East Coast Extravaganza: NYC - The Sites

After leaving wonderful DC, he headed up to New York City. After paying like $35 in tolls to get there, we parked in New Jersey and headed to the Statue of Liberty. We also went to the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Butter, Chelsea, Central Park, 5th Avenue, and Broadway. Even our hotel was exciting. The Wolcott was exquisite.

Statue of Liberty - This was a wonderful time. We got to go all the way up the pedestal. From there we got to see the wonderful NYC skyline. We also got to see Ellis Island. It is just amazing how big she really is. Just her face is taller than me. I definitely enjoyed this little excursion.

Marry Poppins - We went to the exquisite New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd street and watched Marry Poppins. It was so fun and they did a wonderful job. My favorite part was when Marry Poppins flew over the audience at the end. It was so cool. They definitely had a different take on the Marry Poppins character, but it was still fun.

Empire State Building - This is one of the most dramatic buildings of the New York City skylight. We got to go up to the 86th floor. It was huge. And since we went early in the morning, there were virtually no lines. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day so the view wasn't so great. Here is the view of the north, south, east, and west.

Rockefeller Plaza - I didn't really know what I was looking at when we got to Rockefeller Plaza until later when I was told that some of those morning shows are filmed there. I only got one picture of it, but it was fun.

St. Patrick's Cathedral - This is one of the great cathedrals in America. Like most cathedrals, it was exceptionally dark. So. . . none of my pictures really turned out great. It was a pretty cathedral though.

Central Park - This park is MASSIVE. I can't even begin comprehend how large it is. We only walked through a small portion of it and just that made my feet ache. It was fun though. We saw kids playing baseball in the park, we saw couples strolling, nannies playing with kids, people on horseback, and people just enjoying the park. It was nice though.

Wall Street - Here we got to see New York Stock Exchange and Trinity Church. It was completely overrun with people. Tourists everywhere, and business men on every corner. It was exciting and busy. I loved seeing Trinity Church from the movie National Treasure. There was even a little recital going on inside.

Ground Zero - This was a rather intense part of the journey. We went all the way around the site. It was under construction. They're building the new World Trade Center tower and then two memorials. We also went to a little memorial museum thing. They had a time line of the events of that morning. From the second I walked in and started reading, I got teary. Amazing that even after 9 years, just seeing the images of that tragic day can make you emotional. They had testimonials videos playing, and you could see the disastrous site of the towers toppling. It was definitely an experience. May we never forget.

Court House - This building of Law and Order fame was a great stop on our walk of lower Manhattan. It was fun to see. I even got to see the hotdog stand where Jack McCoy eats his post-trial frank. Loved it.

China town/Little Italy - After the court house, we headed north. Walking through China Town is an experience and a half. Everything is in chinese. Its so much bigger than the one in San Francisco. I couldn't even believe for how many blocks it went on. After China town, it was Little Italy. I was shocked to discover that people here actually still all speak italian to each other. I would have thought that they would be completely integrated by now. I'm so happy that they still speak italian though. It's awesome. We even stopped at a little shop and had an italian soda and a cannoli. It was awesome.

All in all, New York City was amazing. The drivers were awful and the pedestrians even worse. The food was spectacular and the sights inspiring. I'd recommend a trip to the city to anyone. Its an experience that would be difficult to forget.