 |
Tricia and I spent the first part of our Millenium vacation in
Louisiana with the Apel side of the family. We had a great time relaxing and
spending time with everyone.
We were in Louisiana for Christmas, and then left on the 30th for New York, to "Celebrate with the World."
|
 |
My best friend Scot lives in New York now, and our good friend Darryl lives there too, so we were able to spend lots of quality time with them. Plus, they know where the great clubs and restaurants are. |  |
| The whole trip was sponsored by the Times Square BID, which is sort of like a Chamber of Commerce for Times Square. They have done a lot of work making it a nicer place than it was ten years ago. All the three-card monte stands are gone, and most of the peep shows have been replaced by legitimate Broadway theaters. The X-rated film places and brothels from 42nd Street are now a Disney Store. The BID had a contest about 7 years ago, and I entered it. To enter, you just had to describe "the big idea" -- what you thought Times Square should do to celebrate the Millenium. My idea was for them to have a global celebration, starting when the Millenium hit in Fiji, and travelling hourly to all the time zones of the world, culminating in New York City. I also thought the party should be interactive -- there would be cameras and TVs in every time zone, so people in New York could be part of the party in every city around the world. Surprisingly, 5 other people came up with the exact same idea. We all split the prize, which was basically a trip for 2 to spend the big night in Times Square. Three years ago, the BID flew us all out for a tour and a chance to meet each other. On the 30th, we were all supposed to meet again and go see a Broadway show together, but our plane was delayed, and we missed out. Which just gave us more time to spend with our friends. |
|
|
 |
Tricia's best friend Ian flew out from California to see us and spend New Year's in New York with us. |
 |
 |
 |
We thought that this scene really looked like New York: A cool old cast-iron lamppost, the 42nd Street subway entrance, the theater that Rent is playing at, plus a Times Square 2000 poster. |
 |
 |
Here's a closer look at that poster. Notice that Philips is the official
incandescent light bulb of the Millenium. There were lots of official sponsors.
There were lots of advertisements. I also thought it was cool that there was a real New York Delicatessen there. Little things excite me. I liked the views of all the huge buildings. I think it made Tricia a little claustrophobic. |
 |
Our first full day was the 31st -- New Year's Eve. By mid-morning, the Square (near the big dropping ball) was already getting full. Since we didn't have to worry about finding a spot, we went shopping. |
Macy's
Banana Republic |
|
.
.
 |
Darryl's boyfriend Matt flew out from Kansas City. It was a regular reunion, having that many friends in the same place. |  |
|
Scot works at Ogilvy and Mather's, which is a huge famous advertising company. His office was right behind our hotel. In fact, when we left the hotel to get coffee in the morning, we went to the Starbucks in his office building. There are about eight other Starbucks within walking distance, but that one was closest. |
| On the afternoon of the 31st, before we went shopping, we all met up at Scot's
apartment. It's a cool old brownstone near Central Park West.
|
|
We had tried really hard to get all our friends invitations to the party we were going to, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen. Tickets were $575 each, and unless my friends were sales reps for Phillips Lightbulbs or Korbel Champagne, they weren't getting in free. So Scot went to a party at the home of a literary agent, and Darryl took Ian and Matt to a party at a SoHo nightclub. At around 7, we got all dressed up and went to our party.
 |
 |
 |
The VIP party that we were invited to was at the Doubletree Guest Suites on Broadway
and 47th Street. By the time we got there, the street was totally packed with
partygoers, and policemen had cordoned off all the passages. With our fancy VIP cards, we were allowed to get behind the barricades and walk right past the crowds. We sure felt special! |
| I heard that there was an estimated two million people in the streets. That seems about right. The police stopped letting people in at around five o'clock. The party was quite elegant, but we didn't run into any rock stars or other celebrities. Mostly just businessmen who could afford the expensive tickets, and Waterford and Korbel reps who got in free. The food and drinks were excellent (and free!) and the music was pretty good. The party took up several floors and ballrooms, so there were multiple DJs, two dance floors, a string quartet, and food everywhere. In keeping with the theme of "celebration around the world," the food was pretty culturally diverse. We met up with some of the other contest winners, who seemed pretty happy to be back in New York for the big night. At eleven o'clock, we left the party to head out to the VIP section on the street. It was much nicer being able to spend the day with friends and spend the early evening in the party. It was much too cold (and bathrooms far too scarce) to have spent the day waiting 12 hours in the street. |
 
|
It took several shots to get the whole panoramic view of Broadway.
