn't bother you, go for it!

Brooklyn Bridge: We rode the subway over to Brooklyn and walked back over the bridge. Nothing amazing, but kind of fun to do. You can also see the Statue of Liberty from the Bridge. Way off in the distance.

Central Park: Yes, you must go if you've never been. There is plenty to see and do there so give yourself at least half-a-day. You might want to download an app to help guide you around everything there is to see there. Wear your walking shoes!

Metropolitan Museum of Art: We spent half a day there. Could've used at least another half day. Definitely a must see. I'm going back for sure.

New York Public Library: Another must see. We spent a half-day seeing the exhibits. Well worth the time.

Statue of Liberty: We didn't actually go to the Statue. We'll do that next time. This time, we rode the subway to the Staten Island Ferry (free, by the way) and did a round trip. It goes by Liberty Island so we got to see it at a distance but were able to get a few decent pictures. If you want to visit the Statue, I think the only cost is the fee for the ferry to get to Liberty Island.

There are so many things we didn't get to see due to time constraints. Put those here as they come up!


Other

For snacks or anything you forgot to bring, Manhattan does not have those big grocery stores. At least not the kind that I'm used to. What they have are places like Duane Reade and they're everywhere! Every few blocks or so. They're probably closer to a drug store (like CVS Pharmacy which they have), but on the other hand, I'd never seen a drug store with sushi! The closest thing to a real grocery store I found was a place called Gristedes, just a block or so away from the hotel. I'm sure these types of stores are everywhere around Manhattan.

Coolest... Webpage... Ever!

Okay, that might be taking it a little far, but not by much!

Want to know how a dust mite compares in size to an ant?  It's here.
How Asia compares in size to Europa? It's here.
How quantum foam compares in size to the known universe?  Yup.  It's here.

And what makes it even more amazing is that it was done by a couple of 9th graders!  How cool is that?

So without further ado, The Scale of the Universe 2.

I Guess I'm Taking This Course Off My To-Play List...

This video was taken while playing the first round of the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.  Maybe I didn't really want to play that course anyway...

And let's be honest here...

...but, I guess we are!

According to this USA Travel article, Salt Lake City and Oakland have the most honest people!  Okay, the article admits that the claim is 'according to an offbeat, though not particularly scientific, survey from the people who make Honest Tea.'   The article says that they set up unstaffed stands containing bottles of tea for $1 and jars into which 'customers' could pay.  100% of the people in both Salt Lake City and Oakland paid for their tea, with other cities coming in at a lower percentage.

The rest of the top 10 according to this survey include the following...

   3. Boulder, CO, 99%
   4. San Francisco, 97%
   5. Boston, 96%
   6. Cincinnati, 96%
   7. Galveston, TX, 96%
   8. Seattle, 96%
   9. Las Vegas, 95%
   10. Washington, DC, 95%

Also, refer to the linked article for other interesting observations, such as men with beards were 96% honest while bald men were 85% honest.  Hmmm...

Source: USA Today Travel

Coolest iPhone Charging Station Ever!

Yes, I am a big fan of "2001." (The movie, not the year)  I'm also a big fan of Legos.  I'm also a big fan of Apple products.  Put them all together and what do you get?  A drooling fanboy of the coolest iPhone charging station I've ever seen!

The link to the original post says that "A friend's husband just built this iPhone charging station."  My hat's off to you, sir!  (WARNING: some of the language in the comments are PG-13 or even R.)

The Beauty Secret of All the Stars!

This is a pretty funny video.  I was LOL at it.  Unfortunately, some of it's too true and a bit sad.

Thanks to Forbes for the link.

Great Lessons for Life and Work

Are you a fan of Jeremy Lin?  Who? you might say.  And probably rightfully so.

Unless you're a basketball fan.  Jeremy Lin is a pro basketball player for the New York Knicks.  Up until very recently, there was really no reason to know who Jeremy was.  He played his college ball at not-exactly-a-powerhouse-Harvard.  He was not drafted by any NBA team and signed as a free agent last year with Golden State.  Earlier this year, he was being played very sparingly and there were even plans to release him once some players returned from injury.  But now?...

Due to those injuries, Jeremy was pressed into a starting role as the Knicks point guard.  Since then (5 games playing at least 36 minutes each game) he has led the formerly 2-11 Knicks to a 5-0 record.  How has he done it?  Well, having some talent certainly helps, but no one in the NBA (or most colleges) seemed to have noticed. But what he really did was be ready for, and seize, an opportunity when it presented itself.

