Thursday, September 10, 2009

New York City: The First 24 Hours

New York City was a place I really wanted to visit one day but never thought I would. Thanks to baseball and being "so close we have to go" got me there! Every one of us had a blast in the big city and I highly recommend it! But, bring your walking shoes, a big appetite, and a sense of adventure.

We drove our car from Cooperstown to Albany and hopped on the Amtrac that took us into the city. Arriving at Penn Station at 6pm gave us a glimpse of NYC "traffic"! We took a cab to our hotel to drop off our luggage and then on to Little Italy. Our brother-in-law was the tour guide that night as he is Italian and actually worked in NYC years ago. Pelligrino's for pasta and Ferrara's Bakery for cannoli's was a treat!

Saturday, we began our day with breakfast and then a subway ride to Battery Park. We boarded the ferry (after an hour and a half wait) to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty was beautiful and was Colby's favorite thing about NYC.





I was very excited to go to Ellis Island and try to find my great-grandparents names. They came from Macedonia in the early 1900's. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate them (maybe I'm an illegal alien!?!) The history at Ellis Island is awesome and was worth the six hour day of waiting in lines.




We hadn't eaten since breakfast and were all starving and hot! We decided to try Chinatown and walked to the Singapore Cafe (also a good little place to eat) via Canal Street. Now, I am all for a good bargain; but, Canal Street was a little too much for me. The ladies whispering in my ear, "Louis Vuitton?" and the men holding open these suitcases for me to see in -- no thanks.

After dinner we took the subway to Grand Central Station -- because I wanted to see inside of the terminal -- absolutely beautiful!




Saw the Chrysler Building...



...and stumbled upon Bryant Park. A little piece of heaven -




The Empire State Building at night...




Times Square ended up being our favorite place to end each day. The newly closed-down piece of Broadway made it so much fun to just stand in the middle of it all and soak in the lights and people. And, yes, I got my picture taken with the Naked Cowboy too.




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