Roadtrip to NYC: Manhattan Day 2
Badly needed sleep causes more delays here, but this time it's only an hour's delay. Maria, however, still nearly kills me for running late. Clearly, she doesn't, and fortunately, she's easily appeased by food...
Massive sightseeing commences. Koreatown for a buffet lunch, the New York Public Library and next door Bryant Park, a long walk through Times Square, then onto New York's massive subway system to Battery Park and the south end of Manhattan. We see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, then walk all over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, Chase Manattan Plaza and the Trump Building, some time at Ground Zero, a bit of shopping at Century 21, a glance at City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, and then up to Grand Central. Getting yelled at by a security guard at Chase Manhattan Plaza not to take pictures of the interior of the building was a nice touch, considering I wasn't taking pictures of the interior. =P
The Staten Island Ferry to get a better look at the Statue of Liberty was tempting, as was a stroll through Chinatown and then Little Italy, then SoHo. This was all scratched when Joe called and indicated yes, he was getting off work early, and yes, we should meet at Columbus Circle to go to Central Park to rock climb. Subway to Grand Central commenced then, then a cross-town bus... it turns out a cross-town bus that runs through Times Square really isn't the best idea, but at least we were in a nice A/C'ed bus for a while.
Met up with Joe, then started looking for Cat Rock and Rat Rock. We found Rat Rock already occupied by a few other climbers and promptly joined in, as it wasn't very crowded. Routes there were pretty difficult (V3 and up, there's one V0 there but we didn't have a route map...); stringing together two or three moves in some places wasn't hard, but much more than that was difficult. Someone named Sarah even loaned Maria her shoes, so Maria was able to take a stab at it. *grins* Then, after 30 minutes or so of climbing, it started to rain.
We fled for shelter under a nearby bridge, along with 30 or 40 others. Rain fell hard enough that it overwhelmed the storm drains, and the little island of dry land under the bridge got smaller and smaller. Eeek! Eventually NYC Park Services employees showed up and unclogged the drains, and we braved the flood and the rain and left the park-- the rain cleared up about then, thankfully! Our soaking-wet-selves made it to Columbus Circle and split up there, Maria and I headed down the subway to meet up with Eileen and grab dinner.
The constant threat of rain meant we didn't stray too far. Fortunately nearby were a ton of restaurants. We had sushi at a place called Sushi Lounge... it wasn't great, but we got away stuffed for $40 for three. O_O That was a good deal. *grins*