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Published: August 9th 2012
It's always sad to say farewell to a place.....and NY, we've had a blast !
Day 3 of the Grand Tour commenced with another early start, heading a few blocks up the road to the
Empire State Building (ESB). A fantastic art deco structure, we took the "
Skyride " (narrated by Kevin Bacon....should we say a tad dated ?!) before heading up to the 86th floor. No "see-through ceiling" in the elevator like we had at the Rockerfeller, but a fine if hazy view across the city nonetheless.
A quick breakfast was followed by a wander back to pick up my confiscated tripod (doh!).....and on to Times Square, where we decided to take in a fine educational trip to
Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Actually an entertaining time had by all - you can tell when it's good when you are having to coax the kids from room to room !
Next we ambled out to Pier 84, taking in a pretzel (too salty!) as sustinence on the way. We headed first to the
Intrepid : a vast aircraft carrier with fine history and as special guest, the Space Shuttle Enterprise parked on the deck. A fascinating place, packed with aircraft (including a Lockheed
Blackbird & Concorde), and we didn't even have time for a walk through of the USS Growler Submarine....worthy of far more than the 2 hours we gave it, with a fab audio tour thrown in.
Had to leave to make our 4pm
Beast Boat trip....what a hoot !
It was billed as a 30 minute speedboat ride, and the crew made it fantastic fun! From the moment we did the boating equivalent of a handbrake turn backing out, thoroughly drenching everybody on board, we knew this would be good.....so good, in fact, that 3 people rapidly made it known they were too scared, and we had to head back to drop them off. Softies !
We had our own "Janice & Fat Billy" in front of us (find 'em on YouTube!!).....a nice pair, they got picked on, but loved it......
We went right back out & got down to the serious business of soaking everyone with twisty turns mixed with thumping rock music and the occasional nugget of information about something in the area. Also got our final close-up of Lady Liberty for the week.
Must have been 80+ on board, and I swear everyone got off
Aboard The Beast!
took a while for the boat chappie to get this pic, we were bouncing about so much !at the end of our extended trip with a huge smile: tips a-plenty for the water-gun toting Cool-Hand and the others, I'll bet - theirs was a job many would kill for !
The best part of NYC for us, and a great attraction to end on ! Final hike back to
our hotel (beginning to love the deco style of
The New Yorker) and a smashing evening in the Tick Tock diner with AlanP, a good friend from many years back.....nice food, great company, tales told, stories related, a slice of cheesecake and a lovely way to round off the New York part of our Grand Tour.
No-one wants to leave, but we know the Tour Must Go On......
Pics finally uploaded (too many cameras, too little time), as we had an early start to make our 08:10 train in the morning down to D.C.
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