Rockeffeller center and Chinatown

Yesterday, dad and I went with Sandi Wong and her non-member husband to the city before our ward temople trip. I only mention the fact that Mike Wong was not a member because when Sandi called and asked for a ride to the temple, dad explained that I wanted to go on a date first to see the Tree and eat at Chinatown, since I had never done either of those two things yet. Sandi jumped on board, and said she'd love to go with us, and so would Mike. He said he would just walk around while we were in the temple. so we drove down at noon and used the subway system after parking near the temple, and we had a lot of fun. the city was packed, which we hadn't thought about. the subway so crowded we were packed in like sardines and some people couldn't even get on. the tree was ok, just a large tree, but fun to see all the decorations around the area. dad liked the ice-skaters, and wants to ice-skate there sometime. I was surprised at his response, especially when he told Kathy and Tom about our day when we had family time this morning. He loved being around the people and the excitement of doing things just to say you did them. I would have thought he didn't like being around that many people. He said he'd go back down just to ice-skate, and I personally would rather ice-skate closer. He loved Chinatown, and said he would like to go back and shop! we learn so many new things about our spouses over the years. he hates to shop. we didn't have a lot of time to shop, so we ran past all the shops very quickly, and walked through the Soho area also. the city is interesting when you see all the expensive yuppy shops, with people outside of them going through the garbage cans looking for food. we went to the first Chinese restaurant we arrived at in Chinatown, and I said to them, is this one good? they laughed and said they were all good. Sandi ordered in Chinese, and the place was fun to see. whole ducks with heads on hanging in the window, etc. not much ambience, but good food. they ordered lobster, chicken, shrimp, rice, spare ribs, and sea bass. everything was cut so differently. we saved the last little pieces of chicken, (we ate everything else) and gave it to a homeless lady. the city was cold, but everyone was bundled up. it looked beautiful all decorated for Christmas. it was fun!