…… full day.

I know that you’ve all been on pins and needles waiting for this post …… or at least those of you who are Face Book friends with me (so sorry for the rest of you, who had no idea).
Today was a busy, fun, wonderful day.

First off, just to keep you up to date, it is now Restaurant Week in NY. The interesting thing is …… the word “week” would seem to involve 5 to 7 days, right? But here in NY, “week” evidently means fourteen or more days.
Go figure.

But here’s the good part: Restaurant Week means that you get to go to a lot of restaurants that you’d never, ever get to dine in on a regular day/evening. Restaurants like Le Cirque, where “regular people” like us, don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of getting in at any other time of the year.
Needless to say (which begs the question, “Why am I saying it?”) …… I snagged a reservation at this oh-so-fancy-and-impossible-to-get-in-to restaurant.
For lunch.
Today.

My friend Suzanne and I met there at noon. We were one of the first tables to arrive for lunch. In less than 30 minutes or so, the place was packed.
Now, restaurant week means that you get to go to lunch (at restaurants who participate) for $25. It’s a prix fixed menu … 3 courses. The same applies to dinner, but it’s $35.
Most of the restaurants, like Le Cirque, give you a few choices for your 3 course meal.

Sometimes, they add something to the menu that will add an additional cost to to the menu. Like the risotto in a truffle cream sauce, for an extra $10, which, of course, I chose. And oh-my-word I’m glad I chose it.

Here’s where I need to butt in to tell you that a glass of wine at Le Cirque costs upwards of $18. Seriously. Can you believe that??!
So Suzanne and I decided to go with a bottle of wine because:
1. It was $55, which we figured would be a much better deal in the long run (and it was) … and …
2. If we bought a bottle we’d be able to sit there longer …… and we did. 🙂

The food was very, very good. I loved the risotto, and the pork dish that I chose, and the chocolate mousse.
Suzanne chose a gnocchi, a fish dish that I can’t recall the name of …. and creme brûlée.
She seemed happy with her choices.

Neither one of us recognized any famous people in the restaurant, but both of us kind of suck at recognizing people, so there you go.

I wanted to take a picture (or two) so that I could show you guys what it looked like, but I felt that taking pics there wouldn’t be socially acceptable.
So here’s what you get:

Yes, that’s a picture of the toilet paper roll in the restroom.
You get what you get.
Don’t complain.

After a couple of hours at Le Cirque, we headed out to Rockefeller Center to attend the Tonight Show’s monologue rehearsal.
That sounds much easier than it proved to be.
Can I just tell you that I hate …… abhor …… GPS systems on cell phones?! You put in the address for where you want to go …… and it tells you how to get there, without telling you how to get to the first step!
So we spent about 20 minutes or so being completely lost and going in the wrong direction of 30 Rock.
It was embarrassing.

But we finally realized where we were …… and where we needed to be, and we made it.
We attended Jimmy Fallon’s monologue rehearsal and he was pretty dang funny.
Except when he wasn’t.
And so we, the audience, had control over which jokes he told tonight.
And which he didn’t.
We rocked.
🙂

Then Suzanne and I came back to the apartment so that we could just relax and hang out for a couple of hours before we headed out to “Rock of Ages”.
I have to preface this by saying that I knew this show wasn’t going to be “great theatre”. And I was perfectly ok with that.
Because I knew it would be entertaining ….. and fun.
And it was.
🙂

So there you go.
A fun day in NY.
In just a few hours I’m heading to Tampa and to Camp Widow.

It’s going to be a great weekend.
🙂