New York, New York Some More

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Late night on Friday so straight to bed to try to catch up on sleep so this might cover a couple of days or so.
Friday was our Statue of Liberty day. We had pre-booked tickets so that we could do the whole thing, that is walk up the Statue to the Crown. They only allow, apparently, 240 people a day to walk up to the crown and they told us yesterday that 2011 had been completely booked out by June. It actually closes for about a year very shortly as they are starting a $30M refurbishment programme so we were lucky to get tickets and do the walk up before it closes down.
We took the subway down to Battery Park. We are getting quite good at the subway now and we are hammering our $29 weekly passes. Once you get the hang of it the trains are really quite easy. At least we know which trains to get and where to change trains for the places we have been so far. Saturday we have to get adventurous and use some new lines so we might never get out of the place!!!!
Anyway we hit Battery Park and picked up our tickets and headed over to the SOL on the ferry with hundreds of other people. It is, as you might expect, a very popular place. We got some great views as we approached the island she sits on you can get a good idea of why it is so important to the American culture. She really is a very, very impressive sight.
We ended up with a 1035am walkup time and took in the museum on site while we waited our turn. They only allow 8 – 10 people at a time to go up and they space then at 5 or 10 minute intervals. The first part is the stair way is quite wide and this takes you to the top of the base she sits on (or the bottom of the statue!!). You then enter the inside of the statue and the staircase is a very steep narrow circular case, one way up and another for down. It wasn’t a difficult walk but quite hot and you wouldn’t want to be too claustrophobic!!!! You can’t see anything expect the inside of the statue until you get to the crown and there is a very small area there with a few windows to look out BUT what a fantastic view of NYC. They keep you moving but probably 5 minutes was long enough to get some great photos and video and take in the views. Going down was actually harder than going up as you are bent over all the time in the narrow confined space available but, no dramas, we got up and down in one piece.
We spent some time then on several of the lower observation areas taking photos and taking in the sights across the harbour to NYC.
This was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far. I have to admit I looked up at the lady as we steamed across to Ellis Island and had to do the old ‘pinch myself’ trick just to make sure that it was al real. Us at the SOL!!!! Amazing.
Ellis Island was the place that the US processed all their immigrants in the early 20th century and is now a huge museum to that time in their history. We did an audiophone tour which was really interesting as it gave an insight into another part of the history and culture over here.
After lunch on EI we headed back by ferry to Manhattan and guess what…the girls spotted a market that had been set up during the day by Bowling Green Park, near where we got off the ferry so, of course, that had to be inspected!!!!!
We then hit the subway again to Time Square. Our purpose…to buy tickets to a show from the ticket office that sells all the unsold tickets, generally at a good discount. The queues were huge when we arrived at about 4pm but as you do over here, you ‘patiently’ waited!!! We wanted tickets to Jersey Boys but that was sold out so got some good seats to ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ at 50% discount ($70US each) so we were happy. A real show ‘right on Broadway’!!!!!
After a little more window shopping and a visit to the ‘M & M’ store (kids and chocoholics paradise with 3 floors of their chocolate products and other memorabilia) we headed back to E32nd for a rest and change of clothes. Can’t go to a Broadway show in shorts and sandals!!!!
At 7.15pm back on subway to Times Square and the Palace Theatre, a magnificent old style theatre in the St. James Wellington, Regent Dunedin and Hastings Opera House mould. The show was just fantastic, not much more we can say about it. Theatre was packed and right in front of us were a whole row of Aussies from West Australia so we experienced a fair bit of friendly banter back and forth, considering the show was about a bunch of Aussie ‘showgirls’!!!!!
Had an Italian dinner after the show at a restaurant in Times Square – Spaghetti and meatballs – yummy!!! Got back to E32nd and the hotel quite late AGAIN!!!

Saturday was a ‘sleep in’ morning. Didn’t get up until around 8am and after doing some computer stuff for the start of this blog etc. we all headed out for ‘breakfast’ at about 10am. Found another nice café nearby and had oatmeal and coffee before trying to head to Central Park for the day. You notice I said ‘trying’. I know I’ve said earlier that we had got the hang of using the subway, well this morning it all came unstuck. We all read the map wrong and ended up horribly confused. I wont say lost because we knew where we were at all times!!!!!we just weren’t where we should have been to get trains to where we wanted to go. Hopefully you get the picture.
We actually went up to Penn Station so that Trevor and I could buy train tickets to the New Jersey ‘Meadowlands’ sporting stadium where we are going to watch an NFL (American Football) game on Sunday. It had been recommended that we get tickets earlier than Sunday as there will be huge crowds on game day. We eventually got the tickets although that had its frustrations as well.
We then tried to head to Central Park and just more confused and even more frustrated as the morning wore on.

ANYWAY we eventually got there and spent a magic afternoon wandering around this huge 800 acre oasis in the middle of this huge crazy city. Everyone in NYC must go to CP on the weekend along with all the tourists as it was very busy. There were families out for the day and people playing every type of sport you can think of – soccer, baseball, bowls, croquet, roller blading, Frisbee, skateboarding, rowing etc. etc. Numbers of very good buskers including some quite big groups, at least 3 wedding groups having photos taken – man, it was an incredible place to be and a real experience and the weather was really beautiful just to make the afternoon even better. We finished our afternoon in CP with a 20 minute horse and carriage ride around and through the park.

We ended up going over to the Rockefeller Centre after CP and bought tickets to go up to the top observation decks for more views. $23 each but had to wait for over 2 hours until nearly 9pm to get up. Fortunately you are given a time to go up so we were able to have something to eat and go for a walk around that area of NY and even ended up back down in Times Square again at the Hershey’s shop (Chocolate heaven).
The Rockefeller Centre was another super fast lift ride up 70 floors to obs decks that afforded great 360 degree views of the city at night AGAIN. Have to admit that I’ve probably seen enough of that now but we were able to watch a very long fireworks display somewhere downtown while we were up there.
Finally got back to the hotel at around 11pm after another very long, hot and tiring day – lots more walking. We are all a bit shattered with sore and tired feet (and some other places as well) and really looking forward to a good nights sleep.
One more day to go here and that will be a fun day for Trevor and I at the NFL game, NY Giants v Seattle Seahawks while the girls go shopping. They reckon they are in credit at least the price of our NFL tickets!!!!!!

More later. Bye from us here. Lots of love to the kids in Wellington and all the other family members reading these messages. We are having a ‘ball’ even though we are knackered!!

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