New York: Day 5

By day 5, Trent and I were both exhausted and ready to get home.  4-5 days in New York was just the right amount.  I think we walked close to thirty miles while we were there.  Kid you not.  We walked absolutely EVERYWHERE.  But I loved it.  It was very convenient to only have to rely on your feet to get you where you needed to go.  Since we didn't have time to do a whole lot on our last day, we decided to check out the sights along 5th Ave.  One of the things I noticed about Manhattan; there are so many of the same stores all throughout the city.  I think I saw at least 5 Sephora's.  And some of them were just blocks from each other!

 This is the inside of the church I had taken a picture of on the previous day.  It was kind of dark inside, so you can't see the detail of the stained glass in the picture very well, but it was absolutely gorgeous.

This is the entrance to the Apple store, which is all underground.

 Here are the stairs leading down to the store.  It was a madhouse in there!  So many of the shops along 5th Ave. were very done up.

 Heading in to FAO Schwartz.  Such a fun store.  I could have spent all day in there!

 Trying on a few hats in FAO Schwartz.

This is the Plaza Hotel.  It makes me think of "Eloise".  Vivi and I love the "Eloise" shows, and we have an "Eloise" book that we have read many, many times.  Did you know you could own your own room at the Plaza?  The rooms have sold from $1.5 million up to $50 million.  Woo!  And if you just want to stay for a few nights, you're looking at over 700.00 per night, easy.  It sure would be fun though!  I hear the rooms are amazing.

We had such a wonderful time in New York!  It was so nice to get away together, and to know that our kids were in such good hands with the grandparents.  While we had an amazing time, it was nice to get back home to the kiddos.  We sure missed them!  They were pretty happy to see us when we got back.  I think they were even more excited about the souvenirs we brought back for them.  ;)

New York: Day 4

On our forth day in New York, we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.  Since it was our last full day there, we wanted to see as much as we possibly could.

 We started off the day at Rockefeller Center.  I've always wanted to see the huge Christmas tree they set up there, but since it was Spring time, I had to settle with just seeing where they put the tree.  ;)

 They had things like this carved all over in the buildings around RC.

And here is where they put the tree at Christmas time.

 This is the Lego store right off of 5th Ave.  If you look close you can see the sign is made out of little Lego people.

Here is a beautiful church that was on 5th Ave., just up and across from RC.  The only set thing we had on our schedule for the day was a tour of the new 9/11 memorial at 7:00 that night, so we just wandered around and went wherever the wind blew us.

More flags along the buildings.

In our meanderings around the city, we stumbled upon Grand Central Station.  Except for one cab ride, we had walked everywhere else while we had been in the city. We decided since we has found Grand Central Station, we might as well try a ride on the subway.

The inside.

 The ceiling of Grand Central.  You can't see it very well in this picture, but there are constellations painted in gold all over the ceiling.  It's quite beautiful.

Waiting for the train.  The subway was really easy to use.  We took the train to lower Manhattan.

We visited Little Italy.  We stopped in to one of the bakeries and had some gelato and a cannoli.  Very yummy.

 China town is right next to Little Italy, so we wandered through there for a little bit.  We happened upon a performance by a high school group of kids.  There were several kids playing instruments, and a couple in the dancing dragon.  It was pretty cool.

Then we walked through Confucius park.

 The park was jam packed.  There were lots of storytellers there.

There were lots of these trees all over Confucius park.  Very pretty.

 I have no idea what this building is, I just thought it was really cool.  It looks like there are waves or ripples all over it.

The Brooklyn bridge.

 This was a group of street performers.  They had some amazing hip hop moves.  We had to get some pictures and videos for the boys.

 A park over by City Hall.

 Trinity church.  This church is up just a couple of blocks from where the World Trade Center is.  In front of the church there is a memorial for 9/11 that of course I forgot to get a picture of.

 We had to take a visit over to Wall St.  They had a lot of it fenced off because of all of the protesters.

 The Wall Street Bull.  The bull is also fenced off because of the protesters.

 This is the memorial bike that was built by Paul Teutul, Jr., Paul Jr. Designs.  Each part of the bike represents either something from the old WTC or the new WTC.  Here is a link to a YouTube video where he explains what the different parts represent.  They did an amazing job with the visitors center.

