Angrytown, USA

Saturday night...early dinner at Lure Fishbar

You might walk by if you're not looking for it...at the corner of Mercer and Prince Streets in SoHo.
Going down into the cruise ship...below street level.

Sushi bar. Fish bar. Bar bar. 

Lots of starters on the house.  Lots of delicious appetizers.  Plenty of beer.  All sorts of fabulous sushi.  Great dinners.  

After dinner, we decided to take a walk--on a mission to find somewhere Mel could try a Sake-bomb

This is where we ended up...clearly transported to another dimension.  A freaky dimension.  

Don't remember the name of the place, but they were supposed to have cheap beer!
Well...they definitely had a panda-skunk-raccoon-looking thing with glowing red eyes, CREEPY!

I don't know what else to say about this thing...but that it too, is CREEPY and STRANGE! All in the outdoor waiting area.
Don't worry, I made everyone pose with the crazy man-head cut-out...I only felt I had permission to actually share the one of my husband with the rest of the world, sorry Mike!

Cotton candy machine...interesting.

While we waited for a table, we noticed the shop above...well, how could you NOT notice it!?!?!
All punks and skins gets drunk and pogo dance???

I don't know who had the idea, but the girls ended up venturing in to take a look and see what the shop was all about.

The creepy dolls in the front window were only the beginning...

Apparently it was a vintage clothing store...with a dark twist.
We snapped a few photos before being told that photography was NOT allowed,
there were definitely things in there you wouldn't have wanted to see.

Crazy two-headed animated horror movie thing, bagpipes, lots of cowboy boots,
crazy clothing, a life-sized yoda prop, creepy black leather S&M body bag hanging from the ceiling,
shell casings, grenades, and other leather and studded items, life-like medical mannequin,
and on, and on, and on.  The boys soon walked in and informed us that we were leaving--
it seemed that the regulars were sitting out on the front steps attempting to start a revolution
with chants of F@%$ BLOOMBERG!  F@%$ BLOOMBERG!
At that point...we decided that if it wasn't already, the neighborhood should now be known as ANGRYTOWN...

At the subway station...after making it out of Angrytown alive :-)  We just had to have an interesting story to tell!

Jase thinking about pretending to make a phone call in the subway...
then realizing just how dirty that phone probably was!  On second thought...

Back to Times Square, this time with all sorts of flashing lights at night!

Talk about riding in S-T-Y-L-E...LOL!

Aaaahhh, our destination at last!  No sake-bombs here...However, the Scottish one was quite impressed with the scotch selection.  I believe his exact words were, don't ever, under any circumstance, let me go to this place unaccompanied!

Scotch, scotch, scotch...I love scotch...scotch goes down, down into my belly...

Who knew Moby would be joining us?

The group, after we pounded a few back. 

Jen...you should have slid over for the picture!!!

We probably should have realized that we dressed quite similar that night...
look at those gigantic beers--couldn't have found a better deal in NYC.
A LITER of beer for $10 (and it was tasty beer at that)!
That about did it for the night, minus a quick stop for some slices of PIZZA
on the way home...we still had one more day of touristing left :)

Adventures in Central Park

"Tornado"

Very cool...can I have one in my house?

I think they were definitely ready for a break...resting our legs on the benches in Central Park

The photographer too!

One thing I didn't do--get a hot dog from a street vendor while in NYC...

I did introduce the gang to Applegate Farms Organic hot dogs and chicken sausages, though...FREE SAMPLES :-)

Central Park squirrel

NY Islanders SUV in the park...Mike wanted a picture

Impromptu photo shoot in the park; the boys striking a pose

Mike really enjoyed giving the peace sign that day!

Girls turn...think we were going for Charlies Angels or something!

Mr. McSurdy, what a lovely bag you have!

Yoga.  And martial arts.  Wow, we apparently had derailed at this point!

Mel likes to "plank" for pictures...vertical plank, that is.
Jen and I are just trying to get the pose down!

Wanna play softball with that skyline in the background??

Central Park pigeons

His jokes suck.  No joke. Heard him on the Today Show one time.  Probably not worth a dollar.

The DeBoers.

The Condons.

The McSurdys.  Big City doesn't smile.

Oh wait, I said something crazy funny and made him laugh...
and he of course buried his head so I couldn't capture the smile on camera.
Wish I could remember what I said!

Now this was entertaining...a little impromptu performance in the park.
The dude in the Anthony jersey could have been Flava Flav's twin...or Flava Flav himself, we weren't really sure
To set the scene, just imagine the guy in the Brooklyn shirt pumping out a mad beat on his busted cymbal.

Then comes gigantic dude (a stubby looking Billy Blanks) who enjoys
making his pecs dance about his chest.

Skinny dude with the fedora-ish hat is liking the beat...moving his body to the rhythm

Lots and lots of anticipation...i.e. long, drawn out introduction and prep time before they're ready for their act.
Big dude asks everyone to move in closer--to step up to the line they have drawn on the sidewalk.
Nobody moves.  He asks again.  This time he says, there's nothing to be scared about...it's just black guys dancing!
...just black guys dancin'...and black guys flipping'...and black guys strippin'...and so on.
We didn't stay for the show, the theme song was enough in and of itself.
And so, our journey through a portion of Central Park had come to an end, LOL!