mybigadventures.com

Today, we had a reservation to visit the Statue of Liberty at 10 AM, so we had to get up early to get there on time. Remarkably, we managed to negotiate the subway and, perhaps through luck rather than actual understanding, we took the right train to South Ferry. Were a little confused about where to go when we came out of the train station, however, due to the lack of signs - no surprise there really! We took, what appeared to be, a plausible route, which turned out to be the right one (we later noticed that if you were a pedestrian going in the opposite direction, there were actually quite effective signs - typical!). 

We walked through Battery Park to the ticket office, where we went straight up to an assistant, who printed our tickets out, got on the ferry and got ourselves a prime spot for viewing. Once settled, I went to the ferry snack bar (as we had missed breakfast) and I got a hot pretzel and a hot dog for breakfast. When I got back up to the deck, Ben suggested we move to the other side of the boat – looking at New York – as there was a strong chance that the boat would turn around en route – and it turned out to be fact. So, we ended up with uber-prime spots and admired Liberty as we passed her by.

Getting off the ferry, we picked up our audio guide and nipped into the gift shop to get a sew-on badge for our collection. It wasn’t something they stocked, however. So, a bit disgruntled, we went out, via the other gift shop and – guess what? – sew-on badges! Who knew? Clearly, a more tasteful shop.

We walked up to the entrance to go up into the statue itself. We found out that to go up to the Crown - which we had paid for - we had to leave all our belongings, except for a camera each, in a locker, which we had to pay for - it all seemed to be a bit unfair.

Anyway, snapped out of being grumpy and went on into the museum. You went in past the original flame from the statue, which was replaced in the 80s, as it was corroding badly. Originally, it had little tiny panes of yellow glass – a bit like leaded lights – and it was lit from within. But, it still didn’t light up powerfully enough, so, when it was replaced, the restorers went back to the original plans and made one to be gilded instead, rather than lit.

From there, we went up inside the statue. You could see the structure that supports the copper exterior – apparently, the actual molded sheets of copper are only the width of two pennies. It took a lot of different pieces to make the whole statue – it was a gift from France during Napoleon 3rd’s reign, as an emblem of liberty and democracy.

We went up to the first layer – the top of the granite base - and had a little look around and then joined the short queue to go up into the Crown itself. We only waited for a few minutes and then went up a very, very narrow spiral staircase for a few hundred steps. It was good job it was cloudy today – otherwise, we would have been very hot, sweaty masses when we finally arrived at the top! It was much smaller than we expected. Only about six people would fit. Some of the little windows (openings in the crown) were open for air, and you could see fantastic views out. And the people on the lower levels looked tiny! The view of downtown Manhattan was lovely – all the skyscrapers nestling together. We spent some time up there and then made our way down. One of the Park Rangers ‘guarding’ up there told us to look back up, about 10 steps down, from where you can see her face, so we did – and we could! It was quite strange to see her from behind the mask, as it were – and amazing to think she is sculpted from metal.

When we got down to the lower level, we wandered around and took photos, then we headed towards the cafe for some lunch. We both had panini’s – I had mozzarella and tomato and Ben had chicken fajita – both came with a vast pile of lettuce and tomato – by way of a side salad! Vast portions again!

We went back into the statue to look at the museum, to find out more about the designers – one of whom was Gustave Eiffel. Fancy that! Made some purchases in the gift shop and collected our free certificate for visiting, and then joined the queue for the ferry back. It did try and rain a bit again – as earlier – but it didn’t come to much. Both ferry crossings were very calm and smooth as well, so happy days all round.

Once off the ferry, we made our way into the Financial District to have a look round. We saw the big bull – like the one in the bullring, in Birmingham – near Wall Street. Then we walked up to the site of the World Trade Center. It’s currently a big building site, as the World Trade Center is being rebuilt around a memorial park. We queued briefly for free passes and then went into the park. It was beautifully laid out - a really peaceful contrast to the buildings and bustle around us. They’ve created two huge square fountains at the site of each of the two former towers and they are designed so the water falls into seemingly endless holes, with the names of the victims inscribed all around the edge, so it all seems quite endless – an endless tribute.

We went to get the subway – we’re becoming pros at this! – and headed back to 7th Avenue. We popped into Macy’s, so Ben could get the toilet bag he’d admired. We managed to get 10% off, as it had little mark on it and it was the only one. Then we went to K-Mart to buy the small wheelie case we had seen earlier in the week. We also got another Lego set!

