Finally the day arrived for our trip to NYC. We took the Mega bus from Baltimore, leaving at 6:20am & arriving at 9:45am. When we got off the bus at 28th & ? we started to walk towards 5th Ave. Our first delight-the street was full of wholesale flower shops with copious beautiful flowers spilling out onto the streets. From 5th we took a cab to the 5th and 72 St. entrance to Central Park to meet our walking tour across the park, taking a circuitous route throughout the park, ending at Central Park West and 72 St.. The tour lasted 1 1/2 hours and was very invormative. The park was beautiful and fresh from all the previous days of rain. Our guide said it was quieter than usual, probably because of all the rain. One sight that I enjoyed was watching two young women, with babies in strollers, doing a workout with their personal trainer. To me that was a New York moment.

After the park tour we had planned to walk to the Palace Theatre but because of time constraints we took a cab part way and got out a few blocks from the theatre because of the traffic jam. From the tranquillity of the park to Times Square-what a jolt and how exciting. We ate at the Olive Garden which was the closest eating place to the theatre. Soup and salad was perfectly adequate and we made it to the theatre with plenty of time to join the mass of people waiting to enter.

"West Side Story" was a magnificient production, well worth the money. Our seats (row Y) were good and we were able to see and hear. I enjoyed the bilingual aspect of the production and only once got confused about the storyline. My daughter-in-law speaks Spanish so she was able to explain the confusing part to me. We were fortunate to see some of the cast members departing and congratulate them on a fine performance, I have lots of questions about Broadway tickets, but I will start another thread for that discussion.

After the performance we scrapped all of our tentative plans and walked. In the end it is the street that makes New York unique and we took full advantage of it. We walked to 42 St., then back to 47th Street to window shop at the diamond shops. Then we walked along 5th Ave., went into St. Patrick' Cathedral, the American Girl Doll Store (no purchases there), the M & M store and anything the took our fancy. From there we went to Rockefeller Centre and looked around a bit. I couldn't resist the Metropolitan Museum Store, bought a book for a friend and got a free Met cloth bag, which will be my momento from the trip.

We walked until we caught our return bus outside Madison Square Gardens at 8pm. We bought our supper from a vendor on the corner and ate it on the bus going home. We would go back to Ne York just to repeat that meal. I had an Italien sausage and my daughter-in-law had falafel. It was certainly worthy of a Michelin star.

The cost of the day excluding our very expensive theatre tickets (worth it) was::
$32+taxes for return bus tickets
$20 -cabs
$22-lunch
$12- supper
+ one London Fog (my latest craving) from Starbucks.
It was a bargain.

My only complaint is the tee shirts we bought for the kids. We paid $10 for 4. As we got further away from Times Square the price dropped until they were 7 for $10. The moral is do your souvenir shopping away from Times Square.

The weather was great-it did not rain once. There were even periods of sunshine-the first I've seen since I arrived in Baltimore almost a week ago.

Impressions:
-I haven't been to NYC for many years. I was amazed at the change. I felt as safe as I do anywhere. Of course you have to take common sense precautions, but never once was I apprehensive about where we were walking.
-I am an experienced traveller and found here as elsewhere, not to plan where to eat. Dining takes a long time and unless you are doing it as an evening treat, it is a waste. In great cities good food is easy to find.
-unless you want to see a special show (like West Side Story) 1/2 price tickets are available, either on line or at the ticket booth in Times Square. There were not big lines,and lots of tickets were available. Unless you are really keen on seeing a Broadway show, I say do your homework, know what shows interest you and have alternate plans.
That''s what I will do next time.
-It was a great bonding time for me and my partner and particularly wonderful for her to have a day away from her small children and all that that entails.
-I don't know how the people who plan their days to the minute and where to eat each meal, do it, but I wouldn't want to do it that way. To them I say stop and smell the roses.
-I think what I would like to do in the future is pick an area of the city to explore each trip.

Thank you to all the Fodorites who gave me such wonderful advice. You'll hear from me again