New York City day 2...

Here we are the next day looking out of our hotel lobby at the cold misty rain and fog.

We were prepared though with an umbrella, a big one! After a good nights sleep we were ready to tackle day two. We checked out of our hotel and took off.

I really like this building and wanted to go find it up close, so that was first on our agenda that day. It was a very successful task though because we really hadn't planned much for coldness and Matt needed a jacket. On the way we just happened to run into a Burlington Coat Factory! Ha, no worries after that he got a jacket and I got a scarf and we were set for the weather.


Once we got home I learned that this is the Flatiron building, thanks to google (triangle building New York city) that's all it took!

This park is just across from the Flatiron building and they had the smallest dog park in the middle. I saw people with big dogs in this city, but if you don't live right off central park I just don't understand where you take them? How do they run and play, it would seem awfully cramped for them.

From the flatiron building we hailed our first cab! We did not venture into the subways of New York, I had been warned at work by numerous people that the subways of New York were very difficult and nothing like the Washington D.C. metro. We didn't really need them anyway. One of Matt's goals for the trip was to take a cab ride and we took two. Here we got out at Battery Park, lower Manhattan, where the ferries to the Statue of Liberty take off.

Located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, Castle Clinton represents not only the growth of New York City, the the growth of a Nation. First intended to keep out a British invasion in 1812, the Castle has transformed over the years to welcome theater goers, immigrants, sightseers and now millions of visitors to New York Harbor. (courtesy of the national park service website). This is where the ferries take off through the castle gates.

Unfortunately it was a foggy day, but we got some good views anyway.

There she stands, tall and proud.

Here I am standing with her!

As we sail away we come to Ellis Island. I really didn't know anything about Ellis Island before we visited. It is where the majority of immigrants came through before coming to America. From 1892 through1954. Now this is a restored building with a museum in it.

There were a lot of interactive exhibits about immigration through the years.

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We didn't spend too much time here as Matt was feeling sick from the short ferry rides and just wanted to be done with boats. So we hopped back on to go back to New York City. Here is Matt expressing his disgust at boats and water and how they make him feel.

Okay Autumn this story and these pictures are just for you! Back at Battery Park we stopped for a little snack and as I was rustling in a back of M&M's I notice this squirrel perk up and run over to us. He proceeded to literally beg from us, and probably would have came rigth in our bag if we let him. Matt would rustled the bag and the squirrel would stretch up tall on his hing legs trying to get closer to him. I think that is the first time I have seen a squirrel beg! Except for the time at the Grand Canyon when I saw them take food out of someone's hand, but that food was offered unfortunately. We did not yield to this squirrel though, we just left him in the dust and told him to go find some nuts.

Just up the street from Battery Park is Wall street, and here is the famous charging bull of Wall Street, here is what Wikipedia says about the bull. "The sculpture depicts a bull, the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, leaning back on its haunches and with its head lowered as if ready to charge"

This might just be what those guys on Wall Street need, rather than a bail out! That aggressiveness has definitely gone too far and gone to their big heads and egos. They need less optimism and more realism! That's just my two cents worth.

Wall Street dead ends at Trinity Church.

Since we are now in the financial district of New York, that means we are also just around the corner from ground zero and the twin towers site. They are currently working on rebuilding the area and the plans are amazing. There is going to be five buildings this time with a major transportation hub connecting it all. There are also plans for a beautiful memorial dedicated to 9/11. It seems they are rebuilding it bigger and better, perhaps to send the message you may have knocked us down once, but it won't happen again and we are standing stronger now.

We went to the World Trade Center visitors center and memorial. Below is a display of japanese origami that was sent to the memorial for it's symbolism in Japanese culture of peace and healing.

Next we jump in a cab back to Penn Station, it's time to catch our bus back home. When we arrive we realize that everyone that came to New York for the weekend is waiting to catch buses out to Boston, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. It was quite busy with lots of luggage and travellers! We had a great trip though and I am so glad to have had the experience of it. I have a list ready if we ever go back to go see a broadway show, visit the metropolitan museum of art, and try go to say hi on the Good Morning America show!

New York City day 1...

