Monday Nov. 3rd was our last full day in NYC. We started the day at our hotel eating breakfast. We were joined by the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. We wished the kids were there. they would have been very excited. We once again planned to meet the Finns at Rockefeller Center. We had decided before we left the hotel that we wanted to stop at M&M World to buy gifts for the Finns' kids. We had 10 minutes if we wanted to be on time. It took us about 1/2 an hour - so of course we were late again. We found some cute t-shirts and of course, M&Ms. We met the Finns outside of the NBC Studio store. The NBC Plaza was hopping and being turned into Election Plaza. The Rockefeller Center Ice Rink has a big map etched into it and they were going to . They were decorating it as Election Plaza. It was very exciting to think about the election the next day. The Finns were making plans to watch it - and I was suddenly very jealous that they were going to be in NYC and we would be back in Minnesota. It would have been SO great to be in Rockefeller Plaza or Times Square when the election was called!
The Finns wanted to do the NBC Studio Tour, and Mom thought it would be fun to join them. Kevin and I had already done the tour, so we decided that we would go shopping instead. We hadn't really gotten anything significant for the kids, so we went to the NHL store and found some cute Rangers lounge pants for Hannah and the NBA store - to try find something for Noah. No success. We did decide that we wanted to get him a duffel bag, but they didn't have anything there we liked. Afterwards we met everyone back at the Studio Store. We decided to grab lunch at the Variety Cafe, which is a great cafeteria-style restaurant we had discovered in December. They have just about any kind of food you can imagine. They have a pasta bar from which Kevin ate, and I had spicy Sweet Chili Noodles with shrimp (of course) cooked on the Hibachi - YUM!
After lunch the Finns planned more shopping. Mom, Kevin and I headed uptown to Columbia University where we were planning to meet my friend Alena who is a graduate student there. We had no problem finding her and she was kind enough to give us a tour of the campus. We had a lot of fun. The school is, of course, beautiful. I just love the feel of old university campuses. The architecture was very interesting and we had a nice time wandering around and catching up on Alena's life. We saw St. John's Cathedral - the largest cathedral in the world. We also saw the diner that Jerry always ate in on Seinfeld (one of Kevin's all-time favorite television shows). We spent some time (and money) in the book store. Kevin added to his law school t-shirt collection. I got a sweatshirt and we found a nice Columbia duffel bag for Noah.
After we left Alena we took the subway back down to Macy's. Mom wanted to find a special outfit for an upcoming award ceremony, so we went shopping. I had forgotten how HUGE that Macy's is - a full LONG block deep and 7 stories high. I also apparently forgot where it was since I old the Finns we'd meet them on the corner of 34th Street and 5th Avenue - outside of Macy's. Unfortunately, Macy's is between 7th Ave. and 6th Ave./Broadway - not 5th Avenue. So, come time to meet, we don't know where they will be. We walked down to 34th and 5th Avenue - which is where the restaurant we planned to eat at (the Heartland Brewery) was. Then when they weren't there, Kevin went back to Macy's and he found them - whew! We had a nice final meal together. The guys had plenty of beer. I had 1/2 of a big, old hamburger (instead of shrimp) and we even had a wonderful brownie sundae for dessert. A very classic American meal.
After dinner we went back up to Times Square. We said our goodbyes to the Finns with promises to meet again soon - in Finland we all hope. We found our bus and had an uneventful trip back to New Jersey. It's always sad to leave New York. Who knows when we'll be back again.
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