It was a quick Wednesday to Sunday trip. R&E were very gracious in letting us invade their space and crash there. And they were great in giving us tips for Manhattan, doing our late-night debriefings of the day even when they had work the next morning, and hanging out on Saturday.
We knew we wanted to see Broadway shows and also sight-see as much as possible since there is a lot there. Everything we've learned about NYC we learned from movies!
Their apt is right on the East River in Queens. A view of Lower Manhattan.
Each day started with the 7-line into Manhattan. We got pretty good with the subways as long as we remembered Uptown or Downtown, and Local or Express. These 7-day Unlimited passes were great and easily saved us at least $17. :-)
Our 1st day we went to the top of the Empire State Building to get our bearings and enjoy the landscape
A shot of Lower Manhattan and the Financial District from the top of the ESB. The Twin Towers stood behind that white stepped building on the right
Pic I grabbed from the internet of the Twin Towers at night from the ESB. You can see the white stepped building on the right
You can see Queens across the East River, and R&E's apt is there
We visited the Statue of Liberty. She's still there. It was very impressive and majestic. There were crowds of people for the Liberty Island/Ellis Island ferries so we just waved to Ellis Island from our seats after visiting Liberty Island. I mean, we've seen Hitch so what else is there to see there? Altho we missed "the Butcher of Seville". :-) Probably telling of our times, there were constant Coast Guard and NYC Police helicopters flying all around her, not to mention backpack checks everywhere in NYC!
A foreigner on the boat was really helpful -- she took this picture of us and told us she was able to get us and the Statue of Liberty in it. Sure enough, she did get us all in there. So helpful
A shot of Lower Manhattan from Liberty Island. You can see the Empire State Building on the far left
How geeky are we but how cool is this? Police on horseback!
Trinity Church graveyard -- Alexander Hamilton is buried here
The main stained glass in Trinity Chapel. We visited many of the cathedrals to see the stained glass and architecture and join with fellow Catholics in prayer. But they also proved to be some of the only places to sit!
St Paul's chapel
This is the pew in St Paul's chapel where George Washington prayed on his inauguration day. They've now turned the church into a makeshift memorial for 9/11. The firefighters would sleep in the church after their shifts in "the pit". It was very sobering and touching to read and see the lives affected and lost from the 9/11 attacks.
A shot of Ground Zero outside St Paul's. What was so amazing to us was that these remaining buildings are so tall. And the Towers were more than twice their size.
A shot of the bustle of Times Square
I saw a big Hershey bar from the Empire State Building. Later we were just walking by and happened to look up and find "Big Chocolate". That happened frequently with us, just walking along and looking up and finding cool things to see!
We ate at Bubba Gump's. I managed to answer all the Forrest Gump trivia by our waiter but missed the last question; what was his jersey number?
Hairspray
We tried the lottery for Hairspray tickets. They had 2 tickets left on the front row and we snagged them! Great show! We were excited too because "Norm" (George Wendt) from Cheers was Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad.
We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with many people.
Here is a view of Lower Manhattan behind us from the Brooklyn Bridge. Rob works in the tall, mirrored building on the left.
City Hall -- a policeman told me that Mayor Bloomberg was inside. This is also the site where the Declaration of Independence was first read to General George Washington and his troops, but they wouldn't let us go see the exact spot because of security reasons.
It turned out that this wasn't the exact same manhole they fall through in Enchanted.
Us posing with 'Patience' at the New York Public Library
Inside the Rose Main Reading Room. Very impressive. It turns out that they didn't really burn all those books to keep warm in Day After Tomorrow
The 3rd book in the Eragon trilogy Brisingr came out while we were there. The library had this exhibit set up where you could touch this golden dragon egg and it hummed
The front of Rockefeller Center. If we would have known, we would have gone up and spat on Katie Couric for her mean-spirited inquisition the following week.
Radio City Music Hall (FYI right out the door from Godiva's Chocolatier)
I lost my savings on Wall St
The back of the New York Stock Exchange
On the side of the NYSE
Grand Central Terminal
Inside Grand Central. I wanted to get a picture of Weird Al cleaning all the bathrooms in Grand Central Station with his tongue, but it was surprisingly clean
Federal Hall, where George Washington was inaugurated
Mamma Mia!
Em scored us awesome box seats to see the show! I have to confess, I did keep an eye on the curtained door for would-be John Wilkes Booth impersonators.
We met R&E after work to see the show
Busy Times Square after the show
We visited the MoMA on the first day of a Van Gogh exhibit and saw Starry Night. Rob's GS connections got us in!
Sonya & Em shopping on 5th Avenue
Riding the carousel at Central Park
We visited 'Strawberry Fields' to see John Lennon's Imagine memorial. I like to think that together we were imagining a world without angry liberals trying to completely change the world
Of course romantic Bow Bridge from Enchanted and the rowboats
R&E
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park from Enchanted. It was larger than it seems from the "How Do You Know If She Really Loves You" scene.
R&E
We didn't see those Jamaican steeldrummers but we saw these street performers
Em and her Obama :-)
The Met Museum. It's so large, we tried to focus on just Impressionists, American, and European. We saw a lot of great paintings. And these are the exact steps where Hitch's Albert Brennaman (Kevin James) spills mustard and soda on his suitpants!
The American Museum of Natural History from Night at the Museum. Turns out the Teddy Roosevelt statue is on the outside
On the roof of the Met museum with an awesome view of Central Park
Sonya and her balloon dog sculpture on the Met's rooftop
Lombardi's pizza -- best in NYC, well worth the wait. We ate here at the height of the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy and afterward grabbed chocolate-chocolate cannoli
Another subway shot. On the way home, Sonya inserted herself into a "sports discussion" with an angry Yankees fan who was upset and ranting about the Yankees' performance. She let him know that she was a Rockies' fan. He rattled off a couple of our players and then said to her, You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you? But we managed to disembark without incident
Some New York pies -- doesn't that just make you hungry?
We went up and visited the Julliard School at the Lincoln Center from August Rush
The Manhattan Temple -- we exited the subway and couldn't find it. I knew I had the right address but didn't see it anywhere. Then we looked up and sure enough there was Moroni
Inside the Manhattan Temple
Rob dropped us off at the bus stop to La Guardia airport on their way to Church -- you can see him in the window of car 2028 checking his wallet to make sure we didn't clean him out while he was getting dressed. If you find a $10 donation on your credit card to the McCain/Palin campaign, I don't know where that came from