We headed back to the hotel and dumped our stuff, heading back out again for tea. We got some pizza from a local place – they sell by the slice – and we went back to the hotel to scoff. While catching up on some journal and writing some postcards, we rented a film – The Internship, about two middle-aged men who become Google interns - and stayed up quite late, watching films and scoffing.

I started off my birthday by opening my cards. I had opened one late last night, from my bean, and he had drawn a picture of a horse and carriage – one of today’s birthday activities. I had a lovely little Scottie dog brooch from mum and dad and some spending money from Rhi and Rachel. Slothed about for a bit before getting showered and dressed. We left the hotel at about midday.

We went to Penn Station to get the subway, buying some breakfast at a cafe. I bought a lemon and poppy seed muffin and Ben got a half-dipped cookie, and we took them with this. We got on the ‘A’ line – the express, as it turned out. It went to 59th Street and we are expecting to get off at 72nd, however, the train hurtled on to 125th without stopping – just about 50 blocks too far! We then had to get the ‘C’ local line back. So that was an exciting start!

Eventually got off at 72nd. This took us into Central Park, by the lake, as our first birthday activity was ‘messing about on the lake’ in a rowing boat! Walked through Strawberry Fields, where there is a tribute to the Beatles – a stone circle on the floor with ‘Imagine’ engraved in the middle. Apparently, Yoko Ono’s apartment overlooks this part of the park and she contributed to its landscaping. Strawberry Fields is a ‘quiet’ zone, so it was quite peaceful walking through. From there we walked around the lake, trying to find the boathouse. It turned out we were going slightly in the wrong direction, so we had to walk back and round.

Made it to the boathouse, and join the shortish queue for the boats. We had to queue for about 10 minutes and then paid ($12 an hour and a $20 deposit) before we were in the boat, and we were off!

Ben did the rowing, so I was the official photographer and ‘crash averter’. We were just rowing along, when Ben spotted what he thought was a turtle on a tree root, sticking out of the water. We went closer and it turned out to actually be a turtle! A real turtle! In the wild! Awesome. I took lots of photos. We then saw a few more turtles as we made our way around the lake. We also got a bit wet – there was a mini-island which had a water spray on it, and it got us on our way round! As we rowed, we saw more turtles and we explored the lake thoroughly, even nearly getting grounded twice! We also managed to see a few key sites from the boat – the Bethesda Fountain, one of the biggest fountains in the Park. We also stopped by the bank to listen to a busker, who was entertaining the crowd on the grass. He did quite a range of songs and even got another boat actively involved as they did the drum solo on their boat. There was also a wedding taking place so the busker performed an impromptu first dance for them, which was really sweet.

We were getting close to our time, so Ben started to do super-speedy rowing back to the boathouse. We very nearly had a collision with a gondola – we were both going in the same direction and, as it was near the boathouse, there were loads of other boats wiggling all over the place and often veering out of control! But we made it back safely – a little late, so we paid an extra $3 for the extra 15 min we had. Not exactly breaking the bank!

From the boats, we went to find a horse and carriage for a ride. We had seen some earlier, but there didn’t seem to be any available, so we strolled down to 59th Street where they congregated, according to a helpful lady.

As we walked, we had a lollipop each from a stand. The park was really busy and there were also a couple of baseball games going on. People were sunbathing and playing frisbee – a typical day in Central Park!

We made it to 59th Street by about 4:30 PM and enquired about prices for the horse and carriage rides. There were two options – a long ride for about $100, plus tip ($120) or a short ride for $50, plus tip ($60). Obviously, they kept trying to sell the long ride by telling us all about the sights we’d see – but we’d already seen them by walking around, so we stuck to the short ride. It was more the experience that we wanted anyway, as I’d never been on one before. It lasted about 20 min and the driver told us a few bits about the places around us. It was very enjoyable and the horse made very satisfying clippy-cloppy noises!From there, we headed for the subway, to go back to the hotel to change before dinner. Ben had made a reservation at a place called ‘Robert’ in the Museum of Art and Design, which has magnificent views over Central Park. He had booked it a month ago to secure a window table.