Last weekend we went to New York City!! It was a spontaneous trip, we have discussed going to New York, but never seemed to have the right time to go, but Friday night we came home from the movies at 12:30 and looked up the weather for New York, the forecast had changed from thunderstorms all weekend to partly cloudy with much less rain, so at 1 am we decided to make plans to go on Saturday! We slept about four hours, hopped on the metro to catch a bus at 7:45 Saturday morning, spent 4 hours on the bus and arrived in New York at noon. It was so exciting and scary at the same time. To be dropped off at Penn station in the middle of a huge city you know nothing about. Strapped with a backpack of the bare necessities for an overnight trip and a couple of neceassary maps printed from google and we were off.

At first we were overwhelmed and I was a little scared, first things first we had to get our bearings of our location so that we could find our way back to our bus on Sunday night without getting lost. So we walked around the block once to figure out our directions. If worse comes to worse though we figure we can always just hop in a cab and say take me to Penn station, right?

So now we have some idea of general cardinal directions, we're off into the dizzying chaos of New York. Matt has visited New York, but I have not so it was a new experience for me. I have been to London and Paris, so I have been in a big city but that was with a guided tour. Walking in New York is actually much less scary than in London, in New York, pedestrians still seem to have the right away at least. I definitely did not feel that way in London.

I kept getting so distracted by all the architecture and buildings I recognized from movies or art, it felt good recognizing places. We started to gain confidence in that familiarity. The New Yorker, then the Empire State building and so on...


Lunch, New York Pizza, yummy!

Luckily we found our hotel soon after lunch and they let us check in early, so we didn't have to carry our backpack all afternoon. That was nice because we ended up doing a lot of walking, our goal was to find central park and everything in between, which we successfully conquered.

We went into NBC studios, didn't really do the tour, but in their store we found the best thing ever! I don't know if there are any Battlestar Gallactica fans out there, but I had to call Jess Barnes from the store to tell her about the cute baby onsie I found, "100% baby cylon"! Oh I loved and googled over it for a while, I resisted as I couldn't think of any BSG fans with babies and I wasn't close to having my own cylon baby... drats. But I will find that onsie again when the time is right! And we will have ourselves a most beloved cylon baby.

Rockefellar Plaza!

We trotted a few blocks over to Times Square and the Theatre district. We wanted to check out about tickets to a show. Friends at work told me about TKTS where you can get discounted tickets, however at 4pm the line stretches forever! We didn't end up going to a show, but with such short notice we weren't really expecting to. We needed to rest up for our next big day and really hadn't slept much the night before, so we moved on.

Here we found Central Park!! We breathed a sigh of relief as we walked into the park. After walking about 30 blocks of intense city it was very relaxing to find some green space and a more tranquil environment. It was still a very busy place but I was feeling very claustrophobic from the city streets. This is when I realized I could never live here and don't know that I could really take much more than a few days here! It is loud, busy, and dirty. The air feels suffocating and you feel grimy just from walking down the street. Thank goodness for central park, I don't know that anyone could live here without this haven. And boy is it well used!

I loved this stone staircase! (I love the man standing on it more though)

This was kind of fun, a group just brought out a bunch of hula hoops to share!

We tried, but I seem to remember it being a lot easier when I was a kid??

I was not any good. Matt wasn't any better.

It is fun to be in this great park and look over to see the city skyline right on the edge.

In this picture below the couple are doing some type of yoga or something. I just liked the picture and surroundings.

There seems to be street shows everywhere in New York along with street vendors. We saw a group just dancing in the street in central park, the exception was all the dancers were on roller skates. Here a couple guys were just amusing the crowd and probably trying to accept money for it. Down by the statue of liberty we saw some guys dressed in neon orange trying to wrangle a crowd, oh and the woman dressed up at the statue of liberty just standing on a pedestal??

This is overlooking one of the smaller ponds in Central Park, the park is just huge and we didn't even get through half of it!

This was on our way back through times square.


I liked this statue of a button and sewing needle, we were in the fashion district.

On our way back to the hotel we picked up some fabulous sandwiches and NY cheesecake for a picnic and some much needed rest after our 5 or 6 mile jaunt. We were a little cautious walking the streets at night so we just hung out at our hotel, there was a nice bar there, so we had a couple of drinks and enjoyed some R&R!