NEW YORK CITY: DAY ONE

The Peter Pan Bonanza Bus ride to New York City took about five hours and deposited us at the Port Authority, which was .2 miles from our hotel, The Best Western Convention Center. That translated into six long New York city blocks in humid, sweltering 90 degrees plus heat with multiple pieces of luggage. But we eventually made it to the hotel. Good thing, because we would be making that trek quite a few times over the next four madcap, fast-paced days.

The less said about our hotel, the better. If you want to read about our lodging experience, you can find more info here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d235228-r7751297-Best_Western_Convention_Center_Hotel-New_York_City_New_York.html

As soon as we'd changed, it was out the door and to Times Square, minds reeling from all the people and electronic stimuli. We were on a mission to find Ray's Pizza and mangia mangia some of their awesome strombolis and meatball rolls. Somehow we found it in the midst of all the mayhem and chowed down on our best New York City meal. We love Ray's Pizza. We stopped in there twice more, both times after the theatre, and they were already sold out of their amazing meat strombolis. You know what that means! We have to go back to New York City!

We stopped for a photo op at the Brill Building, 1619 Broadway, where most of the classic girl group songs I love so much were composed by songwriters like Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Barry Mann, Mark Barkan, Artie Wayne, Ben Raleigh, etc. As I posed at the door, a mother and daughter walked by and the mother realized what I was doing and gave me a huge grin. I knew she understood.

That night we rode the subway down to Chelsea and hiked around that area. It was our first time there and we loved it. It's where the boys are, for sure, and the nightclubs and restaurants were jam packed. Next we hit Greenwich Village, which was not as seedy as it was last visit (2004) but has yet to reclaim its glory days as the center of Big Apple gay life, but is picturesque in its own faded way.

Exhausted, we trudged back to the hotel with a snack for a good night's sleep, looking forward to Day Two.