And My Next Adventure Is....: New York, New York Part II

Oct 27 - Oct 31

Day two in the city - wet, cold, and snowy. New York City, and most of the New England era was hit by a snow storm on Saturday. The storm manifested itself as rain, sleet, and snow in the city, beginning early and ending late. That doesn't mean that we didn't have a good time.

Our first stop of the day was to the 9/11 Memorial. This memorial would hands-down be much better without the sleet. There were benches to sit and listen to the water running through the two memorials and a tree-lined walking path. Unfortunately it was too cold and wet to really enjoy the site. After a brief moment of remembrance I quickly headed to the temporary museum (the main museum is still under construction).

Memorial pool at the site of one of the towers.

Names on the Memorial.


Trees and walkway.

After a long walk (Dad and my understanding of the addressing of the city was sadly wrong), we headed for a pie. A pizza pie, that is. We went to Lombardi's Pizza - claimed as the first New York City pizza parlor. (http://www.firstpizza.com/) They still use their coal fired pizza oven to bake their delicious pizza. We ordered their original, the margarita pizza, simply topped with cheese and tomato. Delicious!!

Slice of Lombardi's margarita pizza.

After pizza the family went back to the hotel to warm up and take a break. Then we headed to Seminar - starring Alan Rickman, Jerry O'Connel, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, and Hettienne Park. I thought it was a great play, and a nice change of pace from the musical from the night before. http://seminaronbroadway.com/

Day three - Sunday
The day started early with a trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These two sites were, by far, my favorite of the trip. I know it sounds hokey, but it was patriotic to finally see Lady Liberty in person. The engineering of the statue was amazing!

Dad on the Ferry boat to see the Statue of Liberty.

Our second stop was to Ellis Island. It was awesome to see and learn that Ellis Island was not the first immigration station in New York. That honor goes to Castle Clinton (see previous post), where immigrants were processed until 1890 when it was moved to Ellis Island. The history of Ellis Island was fascinating. I would highly suggest that if you visit, take the audio tour, it offered so much more information than just the plaques on the displays.

Ellis Island.

Interior of Ellis Island.

After the tour, we hopped on the site-seeing bus to see lower Manhattan. On a whim, we stopped for a late lunch at a great Indian restaurant. Yum! Hopping back onto the bus we traveled up the island where we saw the UN and Rockafeller Center. We even got off the bus to see the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Very swanky and expensive!

Brooklyn Bridge

Sunday night we went to see Godspell. The theater was in the round. It was a great show, that was expertly updated to today's audience (references to Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, the Shot song - you get the point). I would definitely go see this show again. I think we all enjoyed it the most out of all of the shows we saw on this adventure to NYC.

Day four - Monday, last day...

A shortened day for us before heading back home. However, we did get the chance to see a lot of the city via the tour bus. We headed up north this time and saw Harlem and the Guggenheim.


Harlem


The Guggenheim.

I really wanted to see the Empire State Building and Mom and Dad were willing to go to the top with me. The views were great - and the building was even more awesome. I love Art Deco style and this building had it all - the vertical lines, the gilding, and the geometric shapes. One of my favorite features were the U.S. Mail shoots that traveled through the floors. I would love to have seen letters falling through the chutes from the various offices when the building was full.