The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on…Manhattan?

* Watch Video Before Continuing*

Isn’t that the most exhilarating version of Mary Had a Little Lamb that you’ve ever heard/seen? Tom Hanks ain’t got nothin’ on Rachel. If you’ve never seen the movie Big, that probably won’t make any sense, but that’s your bad because everybody should have seen Big. The “Big Piano” is located in FAO Schwartz in New York City. FAO is known worldwide as one of the biggest, coolest, toy stores around. Had we been 10 years old on this trip, FAO would have been the place we hung out most on our entire trip. We used our time at FAO to play while we waited for the Letterman staff to call and inform us if we were going to be selected to receive free tickets for that night’s show. Lucky us, we were put on “Paul’s Gold List” (this was just a fancy way of saying we had been selected, it was their way of making us feel special) and after some training on how to laugh properly to boost Letterman’s ego, we were in the Ed Sullivan theatre waiting to see our first Late Night show live. To be honest, we were both not entirely thrilled to see Dave, but more excited to see who the guests would be. He had a good one on that night and we got to see all 4 feet 2 inches of Danny DeVito and a story about how he took on a poisonous scorpion in his hotel room in the Caribbean. DeVito was definitely the highlight of the show. Letterman on the other hand simply berated anything close to a right-wing ideology, so you can imagine how we felt sitting in the middle of a studio audience who seemed to all think Dave’s wit was genius. We applauded ever so lightly. Nothing against any libs reading this blog, but can any late show host make jokes about anything but politics these days? Sheesh. We left the theatre with feet as ice cubes. Let me explain…

We woke up that morning to a New York rain storm that was unrelenting all day. Within one hour of our time downtown, even with umbrellas, our pants were soaked, our shoes sopping, and even our shirts and jackets were drenched. Rachel’s hair did not appreciate the unkind weather either, Josh’s hair on the other hand, had no say in the matter. However, we were not going to let some rain on our parade stop us from having a good time.

Before the Letterman show, we decided to try out the famous Ray’s Pizza (and this actually is a famous place). From what we understand, this was the first pizza place in NYC. So it was just one of those things you have to see for yourself. The pizza was good but not earth-shattering. We continued our Times Square experience after the Letterman show with a stop at the M&M’s World, an enormous Toys ‘R Us, and a stop at Walgreens to fix our chocolate desire with some old fashion M&M’s. We would have bought some M&M’s from M&M World but they saw it fit to charge an arm and a leg for one pound of M&M’s. We settled for a few ounce bag at Walgreens instead.

After a full day of New York attitude, buildings, and soaking wet clothes, we decided to call it a night and headed back to our Jersey hotel for some much-needed rest and relaxation. We have yet to see the main attraction in NY but I’m sure the Statue will be amazing…let’s just hope for some better weather! More from NYC tomorrow…

From the Road Less Traveled,
Rachel & Josh

NYC Day 3 Highlights: Umbrellas!!!, short guys named Danny DeVito, cool and helpful NYPD, Ruby Tuesdays for dinner, pianos you can play with your feet, toy stores, nice hotel shuttle drivers, M&M’s, getting to warm up in a hot shower that night!

License Plate Update: Idaho, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Texas, Florida, Oregon, California, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Illinois, Oklahoma, Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, Alaska, Michigan, Iowa, New Mexico, Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina (go Tar Heels!), Virginia, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Connecticut, Kansas, Vermont, West Virginia, Delaware, Washington D.C., Rhode Island (51/51)….this completes our list…we’ve seen ALL the state license plates plus Washington D.C.’s license plate!!!!!!!!!