Tuesday June 12th. Our first stop this morning was the Empire State Building (ESB), a 13-block walk South from our hotel. It's fun walking the busy streets. Most people are very well dressed, walking fast, determined, purposeful. Probably half, or more, have their headphones in. We saw very few people walking dogs, which I guess is not a big surprise, due to lack of green space. Despite the heavy traffic, the people and the cars just work together at the intersections. Not as much honking as we expected.
The ESB is a beautiful building. It was finished in the early 30's, and unlike the WTC, has an open-air observatory. We were very impressed with the architecture and all the stonework, inside and out. They've done a good job making this a first-class attraction (except for the steep price!)
From there, we took the subway back to lower Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Museum. Very sobering experience. We spent about 2 hours there - quite a lot to see. It really brought back memories of that awful day.
Lunch was next on the agenda. I got my food at the "Shake Shack", apparently a favorite New York place to eat. Personally, I thought a McDonald's shake was better! We got take out and went to Rockefeller Park, on a bench facing the Hudson River and New Jersey. Beautiful weather that day.
After that, we walked down Chambers Street to a key destination for me, the Brooklyn Bridge! It was exciting to see it up close, and especially to walk over it - something I've wanted to do ever since reading David McCullough's book about it. There's a walking/cycling wood-planked walkway down the middle, above the traffic. It was packed with people. When we got to the other side, we went down to Brooklyn Bridge park. By then, my feet were giving out, so we hopped the subway back to the hotel, where we rested till about 5:30pm. Then we walked over to Times Square, getting ready to see a Broadway show at 7pm.
Times Square is an amazing place. It was 6:30, and of course packed with people, probably 90% tourists. Everyone had their cell phone out taking photos. Very cool to see and watch the giant video screens all around you. Not very noisy though - it was pretty easy to have a normal conversation.
We walked a couple blocks North to the Gershwin Theater and saw the musical "Wicked." It's kind of a spin-off on the Wizard of Oz story, about the history behind Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. Good music, excellent singing, and amazing scenes, props, and costumes. I don't think I saw an empty seat either. Went about 2 1/2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission.
The ESB is a beautiful building. It was finished in the early 30's, and unlike the WTC, has an open-air observatory. We were very impressed with the architecture and all the stonework, inside and out. They've done a good job making this a first-class attraction (except for the steep price!)
From there, we took the subway back to lower Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Museum. Very sobering experience. We spent about 2 hours there - quite a lot to see. It really brought back memories of that awful day.
Lunch was next on the agenda. I got my food at the "Shake Shack", apparently a favorite New York place to eat. Personally, I thought a McDonald's shake was better! We got take out and went to Rockefeller Park, on a bench facing the Hudson River and New Jersey. Beautiful weather that day.
After that, we walked down Chambers Street to a key destination for me, the Brooklyn Bridge! It was exciting to see it up close, and especially to walk over it - something I've wanted to do ever since reading David McCullough's book about it. There's a walking/cycling wood-planked walkway down the middle, above the traffic. It was packed with people. When we got to the other side, we went down to Brooklyn Bridge park. By then, my feet were giving out, so we hopped the subway back to the hotel, where we rested till about 5:30pm. Then we walked over to Times Square, getting ready to see a Broadway show at 7pm.
Times Square is an amazing place. It was 6:30, and of course packed with people, probably 90% tourists. Everyone had their cell phone out taking photos. Very cool to see and watch the giant video screens all around you. Not very noisy though - it was pretty easy to have a normal conversation.
We walked a couple blocks North to the Gershwin Theater and saw the musical "Wicked." It's kind of a spin-off on the Wizard of Oz story, about the history behind Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. Good music, excellent singing, and amazing scenes, props, and costumes. I don't think I saw an empty seat either. Went about 2 1/2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission.