New York Part II

The Atlas Statue across from St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Man, Elmo is everywhere.

Friday night dinner. It was a family style Italian restaurant. Funny thing, when you check out the locations on mapquest or Google maps, the distances look so far away. When in fact, the restaurant was less than a block away if you walked through the theatre breezeway.

Theatre was right across the street. What I didn't take into account was how big the hotel was so depending on which exit you used, the theatre was either a couple blocks away or right across the street! If you ever have the opportunity, go see The Lion King.

We went on a pedicab ride after the theatre. I can't believe that I didn't bring my camera with me. Really, me not have a camera! The ride was amazing, and not because of the sights but because of the maneuvering. We were so close to vehicles, it wasn't scary but it was definitely something else. The drivers seemed to be used to the fact that these bikes wove in & out of traffic so therefore drove accordingly.

On Saturday morning, we (the entire group) met and went to The Statue of Liberty. I forgot to mention that during our entire stay we used Wiro Limo for a car service. They picked us up in a brand spanking new shuttle bus when we arrived at the airport, they picked us up in 2 smoking hot black SUVs to shuttle us to Battery Park. I found this company from the Internet search and you know I had some reservations because there weren't alot of reviews or anything but I can't say enough good things about them. He called to confirm our arrival, they picked us up curbside after we picked up our bags, they were punctual, the cars/bus were incredibly clean and the drivers were courteous and knowledgeable. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend calling them. So anyway... this was while we were in the line up for the security for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. The American Merchant Mariner's Memorial.

The ferry.

You know, if I had my way, I would have taken more time to look at the displays etc.. while we were in the Statue. We weren't able to get tickets to the top because they were sold out but we did go into the pedestal.

Ellis Island



Can you see me?

There was a museum at Ellis Island and I could have spent the entire afternoon there. If we ever go back, I would definitely schedule an entire day for the Statue and Ellis Island. Return ferry trip.

The Sphere. Quite amazing, really.
It used to stand between between the World Trade Centre towers.
After we returned to Battery Park, we checked out the map
and started walking toward Ground Zero.
It didn't feel right to take a picture of the site. But I did take a picture of Steven. He's probably the only tourist who wanted to chat up the construction workers.

I really don't know what this building is. Everywhere you look there are these magnificent buildings that have history behind them, and right next is a modern skyscraper.

On the way to Chinatown.
There were far too many people walking around Chinatown for me to take my camera out. If I ever go back, Chinatown will definitely be an entire day....without Steven. I don't think he had very much fun there.

Subway, on the way back to the hotel.

New York

I can't believe that I haven't posted about New York. It's been so long that maybe you don't want to hear about it but I am going to assume that you are all dying to know and see the pictures.

So yeah, we went to New York for my company corporate retreat. Awesome. John stayed with Shawn, Marilyn & kids and Riley stayed with Ollie, Pat & kids. So really, it was a holiday for all the members of my family.

The drive from the airport to the hotel took about 2 hours. Holy crap, right?

And the traffic was outrageous. At one point, there were about 12 lanes of traffic being funneled into a 3 lane tunnel. Definitely survival of the fittest.

It seemed like you really needed to be an aggressive drive to be successful.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel.

And met our friends, Crystal and Tom. We went for a bite to eat. Pizza. A dirty, dirty hole but pretty good pizza. To give you an idea of how bad, Tom went to the bathroom and strongly recommended to us that if we didn't need to pee then to hold it.

Then after a couple of wrong turns, we finally found The Empire State Building.


I really wouldn't recommend going up there during peak season. So many people. So crowded. But the view is absolutely amazing.

And then back to Times Square to walk around.

The view from our hotel room. We stayed right in the heart of Times Square, Marriott Marquis. Awesome! The hotel's location was absolutely incredible. See all that action? Yup, right in the middle of it. (this picture was actually taken the day after we arrived)

It wasn't all fun & games. I had an all day meeting on Friday so Steven toured around by himself.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Rockefeller Center

Radio City Music Hall

Steven walked everywhere while I was in my meeting.

More pictures to come....maybe in another couple months.