Having showered and changed, we headed back to the subway at about 6:45 PM, arriving near the restaurant by 7:10 PM. We had a bit of time before our table at 7:30 PM so we wandered in the Park for a while. When we did go up to the restaurant, we were shown to our window table, with lovely views over Central Park and the surrounding area. We overlooked Columbus Circle and it gradually dawned on us that it was a memorial to Christopher Columbus.

We had iced water while we perused the menu and then I had an Olmsted cocktail – Hendricks gin, with sprigs of rosemary and thyme - while Ben had a Heineken. We were then bought a bread basket, with some warm mini breads – a rosemary one, a white one and a rye one. We were then brought small portions of shrimp cocktail, ‘compliments of the chef’ – a very refreshing, fresh tomato and pepper-based sauce with prawn pieces. We then shared an appetiser of burrata (a very soft mozzarella-type cheese) with big chunks of tomato, baby figs and balsamic dressing. As the main, I had roasted duck breast with cherries and a really nice fruit and wine jus. I had mashed potatoes as a side – and it was good mashed potato – and we shared sauteed ‘snow peas’ (mangetout). Ben had a pork chop, that seemed to be as big as his head, with red pepper mash and a mango garnish. It was all absolutely delicious. It made a great change from burgers, chips and pizza. In celebration of this (and also my birthday!) we decided to go all out, and have dessert too – so, in keeping with the cherry theme, I had cherry clafouti with ricotta ice-cream and Ben had a scoop of cherry, and candied walnut ice-cream (they didn’t have his favourite chocolate). Finally, by way of a fifth course, I suppose, I was presented with some little blueberry shortbread biscuits, with a candle and ‘happy birthday’ inscribed in chocolate on one side. It was really sweet and they have a good pastry chef as the biscuits were lovely. $190 later, we were a lot fuller, our wallets were a lot lighter, and it was probably the best meal of the trip yet!

To walk it off a bit, we walked in the park for a while. It was very quiet – almost eerie in parts – and Ben took quite a few pictures of the skyline from amongst the trees, capturing the shadows and the lights. From there, we went catch the subway home.

Got up a little later today, as we had planned to take it easy and do a bit of shopping. Headed out just before midday and headed over to ‘Five Guys’ – a renowned burger joint recommended by Chris. It was a little on the expensive side – however, on receiving the food, it was clear why. We both had cheese and bacon burgers with everything on, with a coke each and a large fries to share. Everything was massive. The burgers were double burgers, standing about 4 inches high and the fries filled a small bucket (at least, a large drink cup). It was all very nice - very filling - costing about $30.

After lunch, we decided to head over to Macy’s and ended up popping into K-Mart en route. In K-Mart, we saw a small wheelie suitcase for $39.95, that we thought may give us a little  luggage space for the journey home. We also saw some Lego we liked, but decided to leave both until later in the week.

From there, we headed to Macy’s, which seem to be running a one-day sale. We spent some time looking at the men’s wallets, as they were between 30% and 50% off. I eventually chose a Tommy Hilfiger one, as mine is looking a little tired. I also had a quick look at belts and, on the way to cosmetics, spotted a yellow leather Fossil wash bag, which I liked, and decided to think about it. We had a quick look at the luggage on the top floor to see how it compared to what we had seen; it turned out that their cheapest cases were about twice the price of the one we’d seen, so we decided to move on. Took us a while to find the women’s section of the store, as the whole shop is split over two buildings and only certain floors are connected. Eventually found the Clinique counter and Dani bought some bits as they are a little cheaper than back home.

After Macy’s, we headed along 5th Avenue to look at some of the shops. Along the way, we turned off to go and look in Grand Central Station and stayed there for a while to take some photos. Them we continued up 5th Avenue, dropping into Saks to look at some very expensive clothes ($900 for a small blue cardigan). We also stopped in Abercrombie and Fitch and the large underground Apple store. We finally reached Bloomingdale’s, having realised it was on Lexington Avenue, not 5th. Again, Bloomingdale’s was very expensive and very difficult to navigate. Once we managed to make our way out again, as it was already late afternoon, we decided to head back to the Rockefeller Centre in time for sunset. We caught the subway there as it was much faster and saved our legs – it was only $2.75 each.

