Exactly one week after we tearfully bade farewell to Lauren and Lucy an old friend dropped by to say hi. In town after hitting up Toronto and Baltimore for a doctoring conference, Ian (long-time friend, long-time no see) checked into the Empire Hotel on 63rd and Broadway and we met him on a sunny Thursday afternoon. Despite him bagging me out for a poor Supercoach performance the week before, we decided to take him along to the NBC Store at Rockefeller Plaza to see Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation! I'm not sure I've ever seen Timon so excited about a celebrity sighting. We arrived a little bit late and missed joining the queue for the meet and greet so we camped inside the store and took a stack of candid photos with Timon's head in the foreground and Nick/Ron in the background. He sported a full beard which looked out of character but he sounded just like the Ron we know and love. Ian spent the time we were drooling and ogling shopping around the most awesome store ever (NBC Store). We walked from there to Times Square and collected our theatre tickets for that night's show The Addams Family. We walked back to the hotel, changed and went to Ruby Foo's for dinner. Ruby Foo's is a tourist mecca for weird Asian fusion (Duck Nachos) with intensely OTT decor. The food was excellent and we left room for dessert after the show.
The show was really fun. We had unbelievable seats in the Orchestra (Timon and I always end up in the gods - it will be so hard to go back!) and laughed along with Wednesday, Pugsley and Lurch. Morticia was played by the woman who is Lilith in Frasier. I spent most of the show transfixed by her mad cleavage dress. The music was great, costumes cool and there was this weird and wonderful musical number with Uncle Fester and the moon that cannot be sufficiently described. After the show we walked BACK up to the hotel and had dessert and coffee. Ian and I had Key Lime Pie (which we really should have shared) and Timon was directed towards a full-on chocolate brownie. We left Ian around midnight to join his tele-conference work meeting. Snore.
Using my spot-on instructions Ian found our apartment the next morning. After a quick look around (there's not much to see) we set off with the intention of re-visiting the NBC store to gather gifts. Much to Timon's chagrin (sore knee) we ended up walking all the way from 105th to 50th. We went down Central Park West and hit up the Dakota Building where John Lennon spent his last months, and then walked through Strawberry Fields and the rest of the park until we found ourselves at 5th Avenue. We dropped by my new work (more on that later) in midtown - East 51st between 2nd and 3rd Ave - and had an iced coffee. From there we knocked off the presents and caught the subway to 72nd so we could eat at my new favourite place - Lansky's! I'd say any visitors we have from now on can expect to go there for pizza knishes. (I forgot to tell you about the first trip to Lansky's with L&L).
I decided to order light and just go with pizza knishes, mac and cheese croquettes and banana pudding. Timon had southern fried chicken and Ian went with chicken pot pie. I definitely over-ate but Ian said his was awesome. He also liked the free pickles that you get in every diner in this city (bleugh). From there we said Adios Ian and left him to make his way to JFK and then home.
More visitors please!
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