.

New York, New York... Part II

... continued from yesterday...

When we left Central Park we decided we wanted to go to the Statue of Liberty ... but we had no idea where it was, or how far away... we were finding "traveling" in the city to be the biggest adventure! But! Before we got too far away from this corner, I wanted to run over and see this fabulous globe that stands in front of Trump Tower ... well... ONE of the MANY Trump towers... ( i think this one was an office building )

For some reason I was mesmorized by this particular piece of artwork. Again... who knows why!? I've always been quite fond of globes in general... so maybe this was just a case of "size matters"... I dunno! Maybe this was Global Bling! Oooo... I think that's MY title for it!

It's EASY to get sidetracked in New York ... and we did. (remember we were in search of the Statue of Liberty) Katy-corner to this Trump ediface was the Time-Warner building. And inside the Time-Warner is a make-up store which I can not remember the name of, and Krysti just left... but she wanted to go there and replenish some supplies. The halls of Time-Warner are currently displaying some artwork -- don't know if this is always true or not - but right now they are. I LOVE art museums, and so this little "freebie" was great! But when we got done buying makeup and admiring art, we were all getting a little hungry so we decided we should eat before going to visit Lady Liberty! Now... I had a goal when we left Maryland ... I wanted a piece of NEW YORK PIZZA!!! But Krysti wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe ... and I'm a sucker to give in to that girl. (sad... but true...) So now we had a new goal... we needed to find the Hard Rock Cafe! We asked a few people who didn't know, and were finally directed to the concierge down on ground level. We didn't find him, but we found someone who LOOKED like him & the lady he was talking to knew right where the Hard Rock was! YAY! (turns out it's smack dab in the middle of Times Square!) We could have walked, but feeling pressed for time we grabbed a cab! I swear cabs in NYC cost about HALF what they do in DC! (anybody else noticed this?) Also... cabbies are VERY helpful people! Holy cow - if ya need to know ANYTHING - ask a cabbie! They really do have the whole story! So ours dropped us about a block from the restaurant, pointed us in the right direction and off we went. On the way there we past this ... Bubba Gumps! I sooooo wanted to eat there! Ricky doesn't do seafood - so we stayed the course to Hard Rock, but when I go back to NYC I am going to eat at Bubba's! (and I'm going to get NY Pizza too!)

I do LOVE going to Hard Rock Cafe's ... they are thoroughly interesting no matter which one you visit! In THIS one I found this guitar - which was handmade by Bo Diddly back in 1943! I also got pictures of 2 songs handwritten - one by Jim Morrison of Doors fame, and the other by Jimi Hendrix! I knew my boy, Derek, would love to see those! (they don't show too well in 'small' - so I'm not displaying them) Ringo Starr's drums display nicely though! This is the very FIRST set of drums Ringo started with in Liverpool... and I couldn't help thinking how much HE would have LOVED to have Derek's drums back then! I also couldn't help thinking, Look how far he GOT with this set of drums ... and wondering if Derek will ever get anywhere NEAR that far!? Wouldn't that be SO cool??? Derek also writes songs and has started playing guitar now too ... I was teasing him last night that SOMEDAY his words will be hanging in the Hard Rock Cafe - next to his new black guitar! And his picture of course!!! *w*

So we left the Hard Rock, grabbed a cab and headed for the big green statue! I was SO excited!!! I have ALWAYS wanted to go see the Statue of Liberty! I asked the cabby if it would still be open -- but he wasn't sure (and honest about it) but he did say that if we couldn't get the ferry over to the statue, we could still get the Staten Island Ferry (which is free!) and we'd be able to at least ride past her. This is what ended up happening... and I don't mind telling you I WAS disappointed. I was kicking ourselves in the butt for having not gone straight to the statue BEFORE Central Park! Ggrrrrr... live and learn. It was about 7:30 and I don't know what time the last Ferry heads over to Liberty and Ellis Island. I DO know we will go back EARLY the next time we go! But we very much enjoyed the Staten Island Ferry! I couldn't believe the amount of people it holds -- and most of them are just people trying to get home from work - so they stay inside the boat and read their papers, make their lists, and talk on their cell phones... they leave the outer deck to us tourists and our cameras!

This was as close as we got! And I was SERIOUSLY wishing for a better camera! With a more powerful zoom I could have been right THERE! As it was, I was wishin' I was on that little boat right in front of her! It was also pretty foggy out ... didn't notice it IN the city -- but from out on the boat it was obvious.


And here is my required photo of the city from the ferry!
Ya gotta take one!
I think there's a law!
I don't know if you've noticed, but we had taken the TRAIN into the city, the BUS out to the park, and CABS a couple of times. We had also had the BUGGY RIDE in CP! So our original plan, when leaving the docks, was to ride the SUBWAY back to Times Square, grab a slice of NEW YORK PIZZA and then get our return train to Garden City. But! By this time it was about 8:45 and we were all DEAD TIRED! I told the kids that earlier in the day I would have loved the subway adventure... but that I was no longer UP for this! They agreed whole-heartedly! We took another cab back to the station, found our train and waved goodbye to Manhattan! It was definately a FUN day and I do SO want to go back and spend a LOT more time -- like a WEEK! I would love to just wander that city on foot and see everything that it has to offer, dine in MANY of it's establishments, and just be a tourist to the max!

I have to say that I found NOTHING not to like. Yes, the cabs are SCARY! Just close your eyes and trust your cabby! They do this all the time and they do it well! The busses are equally scary if not more so! I did not run into ONE rude person -- everyone I stopped to ask questions or directions was friendly and helpful! Sometimes MORE than helpful! Yes, you do get bumped and jostled on occassion walking down the street... and no people don't stop to say excuse me or I'm sorry... but having been there now, I realize that if they DID they'd never get where they were going! You'd spend all your time apologizing and excusing... it's just THAT crowded! I think people who LIVE there probably don't even notice it anymore... but I definately did not find myself thinking "oh, that was SO rude!" ... it's not rude... it's just different. I bet it's the same in Tokyo ... and no one complains about the Japanese! I found New York and New Yorkers to be absolutely FABULOUS! I LOVED that Big Apple!!! *crunch*

posted by Melli at 12:01 PM