We got to the top a little before sunset; it was very busy and you couldn’t really get towards the edge. I was also annoyed by the Kodak photographer, who asked us to move at one point, as we were in the ‘perfect spot’ for a photo! What cheek! As it got darker, it did get a lot quieter and the views again were spectacular. Took lots of photos using the gorilla pod and admired the lights across the skyline for ages as the sun went down.

Headed down a little after 9 PM. We went to nearby Applebee’s for a light dinner, sharing nachos (which turned out to be massive) and a Blue Ribbon Brownie and ice cream for dessert (as it turns out, ‘light’ dinners don’t really exist in the US!). It was about $50, including beers. After, as we walked back to the hotel, we stopped to take some night shots of Times Square on the way. Did some journal before bed.

We got up at about 8:30 AM, in preparation for our train at 11:02 AM to New York. We sorted out the rest of our stuff and headed down to breakfast, to take advantage of it before we left. I had fruit and a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and Ben had two chocolatines. We gathered together our stuff and then got a taxi to the station. The taxi driver was very friendly and was chatting eagerly to us, mainly about football. The taxi to the station was about $12, but, as the driver was so friendly, we tipped him quite happily.

We got into the station and went up to the ticket office to enquire about our tickets – we apparently had reserved seats, but we had no idea how to find them! Seemingly, there are five ‘reserved’ coaches, so you just got on and found a seat. Easy. And it actually was! We had to wait at the ‘gate’, like in airports, where we had to wait. A queue quickly started to form by the gate, and then suddenly, we were released onto the platform. We found a seat, hooked onto the free Wi-Fi and off we went! Caught up on some journal, did a bit of Skype-ing, ate the Subway that we bought in the station and, three and half hours later, rolled into Penn Station, New York. Love Amtrak trains!

We were further surprised to find our hotel to be - literally - a few minutes walk from the station. We hadn’t even broken a sweat walking there in the bright sunshine. Result! Checked in and went up to our room. It must be our lucky day as our room with merely metres away from the lift. Perhaps our smallest room so far with just a double bed, but it will do!

And so our New York adventure begins...

We began by walking up 7th Avenue, walking past the Pennsylvania Hotel that Ben and his family stayed in, when they came a few years ago. We popped into Macy’s to have a look around. Unsurprisingly, they are renovating, so it was completely baffling - we had no idea how to get from floor to floor, let alone different departments! Managed to find our way to their gift section after a while and browsed for potential gifts.

Then, we made our way out and carried on up 7th Avenue, crossing onto Broadway. Came out in Times Square and admired the lights and dazzling adverts. Went into Toys “R” Us – they have a ferris wheel just inside the door, with life-size toy cars to ride in – amazing! We then went in a few ‘tat’ shops in search of sew-on badges, but it wasn’t a very successful search. We only found a couple of quite basic ones. In the square itself, we noticed that some staged seating had been set up (facing the New Year’s Eve Ball side of the square) and, at the back, there was an interactive scream for you to pose in front of, but we just sat and people watched from the steps. It was a good point to take photos from, although people did keep standing in the way!

Decided to move on, after a while. Went into Hershey’s, as I wanted to try some of their chocolate. We bought a small selection box, as small bars don’t seem to be their thing, but after the first one, we weren’t convinced about the taste!

Made our way from there to the Rockefeller Centre – it took a bit of finding, despite it being a huge building! When we finally found the building itself, we were at the wrong side! Typical! Found the ticket office and bought the ‘Sun and Stars’ ticket, for $40 per person. This meant that we got to go up twice, once in the day and once at night, over a 24 hour period. As it was nearly 7 PM, we were aiming to see a bit of sun and stars, and then again tomorrow! We had to wait a while for our timed ticket, but once through security, the journey up was really quick. The elevator shaft was lit up, so you could see where you were going, which was pretty exciting.

Once out of the lift, we went up a further two floors and, then, we were at the top. It was spectacular from the top! We could see or miles – Central Park to the North and the Empire State building to the south, with the Statue of Liberty in the distance. We stayed up there until about dusk, so the colours began to soften and everything began to look hazy and ethereal. The views were amazing!

Starting to feel both weary and peckish, we headed down to ground level. We had picked up a coupon for TGI Friday’s (15% off), so we headed in that direction. It was allegedly their ‘grand opening’, but it appeared to be a well-settled restaurant. However, the food was good – we had potato skins with cheese and bacon to share, and then I had a bacon cheeseburger and Ben had chicken and tomato pasta. The service was pretty poor, though, as they tried to bring our mains out before our appetizer and, consequently, our mains sat on a hot plate for a while. We were a bit disgruntled about it so left a minimal tip (the whole tip thing  continues to be both baffling and irritating).

