Colbert Report

Funny story.  It seems I've already packed up the cord I need to connect my camera to the computer to get the lovely pictures of Minnewaska State Park ...  I know where it is, but don't really feel like opening up the box to get to it, so those pictures will have to wait a couple of weeks.  Or, more likely, they will never come because I will forget or think it's just too late.  But do a Google image search.  It's a lovely park. 

 

Anyway, time for the last recap of our weekend trip to New York.  Monday morning we decided to head ... yet again! ... to Karma Road Organic Cafe for breakfast.  Clearly, we liked this place. 

Rather than get another smoothie, I opted for the granola bowl with fruit, which was served with soy milk on the side.  It was really delicious, and not my typical breakfast.  I may have to try eating more granola on my own at home.  

After breakfast we said goodbye to New Paltz and drove down to New Jersey to leave our car at a park and ride and take the PATH into NYC ... definitely no need to drive into that craziness.  We had plans to meet up with friends for lunch, but first we took a little time to walk through the city, including a stroll through Central Park.  Fortunately, the weather was cool and sunny. 

 

We met our friends and walked to a little Falafel Place they had scoped out on Yelp called Soom Soom.  It was advertised as vegetarian, and had good reviews.  It was pretty much your average falafel place, with a big fixings bar to top your falafel however you wanted.  It was pretty tasty, and definitely filling. 

 

After lunch we wiled away a few hours chatting at The Pony Bar.  This one was Josh's pick, also from hearsay, but it was a great choice.  It wasn't crowded, so we easily found a table together and didn't feel rushed to leave.  Plus, we could actually hear each other!  It was a short visit with friends, but still a lot of fun. 

 

By late afternoon, we had to say goodbye so we could head over to the Colbert Report taping, which was pretty much the whole reason for the trip.  Back at Christmas, I got tickets to the show for Josh (who is against material presents) but when we showed up we were turned away (they overbook).  So sad! :(  But they said if we picked another day to come we would get VIP tickets to the show.  Yay! 

 

We showed up dutifully on time and were quickly ushered in with our VIP tickets.  What does a VIP ticket entail, you ask?  Since we were supposed to get there before the other regular ticket holders, we figured it might involve seats at the front, maybe a t-shirt, and maybe even a quick meet-and-greet with Steven himself! 

Yeah, we dream big ...

 

Apparently "VIP ticket" just means you get to go into the audience holding pen first.  Which means you get to sit there while a 20 foot x 20 foot room slowly fills up with about 200 audience members with no where to go and little room to move.  This is not an ideal situation for someone who might be claustrophobic ... like Josh.  He really wasn't doing well and I thought we might have to leave :(  Luckily he pulled through and we did indeed get to sit near the front.  Other than that, no perks for our "VIP ticket".  Everyone at the show got a free pen ... but one of ours was broken :( 

But of course the show was still funny and we got to see lots of cool behind-the-scenes action (no pictures allowed).  The show we were at was the Monday, August 5 episode with guest Hugh Laurie. 

 

After the show we grabbed a quick dinner before heading out of the city.  Again, we turned to Yelp, and stopped into Basera Indian Bistro.  In NYC I'm always worried that every restaurant will be incredibly crowded if it's any good, but we didn't have any trouble getting into Basera ... and that didn't turn out to be a bad sign!

 

I asked the waiter about the dairy content of a few dishes, and he helped me pick out the Vegetable Jalfrezi - mixed vegetables cooked with fresh onions, peppers, and tomatoes.  I ordered it "spicy", and they certainly didn't skimp on the spice!  All-in-all, it was a delicious meal, and was definitely enough to help us power through the long, late-night drive home!