We had a wonderful vacation in New York City meeting up with our UK cousins Sandra & Ray. After our tremendous holiday last year in England, we all decided to meet and do a NYC trip. Flying into JFK, we met at their terminal for a drink before hiring a ride for the four of us into Midtown Manhattan. The St. James Hotel is on 45th Street just a block and half from Times Square. It's an old hotel, but clean and with a more European flair. You just can't beat the location and at a decent rate. There are pictures in this blog, but many more in the album ... so be sure you don't skip viewing all of the pictures at the end.
The week was pretty rainy, but we just did our thing and enjoyed the city. When no rain was ideal for what we were to do, it seems the weather cooperated. After checking in, we walked down to Times Square to take a start the holiday. We then walked some New York blocks from 45th Street up to 58th Street or so and then back after having a quiet dinner. On Monday we started by going to Radio City Music Hall for the great tour that they do. On our way we passed the Magnolia Bakery in Midtown, but with the moist weather skipped getting a cupcake.
The inside of the building is full of history and great art.
Ray goofs around joining the picture of the famous Radio City Rockettes:
Many of the fabulous Rockette costumes are on display.
We continued our time by visiting Rockefeller Center. Beautiful florals on display.
We found our way to St. Patricks Cathedral and looked at all the marvels there. It reminds Mary Anne and me of the fabulous English Cathedrals.
We were down by Central Park South so went into FAO Swartz Toy Store to look around too.
Across the street is the famous Plaza Hotel. Part has been turned into condos now, but the grandeur of the Plaza is still here. We found that they do Afternoon Tea ... surely an English knock-off. If we would have had some time to get a little dressier than jeans, we would have done one. It's definitely on the list for a future visit.
The Entrance to the Plaza:
In the Plaza Park in front are sculptures of the Chinese New Years symbols. I hope that you can enlarge the photo to find your year
And the way to finish a day in NYC is to stroll down Times Square!!!
Tuesday after breakfast the the Red Flame (another must and tradition for breakfast if you are in this area) we had reserved tickets to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty .. so we grabbed a cab to finish our journey to Battery Park.
In Battery Park the remains of the World Trade Center Tower's sculpture "The Sphere" which stood in the plaza prior to the destruction of 9/11.
We were on our way to Liberty Island and Ellis Island for most of the day. The rain was to pour, but held off for a beautiful rain-free trip on the ferry and walking the Islands!
Don't miss the other pictures taken in Battery Park with memorials and more that are in the full album. All pictures have captions that will really help go through the entire trip.
Walking through Downtown, we saw the construction going on of the buildings going up for the World Trade Center Twin Tower's site. We came back another day to go through the 9/11 museum. This is the buildings happening now:
Being down here in the business section of New York with the courts and municipal buildings, right next to City Hall is the Brooklyn Bridge which gave a great view for Sandra and Ray.
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| From 2011 - May 15th - 23rd - NYC |
We strolled back through the neighborhoods in Chelsea and Greenwich Village and SOHO before grabbing a cab to go back to Midtown. When we saw these tree planters that were simulating Fiats, I got entranced to take pictures thinking of our son-in-law Ed. They are strangely addicting to look at!
We walked through Washington Square Park where there were several NYU graduates running around in their cap and gown for graduation ceremonies later in the evening.
On Thursday we headed out to the United Nations to take a tour. We walked down 45th towards the Hudson River and passed the Amish Grocery that Mary Anne and I had discovered on one of our previous trips. It's a fun place to just look around. If I lived in NY around here, this would be my grocery store of choice. We just couldn't resist taking a picture of the Ruby tuna cans we saw: didn't know our little granddaughter had her own business going already!
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| From 2011 - May 15th - 23rd - NYC |
One of the architecturally beautiful buildings anywhere in our opinion is the Chrysler Building. We stopped in the lobby and read the literature about it and took a couple of shots including the beautiful Art Deco elevator doors.
We continued on to Grand Central Station, which really is Grand. Pictures never come out right of the glory of this interior.
One of the secrets to Grand Central is the Oyster Bar Restaurant in the lower level ... I shouldn't say it's a secret as it's always packed, but I believe the average tourist doesn't know about it. We wanted to take Sandra and Ray here for lunch, so today worked out beautifully. The interior of the restaurant is curved walls with small ceramic tiles ... just gorgeous!
On our way walking, the sky opened up and it just poured. We would take breaks under the awnings of some buildings as we wound our way through the streets of New York! If memory serves correct, I think that this one was the one to convince Ray to buy an umbrella for the rest of the week!
This was our night at the Stage Deli. A trip to New York without a stop at the Stage is not really a trip to New York! Check it out:
Thursday was clear enough to go up to the top of the Empire State Building. It was clear without rain for some magnificent views of the city. Check out more shots in the album!
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| From 2011 - May 15th - 23rd - NYC |
After this, we walked towards Downtown. We hit the historic Flatiron Building and went inside to the lobby to read some information about it. It's a working building, so no roaming through the halls! The unique shape is a NYC landmark.