Turned our tired footsteps towards our hotel and turned in, feeling very weary.

We got up to the alarm, as we had timed tickets for the Capitol Building today. We gave ourselves a bit of a lie-in - having decided last night to get a taxi there. It was quite a long walk otherwise and we were both still suffering a bit with bikes. Upon checking the timed tickets, as we left the room, we realised it said to get there 45 min early, to allow time to get through security. Given that it was 9:15 AM and we were still at the hotel, and the timed tickets were for 10 AM, we realised that this was never going to happen. Nevertheless, we decided to skip breakfast and get going. The bellman got us a taxi for a fixed price of $12, and we arrived about 9:50 AM. It wasn’t very busy and we got straight through security, collecting our passes in time. The tour was led by a person speaking through a microphone, which was picked up by our headsets - although only when you are very close which meant we kept missing what he was saying. The tour lasted just under half an hour and included a 30 minute video on the history of the Capitol building. Although the tour was free, we didn’t find it particularly good as you only really go into two main rooms. The Dome room and another anteroom, containing statues gifted by the individual states. Our guide was from Florida; their statue was of the man who invented air-conditioning. There was also a statue of Rosa Parks and a trick where you could whisper in one part of the room and hear it across the room. (In the Dome room, there is a statue of Reagan and it was mounted on a layer of pieces of the Berlin Wall).

After the tour, we went to the shop and bought a sew-on badge, then headed over to the Library of Congress, which, in comparison, was awesome. We managed to get a free official guided tour, just as we arrived, with a guy called Ray. He was very knowledgeable and took us all around the library, explaining everything. The group whittled down somewhat, until only about five others were left. The tour ended overlooking the reading room - which appears in the National Treasure film. Apparently, the books on the second floor were painted on by the film company.

Feeling hungry, we went back to the cafe in the Capitol building. There was a wide selection to choose from. Dani had a salad (that they weighed) and a chocolate bun, and I had chicken and chips. It cost about $25 and was very filling. After lunch, we headed over to the station, which was nearby, to ask about luggage. Turned out we would be fine with regards to our luggage on our train journeys, and on the way out, we picked up a new map, and an Australian tourist gave as a bus ticket for the bus tour that he no longer needed, which still had time on it.

From here, we headed over to the Capitol area again, to locate the Shakespeare Folger Museum it was easy to find, as we realised it was actually located on our map! We went in and a quite abrupt security person gave us the basic info. Feeling a bit confused, we went down the corridor until we came to a main room, containing some artefacts. After about 1 minute, a different woman came in and told us where we were and what there was. There were various items from Elizabethan England - a letter from Elizabeth I to James I (as he became) about Catholicism in England; some China; and then some texts from the time. But, most impressively, the first Folio edition of the works of Shakespeare’s plays (only 36), published posthumously by two of his friends! Quite exciting! You can actually look through it, with an electronic version that you could interact with. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Johnson. Unfortunately, the main room of the museum was closed for restoration (this is becoming a running theme!) so they only had a limited collection available. The Folgers were/are avid Shakespeare fans, who were fascinated by the Elizabethan era, and collected as much material as they could.

At the other side of museum, they have the Folger theatre, which has been constructed to resemble an Elizabethan theatre. The woman, seemingly in charge of that side, talked to us about the theatre and the reasons behind it. When she found out we were from the UK, she confused us a bit by talking about the recently discovered theatre in London - we thought she meant the Globe, but we weren’t sure! We left and had a quick look in the reconstructed Elizabethan garden to the side and then headed back down the grassy mall to head back to the hotel.

We were walking quite casually, until we became aware of a helicopter flying back and forth. It appeared to be the presidential helicopter! So we hurried on, at top speed! They kept appearing as if it was flying away, but it kept going in circles and coming back, so we kept going, heading towards the White House. We made it to the grass patch in front of the White House, and were glad that we hadn’t tried to get nearer as it was cordoned off. We watched as the helicopter landed on the White House’s main lawn and squinted to see if anybody got out, but apparently not. It lifted off and flew away, only to repeat the whole thing again several times! Eventually, we decided to head off - we then heard a policeman telling another bloke that they were practising manoeuvres while the President was on holiday. Never mind - it was nearly a spot!

