Empire State of Mind (Day 2)
Thursday morning Kathy and I awoke bright and early to bundle up and head over to Central Park West to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Once we got to 77th and Central Park West, where the parade was to begin, we had to wander around a maze of barriers in order to find a spot, which enabled us to walk past some of the balloons while they were tied down to the ground.
We finally found a spot, and although at 7 AM when we got there we were a ways back, we were able to work our way to the front before the parade started at 9 AM.
The parade was actually really awesome. I wasn't looking forward to it initially. I went more because it would be super lame to go to NYC for Thanksgiving and not go to the parade. I just find parades incredibly boring, but this one turned out to be super cool! Plus I saw the minions from Despicable Me, and Gladys Knight!!!
I took A LOT of pictures of the parade, and everything else. So here is a link to my Facebook photo album where you can check them all out.
After the parade we took our blankets back to our room and then headed back to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk on over it.
It started raining as we crossed, but it was pretty cool. When we got to the other side I saw two elders and I said, "hey it's the elders! Hi elders!" They looked confused and ignored me at first, but then they said hello.
Once we had crossed the bridge we were pretty close to Chinatown. So we began to walk over there, and I saw this:
You didn't think the courts of New York could escape me could they? Once we got to Chinatown Kathy bought a dress, and I bought a red suitcase with wheels to pack all of my stuff into on Saturday so I wouldn't die and we could spend some time in New York after we checked out of our hostel looking at things and not leave right away.
After Chinatown we headed over to 34th Street to find the Empire State building and to eat Thanksgiving dinner. All around the Empire State building are people trying to get you to buy tickets for their tours. We met Watt, who tried to get us to pay $70 to get to the top of the Empire State building as well as ride his tour bus all over New York City. Once we finally shook him off we ran into two other guys that also offered us a helicopter ride over New York. We told them we were planning on eating first, and then we'd come back and let him know. So we wandered away from the entrance of the Empire State Building and found a restaurant with a Thanksgiving Day Menu.
Our meal was delicious. Since we had to pay $30 for the meal we both chose prime rib, and I also chose pumpkin pie for my dessert. The pumpkin pie was amazing.
After our delicious dinner we headed back over to the Empire State building and managed to avoid all street ticket hawkers. The bummer about the Empire State Building is that you have to pay $21 to go up to different floors. So we just wandered around the lobby. But we read about the ceiling, which was redone in 2007 (finished in 2009) to look like it did originally and saw all of the snow globes with Empire State Buildings inside it.
The Empire State Building was pretty cool. It was rainy most of Thursday so we were kind of wet and cold, but we decided to head back to our hostel and ask the guy at the front desk where the closest movie theatre was so we could watch Tangled. He told us there was one on 86th and Broadway. Kathy didn't want to walk so we hopped on a subway, and it turned out it was an express train so it didn't stop at every stop. We got off at 72nd Street, near Lincoln Square and the temple and headed back to 86th.
Where, it turned out, Tangled was not even playing. We asked the guy at the front desk if he knew of a place that was playing it, and he suggested the one on 68th street. So although we could have just wanted there from the first stop we got off at, we headed back and saw Tangled, which was awesome. I'd suggest it to everyone. I'm planning on marrying Zachary Levi. What a fox.
So all in all, our second day in New York was much more successful and fun, and I went to bed that night looking forward to Friday and The Lion King and The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. :-D
We finally found a spot, and although at 7 AM when we got there we were a ways back, we were able to work our way to the front before the parade started at 9 AM.
The parade was actually really awesome. I wasn't looking forward to it initially. I went more because it would be super lame to go to NYC for Thanksgiving and not go to the parade. I just find parades incredibly boring, but this one turned out to be super cool! Plus I saw the minions from Despicable Me, and Gladys Knight!!!
I took A LOT of pictures of the parade, and everything else. So here is a link to my Facebook photo album where you can check them all out.
After the parade we took our blankets back to our room and then headed back to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk on over it.
That is the Statue of Liberty in the Distance
Once we had crossed the bridge we were pretty close to Chinatown. So we began to walk over there, and I saw this:
After Chinatown we headed over to 34th Street to find the Empire State building and to eat Thanksgiving dinner. All around the Empire State building are people trying to get you to buy tickets for their tours. We met Watt, who tried to get us to pay $70 to get to the top of the Empire State building as well as ride his tour bus all over New York City. Once we finally shook him off we ran into two other guys that also offered us a helicopter ride over New York. We told them we were planning on eating first, and then we'd come back and let him know. So we wandered away from the entrance of the Empire State Building and found a restaurant with a Thanksgiving Day Menu.
Our meal was delicious. Since we had to pay $30 for the meal we both chose prime rib, and I also chose pumpkin pie for my dessert. The pumpkin pie was amazing.
Where, it turned out, Tangled was not even playing. We asked the guy at the front desk if he knew of a place that was playing it, and he suggested the one on 68th street. So although we could have just wanted there from the first stop we got off at, we headed back and saw Tangled, which was awesome. I'd suggest it to everyone. I'm planning on marrying Zachary Levi. What a fox.
So all in all, our second day in New York was much more successful and fun, and I went to bed that night looking forward to Friday and The Lion King and The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. :-D
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