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.