After the previous night's excitement of the Westlife concert and exploring Rockefeller Center at night, Sean and I allowed ourselves some extra rest the following morning before starting our day.  It was St. Patrick's Day and we made plans to meet a couple friends of mine at a pub near Penn Station.  Because the pub was only a mile from our hotel it was a perfect time to work Times Square into our schedule.  

After returning to the hotel to freshen up, we made our way to the pier for the Circle Line Tour's Harbor Lights Cruise!  It allowed us a lovely perspective of the city in a rather timely manner so that we could make the most of our visit.

We gave ourselves a couple hours to meander the mile from our hotel to the pub for lunch, which managed to be more than enough time at a New York pace.  It was probably the fastest mile I've walked in my life.  If you have a set destination and don't plan on stopping, dive into a group of walking people and get going.  It's like watching fish swim together, but more chaotic and noisy.

During our walk, we stopped at many a souvenir shop, which are scattered all over the place, to see what offerings were available.  Most of the shops have the same stuff, so if you see something you really like it's better to go ahead and grab it.  If you like souvenir shops, it was worth keeping an eye out for the ones with slightly different items.  I rarely saw any souvenir clothing items over a fitted 2X.  Sean and I stuck to hats, stickers, ornaments, knick-knacks, and mugs as our chosen souvenirs.  (Whereas in Boston it was easier to find hoodies and tees in our sizes.)  And if a New York sports hat is what you seek, you will have the most luck at a Lids, which is where Sean found a green one that matches his raincoat well!

Times Square is truly a grotesque cacophony of capitalism.  Sure, you can people-watch and it's exciting in that a lot is going on, but I am easily overstimulated and would much rather see trees than television screens, no matter how big they are.  It was interesting to see it in person and to see how small the scale of the area actually is, but it was just too much for me.  Unless I was going to a specific store, I don't think I need to go back through Times Square again other than to pass the time.  I would much rather be in Central Park.  (That'll be in the next post.)  

Because most of this trip was centered around Westlife and hanging out with my friends, I tried to find every comic shop and tasty food item Sean might like along the way to balance things out.  Not that he doesn't enjoy Westlife or seeing my friends, but I wanted to make sure his likes were covered to the best of my ability.  So we stopped at Midtown Comics for a look-see.  

The pot shops in NYC are very bright and slick and seem like way too much.  It's hard to narrow down any product and most of it was edibles.  I also didn't feel like the people in charge were very knowledgeable about the product.  Plus, they seemed to take one look at two fat tourists and assume we didn't know shit about cannabis in the first place when that isn't true. 

At the pace of New York, we had time to kill as we got closer to the pub, so we decided to browse Macy's on 34th Street to say we've been there.  The store is massive!  Personally, I can't stomach strong smells anymore, so the loud perfume scents made me incredibly nauseous.  I tried to find some hoop earrings I liked because I was ready to spend good money on the right ones, but I didn't find anything.  We went back out to the street where the air was fresher and took some time to stand still and watch the city while we waited for my friends to arrive.

Lunch at Stout NYC was a nice stop and much quieter for St. Patrick's Day than any of us would have thought.  I had a wonderful time catching up with my friends whom I hadn't seen in person for about twenty-four years.  It was really neat to notice the ways they have changed and stayed the same, and it made me realize what an impact they had on 20-something me.  These friends that I surrounded myself with back then all have big personalities.  Because I wasn't allowed to have a personality growing up, because I was never allowed to truly be myself, being around people who were unapologetically themselves was inspiring to me.  Leaving with that newfound knowledge made me appreciate them even more, and left me with the idea that maybe Younger Me followed her intuition more than I thought.

Sean and I walked the mile back through Times Square again because this time I felt prepared.  We weaved through some of the nearby blocks to look around and do some more souvenir shopping.  Back at the hotel, we rested and changed clothes before heading out for the sunset harbor cruise.  The Circle Line tours were recommended to me via an Instagram friend, and now I get to recommend them to you!  They have a variety of tours that include various landmarks, bridges, and parts of the harbor.  We chose the Harbor Lights night cruise because we prefer sunsets and wanted to see the city all lit up, and it happened to be at a time we could fit into our itinerary. 

The Harbor Lights Cruise is a two-hour tour that started around sunset and took us past the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhatten Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge.  Obviously, there are quite a few other landmarks you can distinguish from the water.  We upgraded to Premier Seating to ensure a more comfortable experience.  An upgraded seat meant we didn't have to wait in line for boarding, our seats were cushioned, and we had access to the temperature-controlled cabin (great for warming up).  After seeing the Standard Seating where everyone was crammed together outside, I'm glad we got the Premier.

A little bit into the trip, I joined Sean on the outside deck to feel the wind, watch the sights, and take photos.  There were quite a few people out there, but a lot of them tend to get bored or cold and go in after a few minutes.  We spent most of the cruise on the outer deck marveling at the beauty of the lights and happy we weren't smack dab in the middle of the city for a couple hours.  It was a nice, windy respite despite the people.

We used a rideshare app during our time in NYC to save time getting from place to place.  We were exhausted more this leg of the trip and I'm grateful we were able to do it.  There were quite a few drivers trying to get people to ride with them after the cruise ended, especially the lit-up peddling cart people.  Most of those things are going to be way more trouble than they're worth.  The carts will totally jack up the price and you could pay $200 to go half a mile.  (Not exaggerating.  This happened to someone I know.)   So just use an app like a normal person.