 This is 1 WTC.  It is scheduled to be completed by 2013.  It will be 104 stories tall and over 1770 feet.  The performing arts building will be built to the right of 1 WTC.  This building is still in its planning stage.  The building just to the right and behind 1 WTC, 7 WTC, was the first building to be completed after the 9/11 attacks.  It was done in 2006.

 This is 4 WTC, and it is also scheduled to be completed in 2013.

3 WTC.  Unless they find a tenant to lease at least 400,000 sq. feet of office space, and raise $330 million dollars, they won't get the additional funding to build this building to it's originally planned height 1,240 feet.  Otherwise it will stay a 9 story building of retail space.  It is scheduled to be complete in 2015 either way.

The Transportation hub will be to the left of this building.  It is also scheduled to be completed sometime in 2015.

Construction on 2 WTC has begun.  They have finished the foundation, and it is expected to be finished up to street level by this August.  It is scheduled to be finished by 2015.  It will be to the left of the Transportation Hub.

 On to the memorial, which opened September 11, 2011.  Here is the reflecting pool where the South Tower used to stand.  The reflecting pools are the footprints of the old buildings.  The names of all the victims (including those who died in Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and the victims from the bombing in 1993) are inscribed around the edges of the waterfalls.  They are also lit from beneath so you can still see the names at night.

 The South pool from the other side.  They did a beautiful job with the memorial.  The sound from the rushing water drowns out the noise of the city, and it is actually a very peaceful and serene place.

The North pool.

The museum, which wasn't open yet.

 This is the Survivor Tree.  In the process of cleaning out all the debris after the attacks, this tree was found, weeks after I might add.  It was pretty much just an 8 foot stump at that point, but it still had a few green leaves on it.  It was uprooted and taken to a nursery in the Bronx, where it was nursed back to health.  It was taken back to the memorial site in December of 2010.  In March of 2011 it was uprooted by a major storm.  Here it is though, still standing, even after all it has been through.  Quite amazing.  This memorial is just beautiful.  I am so grateful we got to see it while we were there.

New York: Day 3

After having such a late night the evening before, we decided not to set an alarm the next day.  The plan was that we would probably wake up by 7:30-8:00 all on our own.  Well, let me tell you.  Those black out shades do a little too good of a job.  We didn't wake up until noon!  I haven't slept until noon since I was a teenager!  I couldn't believe we had slept so long.  I guess we really needed it.

Anyway, on the agenda for day was a visit to the Empire State Building.

 

On the way to the Empire State Building.  One thing I noticed about Manhattan is there are American Flags hanging everywhere.  They were all over so many of the buildings.  I loved it!

 

 Here is the ESB from the outside.

The entrance.

 The first stop after security.  Luckily we didn't have to wait in any of the lines because the fabulous lady who booked this trip for us got us the Express Pass.  (Thank you Sharon!)  If you visit the ESB, you must get the Express Pass.  Only way to go.

 Some info about the construction of the ESB.

 Dates of when different levels of the building were completed.

 Trent and King Kong.  :)

Behind Trent is the view of the West side of Manhattan.  Across the river is New Jersey.

 The view of Lower Manhattan.  At the very end, you can see the new World Trade Center buildings that are being built.

 The east side.  That is the Queensboro bridge and that strip of land in the East River is Roosevelt Island.  The white and silver building with the big spire is the Chrysler Building.  These views were all from the first observation deck on the 80th floor.

This is a plaque that was on the first observation deck.

On the way up to the second observation deck which is 1250 feet tall.  My ears would get plugged about every 20 feet.

This picture was taken from the second observation deck on the 102nd floor.  The view of Midtown and Upper Manhattan.  That small patch of green at the front of the photo is Bryant Park, and the huge patch of green at the back is Central Park.

The views from the ESB were amazing!

The rest of the day was spent walking around the city.

 

We stopped at a cupcake place and had a super yummy, and huge, red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  I swear, I could have just eaten my way through New York and been super happy.  It's a good thing we walked absolutely everywhere or I would have come home with an extra 10 pounds!

 That night we ate at The View restaurant at the top of the Marriott.  And boy did we get a view!  The entire restaurant slowly (very slowly) spins, so by the time you are done eating, you have seen every side of Manhattan.  As we were spinning past a neighboring hotel, we noticed a very naked woman had forgotten to close the curtains to her room.  Eek!  The rest of the views were quite spectacular though!  And the food was incredible!  It was another wonderful day!