Took this great picture of Ray & Sandra with the Empire State Building behind them out in front of the Flatiron:
We made our way further and cut over on 13th Street to Bleecker Street in Chelsea / Greenwich Village to endulge in a Magnolia Bakery cupcake. I think this original location is better than Midtown Manahattan, but only bought here. We ate our delights on benches across the street in a small park.
Hailing a cab, we continued Downtown to catch-up on places we wanted to see in more detail. On the ride, we passed the mounted police in Tribeca:
We went to St. Paul's Chapel which is right across the street from where the twin towers came down. The Chapel became the home base for many weeks feeding, aiding, providing sleeping quarters, medical attention, massages and more to all of the volunteers and NYC firefighters and police officers who worked in the search and then removal of the dissaster victims. The little Chapel has many rememberances in it. This was also the Chapel that George Washington went to after his Inaugration as the first US President when the capitol was in NYC.
In the World Trade Center Museum, there are artifacts, testimonies, pictures and more from 9/11. In here, the vision of the finished rebuild:
Walking by the courts there was a lot of activity with over 100 news reporters out covering the breaking week's news of the French dignitary ex-IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused the previous Sunday of attempting to rape a hotel maid near Times Square; see the album for some pictures!
This was our night to go to the Gershwin Theatre for the production of "Wicked". It is such a lively - fun musical that is superbly performed. We all enjoyed it tremendously. If you haven't seen it and get the chance, be sure to go. You will never view the Wizard of Oz in the same manner again!.
We have a tradition that after the Theatre we have a late night dinner at Joe Allens. It has great food and that Broadway ambiance. What an end to a perfect day!
Friday was the day of rain. We made our way up 5th Avenue towards Uptown to do by the Museums. We saw the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the Met, we had lunch and relaxed out of the rain. Next to the park are the high-end apartments of the rich and famous if the Upper East Side. They are fabulous to look at. We didn't attempt the Central Park Zoo with the incliment weather. We came through the the Park and were able to see the Bethesda Fountain with virtually no one around. Under the protection of the Bethesda Terrace was a Bride and her party taking pictures. She was as happy as could be saying that she knew by remembering that a Rain Shower on your Wedding Day is Good Luck for the Marriage.
We squandered the rest of the afternoon at shops towards the hotel. That evening, we decided on Asian Cusine at Ruby Foo's ... again not knowing our Granddaughter was a business executive. We had a delightful meal, sharing all of the plates between us. We counted on Ray every night to select a wine and he never did us wrong!
Saturday was the perfect weather day that we had been looking forward to. We headed the direction of Hell's Kitchen to get over to Columbus Circle. It's at the edge of Central Park South and Central Park West.
We went over to Central Park to get a "Dry Day" view of everything. Central Park is so much fun to walk and enjoy all of the people and activities. The NYC Police were having a 1/2 marathon and there were some British Police that had come over for the event that Ray struck up a converstation with. We saw them a few times throughout the park running and jogging as we walked.
We went over to Stawberry Fields across from The Dakota where John Lennon was killed. The IMAGINE tribute in the park is humbling.
We strolled the park seeing such things as the Bethesda Fountain, Belvedere Castle, Turtle Pond, Alice in Wonderland, the Great Lawn, many paths and bridges and came back up The Mall with all of the Statues. Perfect!
We had to treat Sandra and Ray to a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park at the end of our walk. Relaxing and the ride sums up everthing we saw on our journey.
We then headed over to Lincoln Center to see the complex with the Metropolitan Opera House and the Juillard School of Music.
As we walked down the streets back to the hotel, Mary Anne expressed her desire to satisfy her ice-cream cravings. So we were on the lookout for her. I managed to spot a great small shop with flavors galore .. we all indulged and Mary Anne was one VERY HAPPY CAMPER !!!
Our choice for dinner was at the relaxed Ellen's Starlight Diner just around the corner from Times Square. The Diner Food is fabulous and the atmosphere can't be beat! All of the servers sing show tunes throughout the evening. There is never a time that someone is not performing. They all want to be on Broadway and hope this is their stepping stone. It's been here for years for these kids. Such FUN !!!
What a FUN evening !!!
Sunday we ventured towards the East River to Seaport Village. This is the home of the old Fish Market District of Fulton Street. We wandered the shops and enjoyed all of the atmosphere of being there.
We loved walking the home neighborhood districts while we were out. Just imagining living in one of those units and the life that is lead made every walk no matter how long so interesting. We made it to Chinatown and Little Italy before we headed over to Macy's for some shopping and so they could experience our great store. After us visiting Harrods in London, I can't believe Macy's is a real thrill. We had a good time and had a mid-afternoon snack break in the Cellar food pavalion.
Mary Anne remembered Virgil's BBQ over the next block ftom the St. James. We all thought that sounded tasty, so that was our dinner pick. The food was as scrumptious as it was last time we ate there. Sort of unbelievable that NYC has a great BBQ place, right?
Our trip really wrapped up with one last look at Times Square at night.
We had a great Monday morning full breakfast at the Red Flame, said good-bye to Times Square, and got ready to catch our transportation to the airport. What a wonderful and great trip. Thanks Sandra and Ray for the great companionship and Ray for picking out all of the great bottles of wine! Until next time ....
Click for the complete album so that you don't miss any of the photos!
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