wicked weekend in NY, part 2 (Friday evening) in shiny things

The first entry is one back, ages ago; in typical Edna fashion I'm dilly-dallying around about it. I got as far as our arrival and check-in to the lovely (well, visually lovely) Flat Iron Hotel. Lovely in most respects. At least until bedtime.

But first! We arrived, got to park right in front of the hotel and experience Fancy Smancy Valet Parking, and also having someone else lug our bags upstairs. Which is an extravagance I rarely experience. I only had two bags (a little suitcase and a messenger bag) since I'd flown to Baltimore, but everyone else had tons of stuff. So bellboy service was very handy.

It was around four by then I think, so we unloaded quickly and headed out. We had reservations at the very fancy (and very touristy, as we kept laughing amongst ourselves as we dined) View: Mariott Marquis at seven, so had some sightseeing time en route to dinner.

Times Square!

Times Square was crowded. Not really a surprise.

And there were M&Ms.

Lots of candy, actually. We went in the Hershey's store. It was overwhelmingly crowded. I did not buy candy. I don't think anyone bought candy. We just stared.

Then on to The View. It's on the 48th floor and you take a glass elevator -- I looooooove glass elevators!

The View is a revolving restaurant. With, as you would expect, fantastic views. And the food was delicious. I had sea bass and since I don't generally photograph my meals, I didn't even think about it.

But I did photograph my drink, which was a delicious Mango fruity concoction. And my dessert, which was a delicious raspberry spongy and chocolate wafery concoction with dark chocolate syrup.

And of course I took a zillion pictures of the view. From The View. As we revolved very very slowly.

Then we took a cab back to the hotel. Poor Cousin J was not feeling well - she'd had a terrible ... cold? Virus?? Something that had resulted in being coughy and fevery and generally feeling awful. So didn't feel like walking.

The view at night from our room:

Unfortunately we discovered that the Flat Iron Hotel had a .... drawback. In that there is a lounge on the ground floor, that has a band at night. A loud band. A really really REALLY LOUD BAND. OMG it was a loud band. We were on the fourth floor, and not only could we hear it, we could FEEL it. Vibrating. The floors and walls. Despite having earplugs, I couldn't go to sleep and then woke up like every ten seconds to find the room vibrating and the LOUD BAND seeping through my earplugs. And when they finally did quit, at around two in the morning, I STILL couldn't sleep. Because Cousin J and I were sharing a bed, and I was really concerned about her not getting any sleep on top of being sick, so I was trying to stay still and not thrash about, and then I'd keep waking myself up with a weird snorting noise and being afraid I was disturbing her too. The snorty noise sounded as loud as the band to me thanks to the earplugs, which are helpful for external noise but make your internal noises sound REALLY REALLY LOUD.

Cousin J did not wake up at all, as it turned out, having dosed herself up with Nyquil (and I did not catch the Plague, as we referred to it, which made me happy). And on the plus side, despite so little sleep I didn't feel that tired the next day -- too excited!!!---and Saturday night I slept like the DEAD, horrifically loud band and all.

So moral of the story, if you stay at the Flat Iron Hotel, get a room WAY far away from the band. Like top story and other side of the building. Other than that, it was a fantastic place to stay.

And again, being me, I will have to continue this. What a surprise.