I thought this 10 item list by Forbes contributor Eric Jackson really put it well and gives us all some lessons about life and work and how to do and be our best.  Here is Eric's list...

1. Believe in yourself when no one else does.
2. Seize the opportunity when it comes up.
3. Your family will always be there for you, so be there for them.
4. Find the system that works for your style.
5. Don't overlook talent that might exist around you today on your team.
6. People will love you for being an original, not trying to be someone else.
7. Stay humble.
8. When you make others around you look good, they will love you forever.
9. Never forget about the importance of luck or fate in life.
10. Work your butt off.

23 1/2 Hours

In this awesome video, Dr. Mike Evans asks the question, "Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to just 23 1/2 hours a day?"  And so what do you do with the other 1/2 hour that you're not sitting or sleeping?  Without spoiling it too much, you Exercise!  It doesn't even have to be too strenuous.  Watch the video to see the benefits you can achieve by just being active for 1/2 hour a day.  Then... go take a walk!

How come we didn't have...

The good ol' days?  Forget it!  Why didn't we have these when my kids were small?

I think I'll go bungee-jumping...

NOT!!!

At least not after this story on USA Today.

Yes, that's a half of the cord snapping back up while the other half is still attached to the jumper on her way down...  Thank goodness she is okay.  However, she must've hit her head since she is considering doing it again sometime in the future.

Here's a link to the video if you aren't into reading about mishaps and just want to see them.

Watch for people scanning prices with their phones on Saturday!

If you see an unusual number of people down at your local Target, Wal-Mart, or what-have-you-Mart scanning barcodes with their smartphones, they're probably using Amazon's Price Check app.  Why would they be doing this?  Well, this Saturday, Dec 10, Amazon will give you 5% off, up to $5 per item.  You can do this for up to three items, thus saving you up to $15!

Thanks to lifehacker for the info!

Above and beyond the call of spousal support

This story from TUAW shows the wife of Rovio's CEO wearing a dress resembling a certain bird.  Can you see the familial lines?  I guess after all the money her husband's game has made, it's the least she could do!  Would you?

Pictures from Rovio and The Hollywood Reporter via TUAW

Something cool if you're a student

Along with its calculation capabilities, Google is now graphing equations!  Below is an example of what it can do.  Just type the (single variable) equation you want graphed and voilà!

Thanks to LifeHacker for the tip!

Why it's called a "Big Mac" and not a "Big Win"

Here are the instructions for setting up your computer (Mac or Windows PC) on McDonalds free wi-fi.  Hmmm... Seven steps, or three?  Which is going to get me back to my fries faster?

Thanks go to Daring Fireball via Cult of Mac (so you know it's biased, but so what?) for this link.

Geez, I wish I could present as well as this guy!

And he's a 6th grader!

When are you coming back from your break?!?

What does it say about a product that's in Beta and you already can't live without it after just a week or two?  Well, right now, it's called Siri, Apple's "intelligent" assistant.  The service was down for a few hours yesterday and it's down again today.  I'm finding myself checking every so often to see if it's back (when Siri's down, it tells you that it can't connect to the network).  And it's not just me either.  Do a Twitter search on "Siri down" or "Siri outage" and there are numerous posts about it.  Do a Google search for the same thing and you'll find any number of stories.

So, anyway, what do I think it says about the product?  I think Apple has a big hit on its hands.  I just hope it knows just how big it is and this is just a pre-release glitch and not what we can regularly expect from Siri.

Why I *need* two iPad 2s!

One of these things is not like the other...

I did a YouTube search for "golf iron shot."  Here are the videos it's recommending for me.  Hmmm...

Things I didn't know I didn't know

I came across this pic while perusing USA Today the other day. Really?  A record for riding a unicycle over bottles of beer?

I thought it interesting enough to take a screen cap and tuck it away, but I didn't think it'd be worth something to post about.  But sure enough, today in the Salt Lake Tribune is a story about another record I didn't know existed:  The Undie Run for "largest gathering of people wearing only underpants/knickers," according to the Guiness Book of World Records.  So there you go.  Two things like that come up; I must have to list them both.

Free games!

So I'm going to date myself a little here, but here's your chance to score some free games!  Yes, they are a little bit old, but I just loved playing Zork on my Commodore 64!