Today we started our day by riding the subway down to Battery Park and getting on a boat for a ride around the harbor.  Since both Ellis Island and Liberty Island are closed due to Sandy the tickets that we had pre-purchased were turned into harbor tour tickets at no charge.  Of course as with everything else we have done this week it was cold out on the boat.  The boat ride took us past Ellis Island and you can see that they have a lot of cleaning up to do.  Some of the windows didn’t fare too well with the water.

 

 

 

Then the boat went past the Statue of Liberty.  It’s amazing to me to watch people.  None of them care that they get in the way of anothers picture as long as they are able to get their own picture.  Everyone ran to one side of the boat to take their pictures.  I should have taken of picture of the boat listing to one side but didn’t.  Here are some of the pictures I took of the Statue.

 

 

Our tour also took us under the Brooklyn Bridge then back to the dock.  There were quite a few people on this boat.  It was funny to see that as soon as we were on our way back to the dock everyone that was up on the top of the boat went down below to get warm.  I’m noticing around here it is hurry up to get where you are going, see what you came to see and then move on real fast.  No one takes the time to slow down and enjoy the sights they are seeing.

 

 

 

 

After the harbor tour we rode the subway back uptown to the Macy’s store because I wanted to see if I could get some better pictures of the Macy’s windows.  Dwayne wanted some subway pictures so here they are.

 

 

 

 

One of Dwayne’s favorite stores online is B&H photo.  They have a store just a couple of blocks from Macy’s so we walked up there so he could look around. We walked past a parking lot and noticed something interesting.  The parking lot is using a car lift so they can get more cars in one small lot.

 

 

 

 

 

Our original plan was to turn around and get back on the subway at 34 and ride it up to 59th Street but oh no I wanted a picture of the Christmas tree after dark since I didn’t get to go and see the tree lighting.  So……..we walked up Broadway from 34th St to 51st St.   Below Rockefeller Center is a food court.  We went down there and got something to eat and wait for it to get dark.  We got outside and took my picture of the tree.  =)

 

 

Then we headed off to Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Ave to look at their store windows.  I thought again we might take the subway to get there but oh now we walked it.  We actually ended up walked all the way back to our apt on 78th.  So basically we walked from 34th to 78th.  With a Starbucks about halfway through.   Here are the pictures from Bloomingdale’s windows.  They were pretty good windows. Their window theme was representing cirque du soleil.

 

We went back into St Patrick’s Cathedral since we had to walk past it on our way to Bloomingdale’s.  They weren’t having a service this time so I took a couple of pictures.  The place is amazing and I would love to see if after all the renovations are done to it.

 

 

 

So this morning we rode the subway down to Times Square again and this time walked over to Madame Tussauds to pick up our tickets for the hop on hop off bus tour.  We got on the bus and holy crap was it cold when the bus was moving.  We knew it would be chilly on the bus but didn’t think it would be that cold.

Anyway, we started our tour and went past Macy’s and the Empire State building again. We rode the bus down through the SOHO district and the Tribeca district.  Traffic was bumper to bumper so instead of waiting on the bus as we had originally planned we got off at City Hall (which is one block north of the financial district and about 3 from Battery Park)

 

 

 

Went past New York university and Washington square park.

 

We went past the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and Interpol building.  Past City Hall and saw the Woolworth building.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked past the 9-11 memorial but didn’t get any pictures because they have a wall up around it still.  From there we walked down to Battery park.  Around the esplanade up to Wall street.  Then up onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further proof that yes, I rode the subway.  =)

 

I have to toss this in here because I have seen more UPS trucks on one block of the city that I see in a day at home.  I’m not kidding, I think there are at least 3 trucks to every block here.

 

 

So tomorrow since we can’t actually get out to Ellis Island and Liberty Island we are going to do a cruise of the harbor and take some pictures.  Then I think we are going to do another hop on hop off bus tour of upper Manhattan and Harlem.

 

 

 

 

 

So today is the only day that we are supposed to get any rain or snow.  Woke up and it was already raining.  Because of the weather we decided to take it easy today and just go through the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Luckily for us it was within 2 blocks of the apartment.  Got there and went through the main entrance with no trouble.  I have to say that I’m really glad I purchased the tickets with the NY City Pass before we left to come here.  The lines in this place were really crazy.  Having purchased the tickets ahead of time it took us all of two minutes to get our little button and start going through the museum.

Unfortunately there are no pictures for today because we weren’t sure if they would allow pictures to be taken.  Well, they did just no flash.  The museum is incredible and the amount of stuff there is to see is crazy.  We only made it through 3 sections before we had had enough and had to leave.  We saw the Egyptian Art, The American wing, Arms and Armor and the Medieval Art sections.  Those sections took us about 3 hours to get through.  It’s hard to describe the things that we saw.  I’m really wishing right now that we had taken the camera.

Here is a link to the museum’s web page that shows the floor plan and just how big the place really is.  http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/museum-map

When we came out of the museum it was snowing.  Luckily it was wet snow and didn’t stick.   We called it a short day to day since the last couple of days we have been going most of the day.  Tomorrow we will be back at it with the all day outings.  We are looking at a hop on hop off bus tour and maybe a carriage ride through Central Park.  We will see how we feel.

After seeing the area of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller center and the amount of people we have been around the last couple of days, I can see why Dwayne does not want to go watch the tree be lit.  It is quite a bit more of tight quarters than Times Square.  Again, we will have to see how we are feeling tomorrow night.

 

Rode the subway this morning down to Times Square.  I took 1 picture while we were in the tunnels.  I didn’t want to take too many pictures for fear of irritating someone.  We rode it this morning and then again in the evening on the way back to the apartment.  This was my first experience on a New York subway.  I have to say it’s worse than Max on a bad day. =)  Talk about standing room only.  People are crammed in there so tight that you don’t move much when the train moves.

 

 

After getting off the subway we walked down to Times Square.  We were actually there twice today.  Once in the morning and again in the evening

 

We got lucky and were able to get into the Empire State building today.  I’m really surprised we didn’t have to wait.  We walked right in and got right on an elevator.

 

 

We walked through Macy’s (yes, the Macy’s from Miracle on 34th St).   There was nothing but people for as far as the eye could see.  Once you get up to the third floor  they are still using the original wood escalators.  Kind of neat to see.  I didn’t take any pictures inside the store but did get pictures of the famous Macy’s windows.  keep in mind there is glare from the glass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went past the Lords and Taylor store.  They had some really neat window displays.

 

 

 

 

We also went over to Bryant Park.  This is a really neat park and it has a skating rink in the middle of it and full time stores set up around it.   Bryant Park is between the Empire State building and Rockefeller Center,

 

 

 

 

We decided to catch the subway back by going Grand Central Station.  It’s quite impressive.  All those people moving around in there, it’s kind of crazy.

 

 

 

We have seen quite a bit and it’s only two days into our vacation.   We move on to the museums next.  =)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We haven’t made it to the Christmas windows at the other end of 5th ave.  We will get to that in the next day or so.  So stay tuned.