NYC: Day Three...and then on to Jersey

So our last morning in the city was spent packing up our things and taking them down to the front desk to have them stored for us while we went sightseeing for a few more hours.  This was the view out our window.  We looked onto a smaller library.  I would definitely stay at this hotel again.  It was a little noisy (that is 5th Ave. off to the right of the picture) but we were so tired every night that it was not a problem.  The staff was very friendly and the location was perfect.

We had Starbucks for breakfast and sat at one of these tables.  Times Square in the morning was actually rather pleasant.

There were cops everywhere.  The only time we felt nervous was walking through the diamond district and it wasn't even that bad.  There were just a lot more shady characters lurking in dark corners. 

We went the upper west side first to go see where the LDS Temple is.  My mom had been there before for my cousin's wedding but I wanted to see it.  

Temple is on the left and directly across the street is the Lincoln Center on the right side of the pic.

A NYC temple would not be complete without taxis.

Lincoln Center

NYC Ballet

We walked from the Temple down to Columbus Circle.  This was the view.  One of the things we enjoyed was going through the different parts of NYC and the different feel you had for each place.  Each area is so unique.

Columbus Circle

Beautiful Mom.

She loved the fountains.

A bum sleeping.

Mother/Daughter.  

This was such a fun trip. We will definitely be taking another trip like this one in the future.

Trump International Hotel, Columbus Circle and a giant elephant statue that I thought the boys would have loved.

We took the red line back down, caught the purple line across and then the green headed up the east side towards the museums.  The subway was a piece of cake compared to the day before.  Every line we tried to take was actually running!

We also experienced our first PACKED subway.  I am not a fan of germs so the subway was not my favorite way to travel although you can't beat how efficient it is.

Park Avenue was beautiful that day.  

Can I mention one more time how pretty everything was?  We loved the flowers outside the apartments.

It would be cool to live in some of the areas we saw.  

Unfortunately we were pressed for time to grab our luggage and catch a ride on the ferry back over to NJ so we just walked down Museum Mile to catch a glimpse of a few of them.

Guggenheim

The side of the MET.  Didn't look too impressive as we approached although it does go further back than this picture shows.

Starting to catch a glimpse of the front.

Holy cow.  The MET was HUGE.  I wish we could have spent the day going through it.  You would need at least that much time.

Todd would have loved some of the exhibits.  One day I am going to take him with me to NYC.

It just kept on going and going...

We walked by Central Park for the last time.  Pretty.  It is fun seeing all the people sprawled out everywhere although I much prefer Bryant Park.  CP was too crowded for a my taste for a park.

Walking along Upper East side.

Our last pass by our favorite cafe that had the coconut gelato that we loved.  It was right next door to our hotel.

Our little hotel nestled in between.

One of the funny things was how small the hotel lobby was.  This was it.  There was one little desk off to the right and that was all.  So crazy how all the buildings went UP and not out.

While in NYC we took a ferry, subway, cycle rickshaw, horse carriage ride, and mostly walked but we had yet to take a cab.  We ended up taking one to the ferry and I was so car sick by the end.  Also, our driver was the least friendly person of the whole trip.  It was fun that there was a TV in there, though.

The Bank of America Tower.

This one is for my brother.

Waiting for the ferry to take us away.

The houses along the NJ shore were insane.  There were so many condos and apartments being built along that side.  All multi, multi million dollar ones.  It would be cool to have a view of NYC.

Our last glance across the river at NYC.

After this we turned to go find Uncle Bruce and Aunt Diana.  

Sure enough, Bruce was there wandering around looking for us. :)

That part of the trip next.

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.