Day 17 - New York

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Enjoyed the quiet night last night and gave ourselves a later start this morning. It's been a real busy week and you can't keep going flat out otherwise we won't enjoy everything.

Lauren went to the Mac store for the first time to buy some make-up, its far cheaper here than home so she stocked up.

Our first stop was a tour of the Radio City Music Hall. I've seen it on tv and in movies but other than that didn't know much about it. I thought it would be something to do and that Lauren would like it so we tried our luck. It turned out to be a great idea as we both found it really interesting, the building was built in 1932 and still hosts some of the worlds biggest music acts and other events. Barely anything has changed since it was originally built and the designer must have been a genius as he thought of everything and was well ahead of his time.

I had never heard of the Rockettes before today however they are very famous in America and originated from this building. They are similar to the Moulin Rouge dancers and are a main part of the Radio City Christmas show that has been going since the building opened.

After the tour we were starving and were looking for somewhere to have lunch. We had done some research and had read some good reviews about a place just near Times Square called John's Pizzeria. I have eaten from plenty of different pizza places over the years and it will be hard to find something to beat this one. They were big enough for us to share one and absolutely beautiful. If you ever go to NY, make sure you go!

After lunch we came back to the hotel for a quick break and a freshen up. Today was easily the coldest day we've had with temperatures around 3 degrees.

Back out again and we had said that we had to do the ice skating. About 12 months ago we went to the one at Docklands which was my first ever time. On top of this, I've never roller skated or roller bladed either! The practice run at Docklands didn't do me any good because as soon as I put the skates on, I was hopeless. Lauren is a natural but I managed to do two full laps of the rink and in the last three seconds, I actually took both of my hands off the wall! Not sure if I appreciated all the heckling and laughter from the people on the other side of the fence but I admit that I looked pretty bad. To Vanessa who heard about this and laughed and called me a "scaredy cat", I look forward to you joining us on the golf course when we get back 😊!

It was about 5pm and we started to make our way back to the hotel. It was very dark and I said to Lauren that I had a feeling that we might see some snow tonight. Almost straight after Lauren had told me that I was silly, guess what happened. It was the first time we had seen snow in a city and it was really cool and something we were hoping to see in New York.

As we were staying in Broadway, we had to see a show. There is a ticket office almost directly outside our hotel that opens each day and offers half price tickets for the seats that haven't been sold for that night only. There are heaps of shows to choose from so you need to go there and see what is available and then make your decision. We ended up choosing a show called "how to succeed in business without really trying", the star is Delta Goodrems 19yo boyfriend Nick Jonas. It's supposed to be the most popular show at the moment and we both thought it was great, he was very good and there were plenty of laughs.

Early rise in the morning as we have to check out of the hotel and then brace ourselves for the hectic peak hour traffic on the way to JFK airport. We're off to Boston for 1 1/2 days and I can't wait! We're then back here in NY for three more nights before heading off to London.

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