Our first morning in New York started with a gentle wake up call from Steve Balet - he took my pillow from beneath my head and started hitting me in the face with it telling us to get up! When we arrived in the early hours he told us about a place called 'Pick a Bagel' that was just round the corner and suggested we go there for breakfast. Lee and Claire were apparently great fans of there so I text Lee to tell him that's where we were headed. After a quick change and a short walk round the corner we arrived at Pick a Bagel and were hit with an array of options of bagel and filling. Lee had replied to my text asking to get him a Plain Bagel with Scallion cream cheese so I decided to go for that! Balet treated us to the bagels, coffee and New York's famous Black and White cookies. Great way to start our first day! Balet was off to a baseball game later that day so he walked us to the subway, checked we knew his address so we could get home, and we were left on our own!

First stop for us was Grand Central Terminal where we had a look around and took a few photos before starting to make our way to the Empire State Building. After realising we had been walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks we turned around and soon arrived. Before we left the UK we purchased 'City Passes' which get you into 6 attractions, saving you lots of money. As we just had our print out confirmations we had to exchange these for the actual pass booklets at the first attraction we visited. We now realise that we should not have chosen The Empire State as this first attraction as we had to wait for quite a while in the 'normal' queue to exchange our passes, whereas if we already had them we could have joined a much smaller queue! Never mind! Included in our pass was a free audio guide from Tony the NY cabbie which was really interesting and informative. We also had a map which showed us what we were looking at from each side. While at the top we also worked out our route for the rest of the day. We planned to walk up to the Rockafella centre and go to the observation deck there, and then walk back to the apartment up 5th Avenue passing all the posh shops on the way.

So, Empire State done, we started heading up 5th Avenue towards Rockafella Centre and the 'Top of the Rock' observation deck. We were a little bit peckish so stopped at a cafe called 'W Cafe'. We spotted a sandwich behind the counter which looked lovely so ordered one to share, and 2 drinks (my first root beer - yummy!). The one sandwich was more than enough between us and it was the nicest sandwich either of us have ever eaten. Great meal #2 for that day!

A little further up 5th Avenue we found a payphone and called the Parsons' using our phonecard that we'd purchased in advance. The line was bad and we were in a very noisy area so Dave managed a few words to let them know we were safe and having fun, before we said goodbye and carried on our walk. The queues at Rockafella Centre were much shorter than at The Empire State and the views were better in my opinion. At one side you had a perfect view of the Empire State and on the other stunning views of Central Park, much nearer than from Empire State. The only difference is you're not as high up, but not by much.

Our walk home took us past lots of expensive shops including Tiffany's! I had my picture taken underneath the sign and we went in for a (very quick) look around. I didn't want to go in at first as I thought all the shop assistants would look down their noses at me like they did at Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, but Dave persuaded me to go in for a look around. There were plenty of other tourists in there too, they must be used to it! Our walk home also took us past lots of homeless people begging on the streets. They must think they'll make more money in the posh areas. A few of them were very dubious looking - if you're holding a sign saying 'widow, lost everything, homeless' then why are you sat in clean clothes with perfect hair and makeup? We finally arrived home with very tired feet. They say that 20 blocks is a mile in New York, well Grand Central is on 42nd Street (I think) and Balet lives on 74th on the East side. Add to that the getting lost, waiting in queues and wandering about and we probably walked a good few miles that first day. Certainly worked off our breakfast bagels! We just had time to update the blog for the day before and have a quick shower before heading out to Times Square!

After collecting the tickets for Memphis the Musical we went to look for somewhere to eat. We decided we'd go to the Hard Rock Cafe since we were treating ourselves (thanks to money we received as presents from work colleagues) and since we would only be in Times Square once on this trip! That changed when we saw the amount of people waiting for tables - no thanks, we'll go to the italian we saw round the corner!

At the italian restaurant we decided to have a little food experiment since we were so hungry. We ordered 2 starters and 2 mains (before we left we said we were going to order one main and on side order between us as we knew how big the portions would be). The starters arrived and were lovely (both salads) and then the mains arrived...Dave had ordered a 'small' pizza but there was nothing small about it, there was enough to feed a large family...for a week! I was quite disappointed with the normal sized portion of spaghetti and meatballs I received, but I still didn't manage to finish it all! There were a middle aged couple at the table next to us who were most upset to be kept waiting 10 minutes for the family sized salad they had ordered to share. They had just got up and thrown a few dollars on the table for their drinks, when their food arrived so they sat down again. The woman said something to the waitress about how they could get a slice of pizza across the street in 2 seconds. Why come to a restaurant then?? Honestly, they weren't waiting long at all. Stupid whiney people!

After dinner was the moment we (well I) had been waiting for - Memphis the Musical. After paying $20 dollars (yes 20) for the barman to pour us two glasses of diet coke from his 2 litre bottle behind the counter (I think it was because it was in special plastic souvenier cups that you could take away with you - but we didn't), we took our seats which were very good. The show was absolutely amazing. After the second song I turned to Dave, beaming, and said 'I LOVE it!'. It was about a white american DJ in the 50s who loves black music and starts playing it on the radio and becomes involved with a black singer. Obviously this doesn't go down well in Memphis in the 1950s, so the story is all about the 2 of them trying to find a way to be together and both be successful. It's full of brilliant motown type songs but all originally written by the bass guitarist from Bon Jovi. I know Dawn Williams would love it too, so hopefully it will come to England soon!

After the show we went to a bar Dave had read about in a guide book. It was described as a small intimate place where people often go after the theatre. We went upstairs to the tiny bar and ordered a couple of beers. The place was nice but full of 'luvvie' types who all knew each other and who all chatted to the bar man, who was miserable the rest of the time. We didn't exactly feel welcome and were absolutely knackered (it was 4am UK time), so we left after 1 drink and hailed a cab right outside back to the apartment.

All in all a fantastic day to start our trip!