Saturday, April 4, 2009

New York City View from the Top

We arrived in New York about 3 pm on Sunday. The bus ride was not bad. It was a little over 3 hours - comfy and we had internet connection. What more could you ask for! After we got checked into our hotel room (The Wellington - a block from Carnegie Hall), we walked over to the Empire State Building. The lobby is beautiful in itself. The interior is in a 1930's Art Deco style and there is a metal relief sculpture of the Empire State Building (see picture below). After buying our tickets (it's good to have a military person with you for those discounts!), we rode the elevator up to 86th floor. It was quite cold and windy out on the Observation Deck so we made a quick walk around, snapping pictures and trying to see the view through the crowd that was there. But, it was quite breath-taking and fun to figure out some of the other buildings in the view.

(remember - click on pictures to see the full view - then click back button to return to site)

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Did you know? The Empire State Building took only one year and 45 days to build, or 7 million man hours. This is still a record for a skyscraper of such a height. The building is 1,453 feet, 8 9/16 inches or 443.2 meters to the top of the lightning rod.

This picture was taken in the lobby.

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Next on our agenda was an visiting an Irish bar that we had passed along the way. I tell you, there is an Irish pub on every corner in New York!! We lucked out and found a "locals" hang out. Whenever we travel, we try to find placed where locals tend to go instead of just going to the tourist-y places. This one was a good one. Ashley struck up a conversation with a gentleman next to her who turned out to be an Acupuncture Doctor so they had quite a lively conversation about pediatrics, infectious diseases and the like. Plus, he gave us a list of a few bars and restaurants to try (although we never got to them).

After having a couple of drinks, we were both hungry for some dinner. I had read about a restaurant that was nearby that served French/Mediterranean cuisine. Since this is not a place I would get Sonny to go to, Ashley and I decided to try it out! I had Parisian Grilled Hanger Steak and it was excellent! The presentation of the food was just great. I don't remember what Ashley got but this is what is looked like! Isn't it cool??? Too pretty to eat!

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1 comment:

Wanda in GSO said...

Great pictures to scrapbook, Sharon. Glad ya'll had so much fun. When I was in NYC, I didn't get to the Empire State Building - and I hate that I didn't. We went right by it, and decided to wait until another day - but our party had everything else planned so we missed it.