new york state of mind part 2

Day 2.... Lets go to Macy's, the day after Black Friday!

The first thing you noticed is the unbelievable decorations adorning the whole department store.

Then you notice that likely everyone in Manhattan is probably at the store today. Even with that the sales staff is so good, you don't even notice the crowds. They take you from showing you the products personally, to taking your purchase to the cash avoiding any lines. Never experienced service any better.

The windows outside of Macy's are pretty cool as well. You can't really see it but the glass "viewing pods" are a window into much more.

This is the entrance to the Santa Claus house. Being a big fan of Miracle on 34th street, a trip to the 8th floor was a must. It lived up to everything a Christmas fan would hope for. Beautiful entrance which starts with a reproduction of the Polar Express train with a live conductor.

Then Mrs. Claus visits all the kids in line.

Then a sitdown with "Ol St. Nick" 

They still run the original wooden escalators. One interesting fact that we learned was the owner of Macy's (1895 acquired from the Macy family) actually went down on the Titanic with his Wife. The story goes that his wife had a spot on the lifeboat but opted to stay behind with her husband when no man could board the limited lifeboats.

A soldier of the Salvation Army

Now on the the Empire State building.

My recommendation is to avoid this tourist attraction as it takes over 1 hour to get to the top, then you have to fight with hundreds of people to get a good shot. A far better choice is the 70 story Rockefeller building. Less lines, 20 mins to get to the top and far fewer people.

From the Empire State building, you go a few blocks north to the NY public library. This is where they filmed "The day after tomorrow"

Outside the library (which we only saw 1/10th of the building) there was a dancing show going on. Here is one of the performers.

One of our favorite things to do was the circle line tour which is a boat ride from the piers on the west side all the way around Manhattan to the UN building and back. It starts where the USS Intrepid is docked as a museum.

There has been a lot of renovation done along the different piers. Here there is an ice rink on the top level of the building on the left.

This next shot is of the pier where the Titanic was to dock. The survivors landed here. It is now flanked by a golf range.

Now we are travelling past the financial district. The construction of the tallest tower is the new world trade building.

Iconic shot of the Statue

Sailing past the tip of lower Manhattan

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Manhattan bridge 

The UN building 

Across the river in Queens (where we stayed), there is a revitalization of sorts going on. I am sure Pepsi paid a pretty penny for this ad.

Coming back around, dusk had fallen and the lights were spectacular.

Last stop of the day, The Rockefeller building. The entrance is adorned by swarzkofski crystals.

The view was amazing at night from the "Top of the Rock"

Across the street was ST. Pat's cathedral. Had to go in to this historic church that is shown on many movies.

That's it. This is only a small portion of all of the things to see but we only had 2 days. Next time we will go for 5 days and would love to be there during the tree lighting ceremony at the Rock.

A NewYork state of mind

Welcome to New York City.

We decided that for our 30th anniversary we would explore Manhattan in 48 hours. Fat chance on that  but WOW, was it every worth every min. we were there.

Lets start the journey with the view from our subway stop in Queens (all Manhattan hotels were full). This is the view from the Queensbury stop, just over the river.

Here is the train pulling in. I really like the Stars and stripes showing through the blur at the top right of the train

The Fifth Ave. stop had this marvelous Mosaic work. Just had to get a shot

This is my favorite subway shot. Don't know why, maybe the colour, maybe it's balanced well. Hummmmm...

Not the graffiti filled, scary play you may have thought.

What is so, so cool about the NY subway system is it still looks like it's out of the 60's. Lots of metal, and jail like appearance.

Next stop, Times Square. Wow, look at all the people. Maybe we should have heeded the sign.

They have this bleacher stands area where lots of people just stopped to eat their lunch and people watch. This shot in no why shows the utter illumination and I am sure Greenpeace's worse nightmare for waste of electricity, but we loved just watching everything.

This fellow was selling tickets to something. There were hustlers on every street corner, selling everything you could imagine. And some you could not.

Check out this guy. Just sitting in the middle of Times  Square on  a lounge chair

The Godspell singers

Class picture anyone?

Love getting shots through windows.

He's no Johnny Depp

So it was getting a little late in the day and we wanted to see Central park. We really thought of taking a horse but this shady character came up to us with a binder and showed us all of the options we could have from horse drawn carriage to bicycle rickshaw ride.

The bike ride was a 2 hour tour for $125 where the horse was only 30 mins, so we said the hell with it and risked our lives on the bike. Was it every worth it. We saw so much of central park that I am sure you would miss with the horse.

This is Angel of the Waters fountain. The only sculpture commissioned in the original design of Central Park, the Angel of the Waters Fountain is also one of the most photographed fountains in the world. You may remember this fountain for its appearances in Angels in America, Ransom, and Stewart Little II

A little Zen moment under the angel

Underneath the bridge, you will often find performers. The ceiling is lined with fantastic mosaic's that you really need to experience in person.

We then went to Strawberry fields. This is where the John Lennon Mosaic is inlayed. Just up the path is the hotel where he was shot. Yoko still lives there and owns 80% of the building.

This next shot is taken from the rickshaw bike right in the middle of traffic. It's like the bikes are cars, weaving in and out of traffic. Not for the Faint of Heart.

Last stop for the day was the Radio City Music Hall. So many people there at Christmas time. Very difficult to get a decent shot. This one was taken with me standing on a light post, using the post as my tripod and hoping that I don't fall off.

Next up, Day 2.......