Tree lightings, ice skating — the holiday tourism season must be on its way

The big tree lighting in Rockefeller Plaza is set for Wednesday night. I thought, for some reason, they did it right after Thanksgiving; that weekend. But I guess it's a week later. Obviously, as I will be in Chicago, I won't have a report from the tree lighting ceremony. (I know you will all be heartbroken.) But I will try to make it down there before Christmas and give you a report on how it compares to previous years and perhaps I'll have some crappy camera phone pictures to share.

In the meantime, I give you ice skating at the plaza:



What's amazing about the skaters is that while some are you obvious tourist, many of them are regulars and some of those people are even expert level. The night we went and watched these skater, my friend and I had created a whole backstory for these expert skaters. One of them was really cracking us up because he wasn't skating so much as dancing...and it was bad 80s-style-would-have-made-Michael-Jackson-proud dancing. If you ever have free time to kill in NYC in the winter, you should spend a little time watching the skaters. It will crack you up.