New York, New York

Last November, Chris and I were supposed to go to San Francisco to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  After our house flooded, we postponed until February of this year, assuming that we would surely be back in our house way before February.  February 2013 was the month we moved back to our house.  We were so busy unpacking that we decided to postpone SF for the second time.  We, for a third time, planned to go to SF... This trip was to be in early September.  We were in the middle of fertility treatments, so we decided to postpone two weeks.... to the weekend of the America's Cup finals, held in SF.  Hotels were so very expensive, so we decided instead to go to ... NEW YORK CITY!! (said in the voice of the old Pace Picante Sauce commercials from the mid 90's.) 

We arrived in NYC on Thursday afternoon and took a cab to our hotel. The location of our hotel was great - near quite a few subway stations, Times Square, and a McDo.na.lds... where we ate breakfast everyday.  For dinner on our first night, we ate at Carmine's. Yummy Italian food!!

View from our hotel room.

The next day, we woke up bright and early to go to the Statue of Liberty.  I have been to NYC five times, and Chris has now been twice.  This was our first trip to see the Statue of Liberty up close and personal.  She was beautiful!!  Our tickets got us up to the pedestal.  It was really crowded on the pedestal, but we could look out to Manhattan for a great view!  After our trip to the pedestal, we walked around the island and boarded the ferry back to Manhattan. 

Statue of Liberty

View of Manhattan from the Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

We spent the next two days exploring the city via the hop-on, hop-off buses.  We went to one of my favorite spots... the Top of the Rock.  The views from there are fantastic, and it is not nearly as crowded as the Empire State Building.  AND you get to see the Empire State Building, which is my favorite building in New York (cliché, I know).

View from the Top of the Rock

We, of course, spent some time in Times Square with the thousands of other tourists.  I am always mesmerized by the billboards - bright lights, big city.  I always go back and forth between being annoyed by the crowds and amazed by them.

Times Square in the evening

We rode the subway.  I never once understood anything the conductors said, and I like it that way.

42nd Street Station

We walked in Central Park, saw the new Yankee Stadium, and took a boat cruise around Manhattan.

By far, the most interesting / irritating thing we did was visit the Gu.gge.nheim Museum.  It was a long, winding hallway with minimal artwork.  The picture below is a "light installation" that was actually a projector pointed at a wall.... seriously?  That is not art!  People were standing around marveling at the "art".... I think that this might have been a social experiment to determine the percentage of people who will believe anything is art as long as it is in a museum.

"art"

We had a great time in NYC, and I can't wait to go back again. :)

Title from "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra