Our New York Trip: Day 3

Our third day in NY was Sunday.  We had a number of places to see: Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, and Central Park.  We also had plans to eat dinner with one of the McHusband’s oldest friends.

After a breakfast that cost more than a dinner and drinks would here at home, we headed toward Grand Central Station.  On our way, we remembered, as we passed the area, that oh yeah, we also wanted to see Rockefeller Plaza.

It was neat to see in person where The Today Show takes place.

After that lucky detour, we made it to our first planned destination.

Grand Central wasn’t what I was expecting.  I think maybe I imagined it would be darker and dirtier and maybe the cops would be chasing someone through the crowds.  No such luck.

I didn’t imagine that Apple would have a store on the opposite balcony.

Or that there was a cute grocery store with a crazy light fixture in there.

There were, however, trains.  Phew!  I was beginning to think Grand Central Station was just for us tourists.

Next stop: The Empire State Building!

Forgive me while I inundate you with views from the top.

As you’ve probably guessed, the big green area below is Central Park.

Do you see the Statue of Liberty?  She’s almost all the way over to the right halfway down the picture.

Okay, how about some people you know?

We were surprised the Empire State Building wasn’t more crowded.  I mean, there were a lot of people in a small area, but it wasn’t nearly as busy as we thought it would be, especially considering how beautiful the day was.

After we got our fill of the breathtaking views, we headed back to our hotel, stopping at the main branch of the New York Pubic Library on the way.  We just saw the outside, but that was enough for me.  See, this building features prominently in The Day After Tomorrow (and, apparently, also in some silly 80’s movie) so it was cool to see it in person.

After a pit stop in the hotel, we got some lunch then rented bikes so we could see all of Central Park.  We actually rode halfway back around it accidentally so we ended up walking our bikes through the middle, which was a happy mistake because we got to see some of the more interior parts.  If you visit up there and want to see the whole park, I highly recommend doing it by bicycle.

The McHusband and I agreed that Central Park was our favorite NYC thing to see/do.  I think we could’ve spent a whole day there, just wandering through it and taking it all in.

I finally got a shower that day and then we met the McHusband’s friend, Eric, for dinner and drinks at an Irish pub not far from our hotel.  We met at 7:45 and didn’t leave for almost four hours.  What can I say, we had a lot of catching up to do.

So there you go, that’s our NY trip in a nutshell – or three.  I’m so glad we decided to make a whole weekend out of it.  I had a wonderful time, and I really appreciate the McHusband and his travel-planning efforts.  It was definitely a vacation that I will always remember.  I hope I get back to NYC at some point but if I don’t, I’m really happy that I at least saw it once.

PS  Happy birthday to my brother-in-law Nate today!

Our New York Trip: Day 2

We hit NYC running on Saturday.  After checking into our hotel, we headed out into the concrete jungle.  We planned to walk through Times Square to the High Line, which would take us to the West Village, which is where I’d heard I was most likely to see a celebrity.  Unfortunately, none were spotted.  But we had fun exploring and looking anyway.

I may not have seen any famous people, but I saw where a lot of them have been.  Our hotel was right around the corner from The Late Show.

Times Square looks a little different when it’s not December 31st.

My coworker who used to live in New York City suggested we give the High Line a try as a way to see some of the city.

From the web site:

The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.

There is this seating area up over a street where people can sit and rest or have a snack or just watch the cars go by underneath.

Toward the end, they have some food vendors so we got some Mexican food.

Just after that little pavilion, there was a wet area for people to dip their toes in or kids to stomp their feet in.

We took the subway back from the West Village and popped into our hotel for a bit.  The McHusband had a refreshment while spying on the city below.

Then he invited me to join him (in the spying, not the refreshment).

Our plan at this point was to see the World Trade Center Memorial and get some dinner so we headed to the subway to take a train.

The McHusband took some pictures as we approached the site and saw the new building.

And from the memorial side:

We saw the pools that were built where the original towers stood.

THE MEMORIAL will remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The Memorial will consist of two massive pools set within the footprints of the Twin Towers with the largest manmade waterfalls in the country cascading down their sides. They will be a powerful reminder of the Twin Towers and of the unprecedented loss of life from an attack on our soil.

The names of the nearly 3,000 individuals who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, and the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be inscribed around the edges of the Memorial pools.

From the Memorial, we headed to where you can catch a ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  The McHusband made a friend on the way.

Dinner that night was at Mad Dog & Beans.  We figured we couldn’t go wrong with (more) Mexican.

We sat outside in sort of an alley between buildings.  There were lots of other people doing the same.

It cooled off quite a bit that night so the McHusband and I were chilly and in a rush to get back to the hotel.  In fact, we were in such a rush that he jumped on the subway before I could scoot in behind him and the train took off without me.  I took the next train but what I didn’t know is we were going the wrong way.  Luckily the McHusband figured that out, got off at the next stop, and pulled me out of the train so we could get on the one going the right direction.  Phew, crisis averted!

So happy to see our hotel.

Good night!

Day 3’s next!