Saturday, May 25, 2013

New York By Day (Big Apple Chronicles-Day 3)

There's no way Hubby Tony and could have done everything in New York City vacation on our week-long vacation...but we tried to get in as many activities as we could.

Before we left we researched sightseeing discount passes.  There were several options; we ended up getting the New York City Explorer Pass, which had a lot of flexibility. We chose the five-attractions pass (they also had options for three, seven, or ten attractions) and used it at two museums, a bus tour, a bike tour, and an observation tower.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art we joined a docent-led tour that took us to some of the museum highlights, then we explored on our own.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat--Vincent van Gogh

Later in the week we enjoyed the American Museum of Natural History. Their mammal halls featured stunning life-sized dioramas, and the Cultural Halls divided the world into sections, which featured the artifacts of the people of that area.

American Museum of Natural History
Hall of Mexico and Central America

We had a beautiful day to take a bike tour of Central Park.  Our six-mile ride gave us a good luck at every part of the park.

Strawberry Fields-Central Park
 John Lennon memorial
The weather wasn't as nice the day we took a double decker bus hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Uptown and Harlem. It was chilly, and the skies kept getting increasingly ominous. Tony and I decided to stay on the bus and complete the tour quickly. At the halfway point it started sprinkling; the bus pulled over so the tour guide could distribute yellow plastic ponchos.  Fortunately the rain stopped after a few minutes.

Open-air tour bus

Of course we had to spend some time shopping!  I enjoyed walking past the flagship stores lining Fifth Avenue, but we didn't stop in any of them.  We did browse in the boutiques in SoHo, and enjoyed talking with the street side vendors in Little Italy. Chelsea Market was a great place to get food-related souvenirs.  Later in the week we enjoyed wandering through a farmers market at Union Square.

Highlights of Vacation Day 3:
  • Got pastry and coffee at a bakery for breakfast
  • Subway to Financial District
  • Visited National September 11 Memorial
  • Got lunch from a food truck and ate in park
  • Walked across Brooklyn Bridge
  • Took ferry back to Manhattan
  • Took ferry to Staten Island and returned
  • Had New York style pizza for dinner
  • Subway to Rockefeller Center
  • Took the elevator to the Top of the Rock observation deck

Five years ago today: New Thing #135--How Rich Are You?

8 comments:

  1. what a wonderful trip you have been doing so much! People in Toronto will go to New York quite often to see a show, shop, etc. It's close enough to do that.

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    1. It would be nice to be able to pop into New York easily! There are still a lot of things I'd like to do there.

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  2. i'm so jealous!! i can't wait to take a trip to ny. i've been there for a couple weekends but i was reporting on 9-11. definitely not play, both in terms of work load and mood. i am envious of filing in and out of museums and simply taking in midtown. great to catch up with you again and again:)

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    1. Hubby was in the area (but stayed in New Jersey) for business a couple of months after 9-11. I'm sure it WAS a different atmosphere then.

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  3. Wow! You piled a lot of visits into a short time! Awesome!

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    1. I don't know if I'll ever get back to New York, so tried to see as much as I could while I was there.

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  4. So much to see and do and so little time to get it all in. I would have had problems choosing what do to, you did an outstanding job of touring and exploring.

    Have a wonderful week Kathy!

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    1. We'd been planning the vacation for a couple of months. I'm happy with the activities we chose.

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