I should be plowing through numbers for my Competitive Strategy case, but I want to get the events of yesterday into print before the memory starts to fade.
My brother Christian arrived on Monday and stayed with me this week. It was his spring break and the only week that, if he wanted to visit, he could. So, when there are few options, take the best and adjust accordingly.
From Monday to Wednesday, he attended classes and project meetings with me. Since yesterday was his last day, I decided to cut class and do a little sight-seeing with him. The plan that we drafted: get up relatively early and go to the Empire State Building, from there go have breakfast and possibly walk around the UN. Once we got to around 12 or 12.30 we needed to return to the apartment finish packing and then head to downtown Manhattan.
See, we wanted to walk around that area some and then make our helicopter flight back to JFK. Yes, you read the last sentence correctly.
I owed Christian a birthday present (the flight was supposed to be it but Dad picked up the tab thanks to coordination issues) and I had always wanted to do it. Combine the two and it make the $18 per minute flight (10 minutes) seem like a good idea. He was excited; I was excited. All good.
Until we woke up yesterday and noticed the torrential downpours occurring outside. To be honest, we’d checked the weather report, but it said ‘rain likely’ – not Noah & Animals 2 x 2.
This did not derail us. We bought our tickets online for the Empire State Building, to avoid the crowds, and headed off. And this is when things started to unravel. We got to Empire and noticed ‘zero visibility’ was listed under view. Hmm. No lines. Virtually no people.
We debated and decided to do the Virtual Tour of New York. The ride was nice and sentimental as it mentioned the World Trade Centers. One part especially caught my attention – Kevin Bacon (our guide) mentioned as the car flew over 5th and 57th – and if you’re in the area why don’t you have ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ like in the movie.
I’ve never seen the movie. Christian has never seen the movie. This later, would become a problem.
We finish the ride, and finally conclude going up in the Empire State building would be a waste of the tickets and our time so we agreed to come back to New York in the next couple years (the duration of the tickets) and do it.
So I suggest breakfast at Tiffany’s (thanks Kevin) and since it was relatively close – around 20 blocks – we went for it.
New York City Observation: It’s hard to catch a cab during a torrential downpour.
Al Martine Observation: In quick situations, I don’t read maps particularly well. Especially MTA subway maps.
These two points combined to have Christian and I walking in a torrential downpour for around 7 blocks before we finally caught a cab. We said, “Take us to Tiffany’s” and our driver said, “sure.”
Maybe that’s worth mentioning that every time I asked directions and information it was “Where is Tiffany’s?” We never mentioned the breakfast part.
So finally after drip drying in the taxi for a few minutes, we arrive. We pay the cab driver and rush to the door where a nice door man was standing. He took our umbrellas, which gave me a moment to say “We are here to have breakfast, is this the right entrance?”
He replies, “We don’t serve breakfast at Tiffany’s that’s just a movie.”
{silence as the words sink in}
{more silence as the realization of the situation sinks in}
All we could utter was ‘oh’.
We quickly entered Tiffany’s took a look around and exited. The original plan, like Homer Simpson’s shortcut was to never mention this again. Well, maybe mention it one more time.
From there, we headed back to NYU and had breakfast at a little diner near the school.
Later I can accurately say this was the only thing that went according to plan.
Better luck next time….that sux.
Although the next time you’re in Charlotte, I hear the Tiffany’s in South Park Mall does a much better breakfast than the NYC one.
:-)