New York New York 2
A road trip adventure this week! Nephew Thomas and James, Sister Catherine and myself headed to the big apple to celebrate Thomas's high school graduation. We headed into NYC on Sunday evening in the hope of skipping most of the holiday tourist crowd. We did pretty well on that front - but managed to run head on into a NYC heat wave. OH BOY was it a warm weekend to hustle around the city. We headed out on Sunday night to Time Square to see the Photon Tourist splendor.
Monday morning - we headed straight out to the Empire state building to gape at the splendor in 360 degrees. ( It almost felt that hot too..)
Afterwards, tt was off to Central park to continue the march of sweat and tears - where I nearly lost the entourage to heat stroke. We did get a pic with the angel Bethesda ( one of my favorite spots )
After Central park - a quick detour to FAO Swartz and the 5th ave Apple store to wonder at the Glass elevator. It was almost like Willy Wonka! That evening - we topped by a pinnacle of Kitch - the famous Trailer Park lounge. We were lucky to get seated at the Elvis and Hula shrine. There were Cheddar cheese Bacon and chili tator tots. Nom Nom NOM!!
Tuesday morning consisted of a Double decker bus tour of lower manhattan and a stop at World Trade Center. We wanted to tour the memorial - but did not have reservations. So planning to return the next day, we headed back up town to catch a boat tour of lower manhattan.
And the march continued after a much needed nap! We headed to our dinner destination in the meat packing district by way of the newly opened Highline. A elevated train track running part of the length of manhattan that is now a popular park. From there it was on to Thai dinner! nom nom NOM!
Wednesday morning we headed down again to the World Trade center for an 11:00 tour of the WTC memorial site. On our way, we took a detour to visit Chinatown in search of "Rwolexes" Our previous day guide pointed us to "Mott street" for the real china town experience". Well... it was too real in my opinion. The street was an open air food market and there was ( too) much to see. It left me a bit Scheving. We stopped in several stores to shop the wares. I was in the back of one store when I spotted someones lunch on the back table
Pizza, take out and a soda right?
While moving on to the racks of Cats with waving paws and Lead painted toys, I thought I could hear a distinct scratching noise. After looking around from where I stood, I glanced back at the lunch table. With a little squinting, it became clear I my pizza assumptions were in error.
The WTC memorial was very inspiring and quite sad. I thought it was interesting to see certain names in the memorial with their finish rubbed off. A must see for anyone.
From the memorial, we grabbed a cap to head uptown to stop back at FAO Swartz for a candy stop. I *thought* the cab would be more efficient than a 3 connection subway ride. But is was midday and I was in tragic error. But as an upside, The rest of the group found the cab ride to be an adventure in itself while I dozed off on our trip. So I guess it was a bonus right?
A fine trip! Hopefully more to come :O)
