the big apple, part one

This vacation will be told in several parts, because something unique happened each day. I can totally say that I was excited about going to NYC, but I was nervous that it would be really, really, really touristy and we would spend our day in line after line after line to see things. I asked so many people before we left what we should see, and the list was long. There are historical sites (Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island), tourist areas (Empire State, Madame Toussaud's) and all sorts of entertainment (broadway shows, ballets, clubs, comedy, etc.)

The first day we did buy tickets on an open air double decker bus, and rode around on it. We got on and off whenever we wanted to, and we liked that. It let us see so many things that we wanted, but to see as we drove past. I only needed to see a snippet of Chinatown to know I didn't really want to spend much time there. We rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty from afar, then got back on the bus and went up to Central Park.


Here we are sitting in front of the Plaza Hotel. We bought hot dogs from a street cart and ate in Central Park, then walked around and climbed on the big rocks (that's the above pic.) We found the Mac Store, which was cool, but crowded. Wow, crowded. New Yorkers love their Macs, I guess. The entrance to it was really cool, cause it reminded me of the entrance to the Louvre, which is a glass pyramid. Mac is cool and classy at the same time.

We also stopped at Engine 54, which was across the street from our tour bus stop. This fire house lost more men in 9/11 than any other house. We took a moment there, and talked with a captain, and he was so nice. I didn't really want to bring up 9/11, but I wanted to stand there for a moment and remember. We went past Ground Zero, and all it is now is a construction site. So much time has passed.



We bought a few souvenirs that day, then got on our bus and went back to our hotel in New Jersey. We were staying right across the Hudson in Secaucus in a little convention park, and we ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise that night. So yummy after all that walking.

And that was our Friday. More to come in part two: Saturday, July 4th.