NYC Day Two

So day two started with us making our way a few blocks over to Grand Central Station to catch the subway.

I love this picture.

We went down to see the World Trade Center.  The area is heavily under construction but the towers are beautiful.  

When we got off the subway there were signs everywhere telling us where to go...as if following the crowds weren't direction enough.

Liked this sign.  :)

They have the memorial and buildings all fenced/blocked off so you can't see them from the road.  For those of you visiting in the future (Erin) you will want to call in advance for tickets to actually be able to enter in to see them.

All the people.

All the construction.

We caught the subway again, but it was a little frustrating.  We found out the hard way that weekends are when they do a lot of the maintenance so all the lines we were told to take were down.  We would catch another one only to find out it was the wrong one.  We had our only deadline of the weekend which was to make it back for Phantom of the Opera at 2:00 so we were feeling a little pressed for time.  We made out way down to go on the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty but decided we did not have time (which was okay since we did it on our trip before) and went walking to see if we could just get pictures.  Headed the wrong direction we had a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Had we had the time, we would have taken one of the helicopter tours as well.  I was tempted all weekend but in the end we ran out of time...and money. :)

Found it!

Can you see it?  Proof that we made it there.

On the way back we took the red line which my mom kept insisting was better than the ones we had ridden down.  We rode with about 8 cops so it felt very safe.  Does anyone watch Blue Bloods?  

A mariachi band also got on.  They entertained us in between two stops.  It was really funny. I was impressed how they could keep their balance while playing.

We walked fast back through Times Square during the day on the way to our hotel.

This is the TGIFridays that we ate at the night before.  It was four stories, I think?

There were a lot of tours.  You could always tell by the people in front holding up their arms or, in some cases, light sabers.

My favorite spot, Bryant Park.  It was so beautiful and serene.

This is how we could tell we were almost to the hotel.  The red flags for another library off to our right which was right across the street.  The BIG Library was off to the left.

We stopped at one of the vendors for a quick bite to eat before the show.

Phantom is my favorite Broadway show so it was so much fun seeing it in NYC.  Probably one of the highlights of our trip.

Times Square has one of the coolest Walgreens. It is three stories and so clean! I love the sparkly sign.  They DO NOT, however, have public restrooms.  That is one thing we learned about NYC.  Bathrooms are not the easiest to find...although the thought of all the people who would use them to begin with is so gross...

Walking back, yet again, through Bryant Park, I fell even more in love when I saw this outdoor reading room.

Love at first sight.

Chess games.

This was the one place that felt so serene...actually later we did go up to the Upper East side to watch all the rich people with their doormen and chauffeurs and it was pretty peaceful there too.

Yummy.

We saw there there was actually a store down in the ground.  Very cool.

I walked my mom to death and since we were up for trying all kinds of transportation, we decided to have our little friend, Omar from the Tajik Republic (Tajikistan) bike us from 58th up to 34th street to the Empire State Building.  It was so much fun up until the last few blocks.  Then we felt like people racing on the Amazing Race in India.  Scary!  This was my mom's favorite event of the trip.

NYC at night.  Since we saw the view from The Rock during the day we wanted a view at night.  Beautiful!

Times Square.

We saw a British couple get engaged.  It was so sweet.  They actually rode up in the elevator with us so we were thinking about how nervous he must have been and we had no clue.  The funny part is that my mom was standing right next to them while a friend recorded him proposing and her saying yes and them making out...the whole time she had no clue what was going on. (Like I said, I walked her to the ground so she was tired that night)  So now, when they show everyone the proposal, she will be front and center for all of England to see. :)  It was really funny but you probably had to be there.

That is all for day two.