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! 

New York: Day 2

On our second day in New York, we woke up at 6:30, and didn't stop until 11:30 that night.  What a day!  First, we went on a Liberty/Ellis Island tour.

 

 The view from Battery Park, where we boarded the ferry.

The view from the ferry.  You can see the new World Trade Center buildings that are being built.  More on that later.

 The giant flag at Liberty Island.

While taking pictures of the flag, we got to see the space shuttle Enterprise as it took its final tour around the city.

 

 Lady Liberty.  Did you know that the copper covering of the Statue of Liberty is less than the thickness of two pennies?  Crazy!  We weren't able to go inside the statue or the fort due to renovation projects, but it was amazing still to see it up close from the outside.  This is the view the immigrants would get when first landing at Ellis Island.

There is a sonnet, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, at the base of the statue that reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lighting, and her name

Mother of exiles.  From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Of course, like so many famous authors from her time, she wasn't recognized for her writings until after she had died.

 

Walking in to the building on Ellis Island.  Here, we learned that 22 million immigrants, crew members, and other passengers landed here between 1892-1924.  I had no idea that there were so many!  We got to walk through the museum here and learned about what the immigrants had to go through to enter America.

 This is the main hall upstairs where the immigrants would wait for their name to be called so they could begin their screening to get into the country.  The tiled ceilings are beautiful!  That's one thing I noticed a lot of while we were in New York.  Lots of tiled ceilings like this.

 

 Ellis Island from the ferry.

By the time we got back to Manhattan, we were starving!  Someone had recommended we go to the Stage Deli.  We ordered a corned beef, pastrami and brisket sandwich.  It was huge!  Good thing we split it!  I couldn't even finish half, let alone the whole thing.  It sure was tasty!

We had lots we wanted to do and see while in New York, so after lunch, we took a walk up towards Central Park.  We ended up taking a pedicab tour through the park.  Best way to see the park if you ask me!  We got an hour and 15 minute tour, and got to see tons of the southern side of the park.  Did you know Central Park is 843 acres?  Huge!  There are 21 playgrounds in the park, and 7 bodies of water.

This one was in the movie "Stuart Little"  It's where the boat race was held.

 I can's remember what this building was, but it sure is pretty!

 The Angel of Waters at Bethesda Terrace.

This is the outside of the staircase going down to the fountain.

The bridge across from the fountain.

 This is the underside of the bridge.  We were so surprised to walk in there and see so much detail!  Absolutely beautiful!

The walls under the bridge.  Gorgeous!

Here is the walkway you see in tons of movies that is across from the stairs that go down to the Angel of Waters.

A fun tidbit... Our guide told us the top floor of this building is owned by Caroline Kennedy.  It used to be Jackie O's apartment.  I guess some paparazzi took some pictures of her from an apartment across the way, so they had a wall built for privacy.

 This is the bridge where scenes from the movies "Home Alone 2" and "Elf" were shot.

 The John Lennon Memorial.  You can't see it very well because of how the light is in the picture, but it says "IMAGINE" in the middle of the circle.

 This is where John Lennon used to live.

 The flames burning in the lanterns in front of the building are eternal flames.  They keep them lit all the time in memory of John Lennon.

Central Park is soooo beautiful!  I wish we could have spent more time exploring it.  Maybe next time! :)

After Central Park, we went back to Carmines and ordered tiramisu to go, took it back to our room, and ate it for dinner.  So bad, but oh, so good!  After eating "dinner", we got ready and headed back out to see "Jersey Boys" on Broadway.  There was a bit of language, but the music and storyline were phenomenal!  Loved, loved, loved the music.

We were pretty hungry after the musical since we didn't really eat dinner earlier, so we stopped at Olive Garden on the way back to the hotel.  By the time we got done with dinner, it was about 11:30 at night, and the town was still hoppin'!  People out walking everywhere!  There's quite the night life there I tell ya!  We had such a busy, fun-packed day!