Note: This entry was composed on
July 21st, not July 19th. We ended up getting up fairly early, even
though we both felt really rested. I think we were leaving the hotel
for the day right at 9:30am. We started walking towards the Empire
State Building, looking for somewhere on the way to stop and grab a bite to
eat. We ran across an Au Bon Pain, which turned out to be a quite
tasty meal.
Before I go on, I just want to add in a little summary of the day... By
the time we got to the hotel before going out to dinner, we walked from
central park all the way to the tip of Manhattan at Battery Park; then
caught the metro back up to central park and walked about half of the length
of it until we got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then we walked
around there. Then, we walked back the same half the length of the
park to get back to the hotel.
Anyway, there were some lines there at the Empire State Building (ESB),
which probably took about 45 minutes to an hour to go through before we
finally reached the observation deck. It was a gorgeous day, so I went
a little camera happy there on the top. :) Hope you enjoy the
photo collection of a view from the top!
The tip of the ESB. from its Observation Deck
Liberty Island from top of ESB
Southern view from the ESB of Manhattan
Look closely and see the Verazano-Narrows Bridge!
MACY's... the little teal square in front is for the Thanksgiving Day Parade
Northern View from the ESB of Manhattan
Chrysler Building
Central Park behind the GE building (Large building in the center of the
photo)
So, after leaving the ESB, we decided to walk down Manhattan
to get to Ground Zero and Battery Park. This turned out to be a fairly
long walk... but we finally found Ground Zero... We both kinda made the side
comment of 'It'd be a lot easier to find them if they were there'
(that sounds really bad... but its true). Anyway, it was impressive to
see the site.. other than a gaping hole in two of the buildings right next
to where the Towers were, you'd almost never know just from looking at the
area that something so horrible had happened there.
The metal fence makes it hard to see, but there was a Cross standing next to
the site of the towers. I'd guess that it was made from the I-beams
that were in the structure of the towers.
The large hole left behind from the Towers where construction has begun to
build the new World Trade Center
The tall black building in the center was damaged when one of the towers
fell into it... You can somewhat see the hole that was left in the center of
the building. The small building to the right of the first building
was also struck by the falling towers on 9-11.
After visiting ground zero, we went into the World Financial
Center because we saw the signs for a 'food court' and we were both quite
hungry, it being almost 2pm and all. We found a little restaurant
inside that had a special.. 2 pieces of pizza and a soda for five dollars!
We both jumped on that deal. The slices were quite large too, so we
both felt like we had got the deal of the day!
After lunch, we walked along the Hudson River towards
Battery Park. There was a nice biking/walking trail, so it was a nice
walk. We stopped to take a few pictures along the way.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty
Armed Services Memorial in Battery Park.
We decided to take the Harbor Cruise Ferry instead of the
Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry. The Harbor ferry was a narrated cruise
around Manhattan on the Hudson. This was a really nice cruise and the
breeze was very nice on a hot day.
World Financial Center (3 tall buildings), the Winter Garden is the small
glass building in the center of the complex.
Empire State Building (left) and Chrysler Building (right)
Colgate Clock from the 1920s: Colgate was the longest company
operating out of NYC
New Jersy train terminal (no longer in use)
Ellis Island
Miss Liberty
Verazano-Narrows Bridge
View of Manhattan from the Hudson
Brooklyn Bridge (front) and Manhattan Bridge (rear)
Brooklyn Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
After the ferry ride, we walked to the Metro stop and caught
the metro up to Central Park and walked around there for a good while.
It was quite busy because Saturday marked the 150th anniversiary of the park
and so there were lots of special events going on.
When we reached the Metropolitan Museum of art, we decided
to go in and roam around a bit. Someone had told him that he ought to
go there and go to the cafe on the roof of the Met. So after looking
around the Museum for about 45 minutes we headed up there and ended up just
standing there looking out on Central Park for awhile. The sun was
just getting to setting, so it was quite beautiful!
Then, we walked back to the hotel and freshened up a little
before going out to dinner. We ended up going to eat at Hard Rock
because Jamie said he'd never been to one. There was a good bit of a
wait, but we just sat at the bar, talking and listening to the music, while
we waited. It was after 11pm by the time we finished our dinner so we
went back to the Hotel and hung out a while before going to sleep.
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