Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Day TWO

Slept well last night. Rich woke about 3am and Iwoke at 4am but we both got back to sleep no prob and woke again just after 8am. Got up, showered and had breakfast downstairs (yes mum there were donuts). Had some cereal a bagel and a donut (well it was to keep us going all day!)

Decided to take a chance and see what the wait was like for the Empire State Building. When we arrived the Doorman with the sense of humour told us the visiility was 10 miles today and the wait was only 9 hours... then he changed it to 10 minutes! Headed on up and didn't queue at all. Bought a map and the girl who served us gave us an audio guide for free which was really nice of her. Spent a good while up the top, was a little hazy but was still a brilliant view.






Next stop was the Madison Square Garden all access tour. That was really good, learned a lot of interest facts about the facility. Tomorrow (after the Liberty basketball game tonight) they start to make the ice rink for the Rangers season starting. Our tour guide was very excited about this! The place was huge! We are currently watching an Elton John concert on the telly which was recorded at madison Square garden. He has performed there 60 times so is a bit of a regular!




After the tour we headed out to the Intrepid museum. It was really interesting too, we walked through concorde and the growler submarine and then walked through the exhibits on the aircraft carrier. There were so many different kinds of plane, and so many different things to see. We both enjoyed this museum a lot, it was not too busy either.




Docked at the pier next to Intrepid was the cruise ship Aurora, the name was very familar to me, I wondered if someone I know has been on this ship before? We hoped that was would still be in the area when it sailed tonight so we could wave it off.




Next we stopped for a drink and picked up our tickets for the evening circle time tour which was next to the Intrepid museum, then we had a couple of hours to get some dinner. We walked down the Island about 20 blocks and found the Empire diner, which is still an old fashioned typical american diner. We both had a steak burger and it was delicious, very juicy. I then had a slice of oreo cheesecake (very creamy) and Rich had a coffee and a bit of the cheesecake. Yummy!!

It was now time to head back up for the circleline cruise, so we wandered back up to the Pier. Just as we were arriving, we spotted the Aurora was out of its berth and heading down the Husdon River, we stood and watched for a wee while, but it had appeared to stop moving. Anyway, time for the circleline tour so we headed off to board. We departed dead on time at 7pm, dusk now in NYC, and the skyline was beginning to illuminate, very beautiful site. We had a very informative guide on the tour, who started off by telling us that the Aurora had actually broken down and was now getting taken by tug boats back to her berth. We passed it as we started our tour and gave all the folk out on deck a wave, looks like they will be getting another night at least in NYC. Oh dear!




The river cruise was lovely, saw all the main landmarks. The two beams of light used as a tribute for the trade center attacks was also on tonight which was a poignant sight. They are not at the exact positioning of the towers as there is a lot of building work going on there now to regenerate the area.






Walked back to the hotel after the cruise and picked up a nice hot cup of tea from a dunkin donuts enroute. Got back to hotel and here I am! Ready to get some sleep now, but it has been a brilliant day!

Tomorrows plans are to head up Manhattan. Central Park Zoo, the Museum of Nat History, the MET maybe and will be in the area of filming of SATC2, so will keep an eye out for Carrie and Mr Big ; ) Will need to get back to hotel late afternoon to get ready for the theatre. Lion King starts at 7pm, picked up our tickets today. Very much looking forward to that!!

Talk to you later....

xx

4 comments:

Jim Buchan said...

My goodness what an exciting day - great to see some photos embedded in the dialogue ;-) Looking forward to the next epistle ;-)

Rich & Fi said...

Lol thanks. Still getting the hang of putting photos in, they are not quite in the order I had hoped

Stevo and Claire said...

Have been following the blog. Got the link from your dad's site. The pics look amazing. Sounds like you are having a very busy but great time! Enjoy The Lion King tonight. It's a fantastic show. We are now on count down to our hols. Only 2 days to work and 6 sleeps til we're away. Woo hoooooo! Enjoy the rest of NYC xx

Rich & Fi said...

Hey! Good to hear from you. Looking forward to the show tonight. Had another good day. Not long till you are off now, enjoy your time off x