New York Trip

You know, I'm thoroughly enjoying this summer break. For the first time in my life, I have the the three most important elements that make for a fun vaction, i.e. time, money, and wonderful people! Anyhow, New York was a blast! Pebbles and her sister dragged me around the city mercilessly, seeing everything that one could possibly expect to see. My feet hurt, I was exhausted, but still we had a great time.

We arrived at our hotel in East Rutherford, NJ on Friday evening. We decided that it was a tad too late to go to Manhattan and we ended up dining at the TGIF about 1/2 mile from the hotel. Saturday morning found the three of us roaming around Manhattan staring in complete awe at the many gigantic edificies that make up the city's distinctive skyline.



We spent a little time visiting St. Patrick's cathedral. Very beautiful place indeed. Lots and lots of little stone carvings and many, many tourists.



Of course, no New York trip is complete without a shot of the Chrysler Building...



...and the Empire State Building.



We took a tour of the United Nations building. They gave us a discount because the A/C in two of the rooms for the tour were broken. In the picture above, you see the main area where all UN delegates gather. If you can make out the sign of St. Lucia, Jamaica's seat is directly left of it.



After many hours, we found ourselves aboard the Staten Island Ferry, where we got our first good look at the NYC skyline post-9/11. We did go to Ground Zero and believe me it was a heart-wrenching moment to see all the wreckage and debris left in the wake of the disaster...



Here's lady Liberty in all her magnificence. We didn't get to go to the statue herself and I was once more disappointed that I didn't have an opportunity to once more look under the great lady's dress. Though I made up for this disappointment by counting the number of nosehairs in a wax version of Nicolas Cage and staring down Beyonce's dress. Yes, we did visit Madam Tussaud's wax museum on 42nd street.



On Sunday, we went to Wall Street and I had the sudden urge to make lots and lots of money. Of course, we did have an opportunity to see the Merril-Lynch Bull and I realized that it was really an anotomically correct creation. German tourists seem to love grabbing the bull by the balls, I wonder why...



After coffee at Starbucks and a meeting with an odd, post-alcoholic Jewish man who tried to convince us to go to the Bronx and walk around (and whom also made the offhanded comment that we didn't seem to be very rich tourists...he's right, but damn!), we managed to find our way to the Brooklyn Bridge.



Originally we intended to go up the Empire State Building on Sunday but because of zero-visibility, we were unable to make it that day. However, being the persistent tourists we are, we went back on Monday morning and waited for almost half day in line for our opportunity to see the wonderful view from the great edifice. It was truly magnificent and totally worth the wait + the $14 entry fee.

We drove the six hours back on Monday evening and I was exhausted beyond belief. However, a day of rest later, we were ready to release our inner children once more and visit Kennywood Amusement Park. I would write about it now, but I'll save it for another day when I have some downtime. I must go now and prepare for a wedding!

{Ruff, Ruff}