NYC Marathon...Tourist Style

I never knew I could pull a 16 hour day on the longest day of the year, but I did...with my brother...all over Manhattan. So my older brother, Beau (yes I'm talking about you), came to visit me and check out Manhattan for the first time. He was only here for 2 1/2 days and is all about checking out the sites and going hard core all day. We went to a game at Yankee Stadium last Friday night and that was really fun, except for the fact that the stadium is all the way up in the Bronx....and the Bronx is GHETTO. I had to pay $5 to store my bag because they wouldn't let me take it in. The Yankees were playing Cincinnati so we got to see Griffey Jr. play, but you can't tell Yankees you're there to support a player from the other team. And you especially can't tell them you're from Seattle, the city with the worst performing team in baseball. In sum, Yankee fans are hard core and some of them scare me. The subway was so stuffed on the way home that we almost suffocated. 45 minutes of sweat, heat and B.O. to get back to Manhattan. 

The highlight of the weekend was visi

ting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were there for about 4 hours, mesmerized by all the cool stuff. We

 ended our visit by hanging out on the rooftop deck at sunset overlooking Central Park and Manhattan. We also went to the top of the

 Empire State Building. We got there at 8am (right when they open) on Sunday morning and the line was already around the block. So I

 paid my $20/person to get in and it obviously had great views but in sum it was a total tourist rip off. While w

aiting in line we did some math: $20/person x 4 million visitors/year = $80 million in revenue!! That doesn't even count the gift st

ore, the picture they make you take with the fake background in hopes you'll buy it on your way do

wn (like the Disneyland kind), and the 5 other ways they attempt to squeeze additional tourist dollars out of you. My brother estimates th

e owners of the building make more from the observation deck than they do with the tenants in the building.

We also decided that if we told anyone we were from Seattle and they asked what it was like, we would say that its cold, rainy and awful in Seattle. I don't want any NYers knowing what they're actually missing by not living in a fabulous place like Seattle. 

We also did a lot of other things, but I'll mention one last little humorous event. We had dinner on Saturday night at a sushi restaurant in the Upper East Side and while we were eating a group of 7 girls walked in ages 14-16. It was hilarious to watch them order sushi while talking on their iPhones...I didn't even know what sushi was when I was 14! But I guess that's what life is like when you're the daughter of a rich executive living in the upper tier of society? I've determined I'm a better, happier person for not knowing what that's like. :)