 |
This scaffolding is where Peter Jennings and the rest of the media were broadcasting. We never saw Dick Clark, but I imagine he was probably up there too. |
 It was getting a little crazy on the street, and at around 11:30 the police made us get out of our VIP area and move into the regular cattle pens. They were about to "lock the fences down" when claustrophobia sort of set in. They wanted to make sure that if any bombs went off or the crowd started to stampede that we'd all be in our own partition. It was a bit scary. |
 |
| We decided to head back into the party and watch the ball drop on TV, which was fine. In fact, we had a much better view that way. |
 |
Here's the view of the ball that we had from the street. As close
as we were, it was still just a little dot of light. As you can see from this
close-up, we weren't going to have an optimal view of it anyway.
|
But once we went back inside, we got to see the whole event unfold on jumbo projection
screens. Here's Tricia dancing in front of a screen showing the ball in a stunning
close-up:
You can tell from the TV Screen that it was 11:52. This is the closest we got to being on TV all weekend. |
| When the moment came, we were safe inside, dancing to Auld Lang Syne and sipping
champagne. We stayed at the party for a few more hours, but the street party pretty
much cleared out just after midnight. No one wanted to stay around and celebrate the
millenium in two more hours with the people of Arizona, I suppose. I imagine they
had other parties lined up -- or they were on their way to find a bathroom.
|
 |
 |
The streets were awash with garbage -- more trash than you've probably ever seen in a
city street. Even though drinking was against the rules, there were still plenty of
empty champagne bottles and plastic cups. The confetti was piled in mounds like
snowdrifts. Even the next afternoon, confetti still kept blowing off the roofs of
nearby buildings. We passed the last remaining Times Square Peep Land on our way back to the hotel. |
 The restaurant we went to was called Cafeteria. It was very cool, in a bohemian, SoHo sort of way. It was a gourmet comfort food place, so we had mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese. They had the best veggie burgers I think I've ever had in a restaurant. I also think it's so cool how you can just about see the Empire State Building from anywhere in Manhattan. |
The next morning, but not too early, we all met up for breakfast. Ian and Tricia and I got some coffee on the way out. We walked the whole way from 48th Street to the place where we met Darryl and Matt. Scot met us there too. Broadway was covered in confetti. I picked up a few pieces for souvenirs. |
|
 |
|
| Trying to decide what to do next |
|
 |
On the 2nd, we went to Scot's place and he took us on a tour of Central Park. Our plane didn't leave until later, so we got to spend a nice relaxing day in the park. It was one of the warmest days there, the weather was beautiful, and all the electricity worked. |
 |
|
I didn't know Central Park was this big. |
|
||
 |
Tricia got a real New York hot pretzel with mustard. I had a Knish. Later we went out for slices of New York style pizza. If we had been any more New York, we would have ended up in a Woody Allen movie. |
||
Scot and I went to Washington Square Park while Tricia and Darryl spent time together. There was a guy in the park who was either a juggler or a comedian. I guess if you couldn't tell by the time he finished his act, he probably wasn't very good. He gathered a big crowd, and they all gave him money when he passed his hat around, so I figure he's pretty much raking in the cash. |
|
||
Our next flight took us to Indianapolis, to spend time with Tricia's side of the family. We had another Christmas celebration, spend some quality time with her family and some of our Indiana friends, and then had to leave to come back home. It was a long vacation, but it flew by. Hopefully, next time we get to visit our families, we'll have more time to spend with them.
Overall, it was a fantasic Millenium, and an excellent vacation. Happy New Year!!!
