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I let Adam sleep in a bit because we weren't on a strict time schedule today. I had some breakfast and finished my book. After the long process of getting ready to leave, we headed to the Empire State Building. It was only a few blocks away, so it was easier just to walk, rather than take the subway.
We waited about 10 minutes for our tickets, and it took about 15 more to make it through the maze of elevators and merchandizing to the top. While it was cold, it was only really windy on the west side, so we stayed on the other three. Adam took a ton of pictures, while I tried not to look down too much. We had to rush our visit to the top a bit so we could make it to Madison Square Garden for the 1 pm Rangers/Devils hockey game.
MSG was only another couple blocks away, so we made it with plenty of time to spare. We grabbed some hot dogs (it took forever!) and found our seats just in time for the Star Spangled Banner. It was sung by one of the cast members of the Sopranos, Uncle Junior. He wasn't bad, and I think people were impressed he was there.
It being a match-up between two local rivals, I had been nervous that we might see a scuffle in the crowd (not really, that is just what I would picture New York fans to be like.) I wasn't entirely off-base. We sat next to a couple very vocal and obnoxious New Jersey mid-20s females. They were doing most of the taunting, as the Devils were winning the entire game (final score 7-3.) The Rangers fans in the area were pretty funny; most agreed with the taunters as the Rangers do, in fact, suck. A few fans yelled back, but their ammunition had little to do with the team. It was more like “You can't even sell out the Meadowland unless the Rangers are playing,” or “Try a salad.”
It was hard not to compare MSG with the SJ Arena. I was totally surprised that hardly anyone stood up when the Rangers finally scored. The fans weren't, on the whole, very vocal (except of course to complain or yell at the Devils fans). The Tank is newer, cleaner, and I just get a better vibe. But I think that the Bay Area just has a different sports vibe than other parts of the country (And believe me, I like it that way!)
We stopped in at the New York Public Library on our walk back home (it's a block from our hotel, hence the name “Library Hotel.”) It had a neat exhibit on Russia and it's interactions with Asia and Europe from about 1600 on. Each period had examples of books, maps and correspondence from either side of the exchange.
We rested up and watched some TV before heading out to the culinary extravaganza that is Churrascaria Plataforma. It was over in the theater district, so we walked about 20 minutes to help build up our growing appetites. This place is an Atkins dream. They have a large buffet of salads, cheeses etc, but it's hard to focus on the spread as dozens of servers careen around the restaurant with huge skewers of meat. Once you're done with the salad bar, you flip over your little card from the red side to the green side, and all of the sudden you're inundated with carnivorous delights. There were all kinds of different steaks, plus sausage, chicken, lamb, pork, salmon -- even little tiny chicken hearts (we skipped those.) If that's not enough, they also load your table with starchy sides like rice, potatoes and, my favorite, fried plantains. You feel bad telling them you've had enough. Once we turned our cards to the red side (meaning “No more -- I can't take it), our head server flipped them back over, telling us not to give up! Finally, once you've convinced them that you're too stuffed for any more meat, they wheel by a huge, three-story dessert cart. We tried the flan and the rice pudding. All was very good, and it took a lot to muster the strength to find the coat check and get out of there. It was quite an experience, but I do have one complaint. I don't mind paying 45 bucks apiece for a good meal, but seriously, charging for soda refills? I mean really, it's fountain soda, not a can and the glass is not that big, plus, there's tons of salt in the meat. A girl could go through 4 refills. That's 10 bucks for some soda. Not cool.
We finally waddled out of the restaurant, and made our way home via a couple souvenir shops and the Hershey's Times Square. We rounded out the night with a trip diary and some TV.