For the first time ever, we are flying Virgin to New York - a legacy of the uncertainty attached to BA these days. And it is all very good - so BA lose some future customers. But for some reason I wasn't aware that I had to check in online prior to the day of travel and so we can't get three seats together. Everyone else seems to think this was obvious, but not me.
I watched "Up in the Air" on the flight across - actually for the second time. Indeed it was probably better the second time as well. A little dozing, not much sleep, and a slightly stressful run through immigration as Linda and Emma think I have done the forms incorrectly and we'll be sent to the back of a long queue because of my stupidity.
The taxi journey to centraL Manhattan seems to take much longer than I remember with long queues on the route in through Queens. But we are at the hotel by 4:00pm local time and set off on a long walk which is supposed to help us stay awake till a more reasonable time to go to bed. We walk down through Times Square and across to Bryant Park, where we find a possible breakfast location - we are keen to avoid out hotel for cost reasons
Dinner is eventually at a place called "Maison" just down from the hotel. Our waitress is what might be described as "cooky" or possibly something worse. Rough plans have been made for the next few days. We manage to stay up till 8:30
Monday
So breakfast is at a place called Le Pain Quotidien, apparently a chain originating in Belgium. Lots of oatmeal, fruit, etc, which Emma is very pleased about. From there, Emma and Linda head up along Fifth Avenue to various stores - J Crew, Abercrombie and Fitch, etc. I walk down past Grand Central Station and find the Avis car rental place where I am bravely planning to hire a car tomorrow. Everything seems fine there - no need to book today, they will definitely have something suitable for us tomorrow.
On the way to meet Linda and Emma, I have found a Barnes and Noble store and bought a guide to Long Island. It is raining pretty hard by the time I find them at Abercrombie. Lunch at Au bon Pain and then to Tiffany's to check out a few ideas for a suitable 21st birthday present for Emma. Then while they have a rest at the hotel, I am off to Times Square to join the queues at the last minute ticket agency we spotted yesterday. This turns out to be a wait of well over an hour in the rain but I am able to get good tickets for tonight's performace of "Chicago"
The traditional Times Square Picture - a wet Monday in March
Food could prove something of an issue this week it seems. Emma has firm ideas of what she might want, but we have little idea where suitable places might be. Tonight she fancys Mexican and I was fortunate to find one near Times Square. It claims it is able to do a vegetarian fajitas, but what arrives is pretty odd - for some reason they substituted chicken with carrots - why not just do more peppers and onions? Still Emma is happy enough with the huge amount of nachos and guacamole that is available, so it is all ok.
Linda and Emma have actually seen "Chicago" before in Oxford, while I have seen a tiny bit of the film and actually have no idea what it is all about. But, as Linda rightly pointed out, there are plenty of scantilly clad young lady dancers involved and so I ought to be ok. I wasn't that keen on the girl playing the lead role - allegedly a former member of Destiny's Child. But I was rather taken with a couple of the dancers!
Overall, it seems this was a pretty good first day
Tuesday
Breakfast at the same place as yesterday - will this be a pattern for the week? Then down through Central Station - the first time Linda has seen this - and the collection of our car. I am unfamiliar it seems with American automatics and have to be shown by the parking attendent how to release the hand break! But we are soon on our way, down 2nd Avenue and through a tunnel onto the Long Island Expressway. The drive is actually quite ok though I feel really tired for some of it - and feel quite bloated all day. First stop is Southampton in the rain. We have lunch at a tiny cafe on Main Street - for me a really nice clam chowder - then down past the big (and amazingly expensive) houses to a spot of beach, where the waves are crashing in with some gusto.
Southampton Beach - presumably not this quiet very often
Linda and Emma holidaying at the Hamptons 
Walking back to the hotel via Times Square
Wednesday
Walking to breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, Bryant Park
Another cliche for New York photography
Barnes and Noble in Union Square - seen of many happy hours in the past
A goat on the honey stand, Union Square
Union Square Market - now on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Perhaps my favourite place in New York
Emma and Linda considering which cookies to buy
From Union Square we walked down University Place to Washington Square showing Linda the hotel were Emma and I stayed when we were doing our east-coast college tour. Then the decision is made that we will go ahead with the proposed helicopter flight tomorrow but that today we will go and see the Bronx zoo - somewhere Linda and Emma went to on one of our previous trips 
A more "arty" picture - Greenwich Village
Bronx Zoo tiger
Keeper demo with tiger - rather impressive we thought
Always a big fan of Grizzly bears
One of four snow leopards in the zoo - apparently they are pretty good at breeding them
A definite highlight - the sea lions
But the problem is getting back afterwards. There is no obvious place to wait for a taxi and I was unhappy wandering up in to the heart of the Bronx, feeling that we clearly stood out as tourists. But as things were just beginning to get a bit desperate, a taxi did appear - a big relief for me.
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