The Power Tourist

A friend arrived last Thursday night for her first trip to NYC, and it was a revelation.

When I first came to The City, for 48 hours in 2000, I decided it would be impossible to do everything. I spent the better part of one day at the Metropolitan Museum and just enjoyed the rest of New York as it found me. We went for drinks and dinner with friends, walked a lot, had a cocktail at Windows on the World, and another at my uncle's apartment overlooking Tavern on the Green. I knew I loved the city, and I knew I'd be back. The next few times, I visited East Coast Guy, and things were both spontaneous and relaxed, as things can only be when you're staying with a local.

Not so the Power Tourist. She came with a mission, and got what she came for. She spent Friday at the Met and walking through Central Park taking beautiful photos. We met outside the Plaza, and walked 11 blocks to Eatery for dinner, then took the subway back downtown to The Strand, and then home. The next day, we left the apartment late, but still managed to visit Lower Manhattan, Trinity Church (where Alexander Hamilton is buried), Wall Street, Canal Street (where she purchased two handbags), and grabbed the R uptown to stand in line for 90 minutes for half price tickets to Grey Gardens (totally worth it). We walked to St Patrick's Cathedral (where we watched a wedding processional - fun!), and then to Rockefeller Plaza. Back to the theatre district for an early dinner at Lattanzi, and then went to the theatre. The show was fantastic - Christine Ebersole almost brought me to tears.

The next morning, we lazed ourselves over to brunch with The Blue Fairy, The Vintner, The Actor and East Coast Guy at Cafe Deville. The service was spotty (we waited for everything, there were pastry crumbs in our water glasses, I can't count the number of times our waitress said, "I'm new"), but the food was good as usual. Then The Tourist headed back to Times Square for the Wicked matinee and I took our latest arrivals back to my apartment for a quick viewing. Then uptown in the hopes of catching the new Harry Potter movie, although I have no idea why I thought I'd be able to waltz in with 10 minutes to spared. Ended up watching Shrek III, mostly because I was there, the timing worked, and what I wanted was 2 hours of air conditioning.

We met up again after the theatre (where she got autographs and photos of the stars), took the subway down to Greenwich village for Thai food, and then wandered home through Washington Square Park (she's not very good at wandering). It was an early night.

The following morning, I headed to the office for a few hours of work, and the Tourist went back to The Strand and wended her way uptown again to 42nd Street. She walked from Times square to Central Park, where she encountered John Travolta being interviewed lakeside. She took a few photos (see above) and got his autograph too. She went to the Met to purchase a pop-up book for a friend, and walked back to the East Village from 86th Street. We packed her up, put her in a cab, and off she went.

And off I went to an evening of manicures and white wine by the bottle. Because I deserved it.

Previously: I have seen the future