Day 17 - Back in New York City (Cruise Finished)

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Well it was a late night as the kids stayed out at the teen centre sail away parties. Luke did not get in until 2.30am so it did not feel good waking up at 7.00am although it was nice to go out on the balcony and see our ship sailing up the Hudson River alongside Manhattan.

We went to have breakfast together at around 8.00am not long after we docked at Pier 90. There were two other ships at this port being the Norwegian Star and a Hollan America ship (Veelam I think). We also saw the Queen Mary 2 docked in the Brooklyn area.

It was another beautiful sunny day but stinking hot and it seemed the weather was going to be the same as it was when we left here a week ago.

We had to wait until about 10.00am to get off the ship and collect our luggage and go through customs and border protection and then get a cab to go tour Hotel.

We were at the Hotel by around 10.30 but the room was not ready so we dropped our bags and decided to go to the Museum of Natural History made famous by the movie "A Night At The Museum".

I was feeling pretty confident about the Subway and we still had some valid Metrocadrd tickets so off to 53rd Street and Lexington Ave we go. Did not realize that Lexington Ave is converted to a market place on Sundays with heaps of stalls so we have a wander around.

Luke bought a Chicago Bulls poster to take home which has many images of Michael Jordan, Elise bought a new dress and I picked up a personal golf marker to use when I am getting ready to land those big putts.

We then caught the Subway down to 50th Street where we wanted to change lines to go up to Central Park West where the Museum is located but this subway station is not on the free transfer list so we had to exit the station and then re-enter again and pay two fares. Bummer !

Anyway we eventually got to the Museum around midday and after we had a quick feast on the Gyros at the food stand outside (they are a bit like kebabs we have back home but a little more healthier) we were ready to enter the Museum.

This is housed in a grand old building and the entrance fees costs for the 4 of us was around $80- including access to one of the 4 special exhibits. We walked around and saw some interesting artefacts, they had lots of animals that looked so lifelike it was like being at a zoo (they are great examples of the art of taxidermy). Lots of dinosaur skeletons and even a Koala "bear" as they called it, and an extinct Kangaroo with only one toe on each foot !.

The place was huge and we walked and walked and walked. Then at 1.30PM we had our timed entry for the special exhibit about Space Travel. This was really cool, and showed a lot of exhibits about space travel, and then we joined a tour guide who was so passionate about this stuff. He took us to some of main exhibits and told stories that made it more interesting. He showed us the place on the Moon they are planning on building a permanent space base station, and a replica of the Curiosity robot that is due to land on Mars on August 6th (not to be missed as this is our generation of the moon landing).

We had a snack at the Museum Cafe and Kerry and I had an American Latte which was pretty good coffee.

We left the Museum around 5.00PM, and decided to try and walk across Central Park, but the roads are not straight so we got to a dead end which was not such a bad thing as we saw a Wedding, a Lake with Row Boats everywhere, one of the famous Arch Bridges, and a squirrel all in 15 minutes.

Since we were really hot and bothered we decided to head back to 8th Avenue and hail a cab so we could check in to our Hotel. No luck though so we ended up walking all the way back to 72nd Street and caught the Subway (including a successful line change at 42nd Street station).

No problems checking in back at the same Best Western we stayed at pre-cruise. We are in room 3A this time, same layout as before but two floors lower. Room has not had bathroom upgrade yet but is OK.

We had dinner at Italian Restaurant downstairs Cafe Lattina. We all finished our meals. I had a seafood Spaghetti dish with about 20 Mussels as well as Prawns, Scallops and Calamari as well.

Early night for everyone on terra firma. The cruise was lots of fun but there is nothing like a real bed !

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