Selina had never been to New York, and I hadn't been in several years, so we set out to hit up as many sites as we could. We hopped a cab up to Central Park, then grabbed lunch from a street vendor, which are everywhere in New York, yet largely absent from Chicago.
A walk down 5th Avenue provided plenty of temptation to spend more money, which we resisted for the most part. We did feel obliged to make a stop in the famous F.A.O. Schwarts toy store however.
The Chrysler Building
The Rockefeller Center by day
Despite some well dressed manikins, we passed by Saks and the other department stores, and proceeded down to the Empire State Building. We were half expecting a bit of a crowd since it was now approaching mid-afternoon, but it was relatively quiet and only took a few minutes to get our tickets and get an elevator to the top. That said, the 86th floor observation deck was still quite busy, so I'd hate to think what the place must be like during the busy tourist seasons. Needless to say, the views were excellent, and we were blessed with having a clear day with very little haze to obscure our view.
Empire State Building
The view south, towards the financial district and New York Harbor (Statue of Liberty is just visible to the right, at the bottom of the Hudson river)
The view west, with Times Square below, and New Jersey beyond the Hudson.
We also splashed out a but and bought the upgraded tickets for the 102nd floor, which is right a top the building's spire, riding up an old school manually operated elevator. The 102nd floor is enclosed, not open air, is round and is smaller (kind of feels like being in a lighthouse, a very tall lighthouse). Since the 86th floor is already taller than anything else around, the views form the 102nd are not a whole lot different, but the nice thing was that there were a lot fewer people so you didn't feel like you were squeezing up to the edge to get a good photo, so it was a bit more relaxed up there. Plus we got priority for the express elevator back down to the ground floor.
Looking up towards the 102nd floor
The inside of the building itself was beautiful 1930's art deco styles, not unlike several similar period buildings in Chicago, complete with several engineering-themed plaques in the walls". Our observatory tickets also got us a buy-one-get-one-free discount at the Empire Room, a swanky looking bar and lounge on the ground floor of the building, similarly decked out in 1930's style decor.
Oooh.
Two drinks each later, we set off again, calling in at the hotel to drop off some purchases and collect our jackets. The sun as beginning to set now, so we walked a few short blocks to the famous Flat Iron Building which looked great in the setting sunlight, before taking a quick subway ride down to the Brooklyn Bridge (we couldn't go through town without using the subway at least once!).
The Flat Iron Building on Broadway
The Brooklyn Bridge at sunset
The financial district again. No sign of any protesters though.
For dinner, we decided to go for sushi, a cuisine we have come to love living in Chicago. We figured that it may well be our last opportunity to eat good sushi for a while (I don't think Broseley or Ironbridge will have big sushi bar scenes).
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