I <3 NY!! (Day 19) 9/27/09

On Sunday, we groggily arose from bed and packed up for the Big Apple. After I finished my very delicious omelette and fruit, Dad and I headed out to Sara's. We picked up Greta, who was amazingly awake, and left our car with Sara and were chaperoned to the train station to New York City.

Our reservations in the train were for Business class, so our car was incredibly comfortable for a traincar It was the same quality as coach in an airplane, except there was about twice as much legroom. We got some work done, and before we knew it we were in the Big Apple.

Dad realized right as we boarded the train to New York that we forgot to bring our large Nikon D40 with us. It was still in the car.
He pointed out the fact that we are taking less pictures because it's rather tough to haul around a camera that large everywhere. He suggested the idea of getting a small pocket-camera.

We stepped out into the train station, and grabbed a taxi to tow our junk to the hotel. The first thing different about New York that I noticed was that the streets are lined with taxis, as normal, but they are all the same brand; NYC Taxi. Hmmm....

My first good view in NY was as we passed by a street running perpendicular to us. Dad told us to look out the window, and sure enough you could see probably 20 blocks down the street into a cavern of concrete. I then realized the sheer size of this city.

As if New York wasn't amazing enough, our next stop was our hotel in Times Square. Times square is by far like nothing I have ever seen before. The whole place is a cavern of advertisements, some massive billboards and some blaring electronic M&M ads. I think I was in a state of shock.

We quickly went into our DoubleTree, checked in, recieved our complimentary chocolate chip cookie (mmmm... still warm) and went up to our hotel. It was slightly larger than the Residence Inn in Boston, and Dad explained to us how this is incredibly large as New York goes.

After we put the bare neccessities in our room, I practically dragged Greta and Dad kicking and screaming out into the street, where I gawked at this canyon of cathode. (Well, these days the ads are all LCD, but alliteration must have its way.)

We then walked our way down to the other end of the square, and began heading North. Dad walked us past the Rockafeller building, where we speculated as to whether 30 Rock is filmed here or in Hollywood.

The street near the Rockafeller area is scattered with several shops which sell cameras and such. Dad walked into one and nearly bought a camera until I told him that he should comparison shop and preferably sleep on this investment. Of course, we walked past another shop where he was determined not to let me hold him up, and bought a camera. *Sigh*. We ended up with a 10 Megapixel Nikon Coolpix, which fits easily into a pocket.

Dad, Greta and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the north side of Midtown. We saw the glass Apple store, the southern end of Central park, and got chicken gyros on pita from a street vendor. These were actually quite tasty!

We then returned to the hotel and rested our feet for a bit. The last excursion for the day was going to Union Station, the New York cathedral (I can't remember its formal name) and dinner at an Italian place in that area. We finished up this amazing day at Times Square, which is all the more stunning at night.
As we were heading back to our hotel, we passed by a street painter. He was using paint-spray cans to paint a canvas an amazing night skyline of New York. His second painting was also of the skyline (he includes the World Trade center in remembrance) and he included the moon, stars, planets (layered before the blue night sky and protected with bottle caps during the overspray) and the Brooklyn Bridge. He sold them for $20, so of course we snatched it right up. I will put a pic of it soon. Quite incredible.