Once back at the hotel, we slothed for a bit and made our way to ‘Matchbox’, (having worked out where it was this time!) up 14th Street. We both had pizza - I had spicy meatball and Ben had chicken - and then we had a vast trio of desserts to share - sorbet, chocolate brownie and pancake balls, with dipping sauce. Despite very itchy bites, a very good day!

Had a slightly more relaxed start to the day, as we didn’t have a timed ticket for anything. So, we were up at around 9 AM, showered and went down for breakfast. We made the most of the free breakfast - Ben had cereal and I had fruit and yoghurt, then we both had a toasted bagel. We got going shortly after that, aiming for the Smithsonian National Zoo, heading out a bit after 11 AM. Unfortunately, whilst getting ready, the hairdryer (the hotel’s - not mine!) blew up, and dented the bathroom sink, shorting the electric! Oops!

We walked to DuPont Circle, taking it quite steady as our bites were very irritated and irritating. We managed the Metro ticket machines better this time, allowing the extra dollar for the paper ticket. We got on the train and went merrily on our way. At the second stop, we realised we’d gone too far! We’ve been expecting a fair journey, but it was only actually one stop and it took less than a minute. So, caught the train back again, feeling surprised.

We followed the signs to the zoo - a 10 minute walk from the station. We were greeted by a man in a cubicle, who told us about the daily events and sold us a map/guide for one dollar - considering the actual zoo is free, this didn’t seem too excessive! The zoo is separated into different sections, so we followed it quite methodically. First, we went to see cheetahs - who were having a nap in the grass, so the view of them was only partial. But there were some huge frogs in the pond, sitting about on lily pads and frogging about. Then we saw a vulture in with some African deers, who are close to extinction in the wild. It was nice to see some of the animals mixed together in the enclosures, similar to how they may be in the wild. We also saw some zebras, although they seem shy, staying at the back of their enclosure.

We then moved on to the Panda Trail and then the Asia Trail. The female panda has been confined, as it were, due to pregnancy, and unfortunately the male panda seems to have gone out, as despite searching, he wasn’t to be seen. A shame, as I’ve never seen a panda. We moved on, wandering around. We saw some short clawed Asian otters - they were little youngling otters too! They were wiggling all over and through an old tree stump, some napping upside down and others simply piling up. At one point, they all wiggled over to the edge of their enclosure, peering over the wall into the passage and squeaking a lot. Then they went back to piling up! While we were watching them, a very vivid red bird was flying around - a little smaller than a blackbird and with tufted feathers on its head. Ben got a couple of photos, although he was very nippy (the bird that is!). We also saw a fishing cat and clouded leopard, which I particularly liked - especially the fishing cat kitten. Had some lunch at the Panda cafe.

We admired the elephants in their huge enclosure, and then followed the American Trail, watching a beaver snuffling about, an Eagle - a bald eagle, no less - and some sea lions. Unfortunately, the bears were having their afternoon nap, so we didn’t get to see them. We also saw lots of turtles, just after the big cat section - some huge and some tiny! So cute! We were really impressed overall by the zoo. The individual enclosures were all big and clearly a lot of thought has gone into the flora and fauna for the animals. It was all very green and was over a vast space.

Feeling very weary, we left about 6 PM, heading back to the subway. When we got back to DuPont Circle, we popped into a CVS pharmacy to get some drinks, as we felt very thirsty, and made our way back to the hotel. After a bit of a sit, we headed out for tea. We decided to go to ‘The Pig’, another hotel recommendation. There was going to be a 45 minute wait for a table, but there was room to sit at the bar, so we decided to do that. The barman recommended ordering a number of different dishes from the different sections of the menu, as they were designed for sharing. We decided upon two of the small appetizer dishes and two of the larger courses. We had mac and cheese with a crumb top, and ‘spoon’ bread which was bacon, courgette and onion, baked with chunks of bread. Both very nice. The larger courses were spicy pork masala and pork Spaghetti Pomodoro. For dessert, Dani had chocolate pudding and I had two scoops of chocolate ice cream (which came in two separate bowls). It was all very nice and altogether cost about $90, including tip. Feeling very full, we tottered back to the hotel and watched some TV before heading to bed.