New York 4

Between going to the 9/11 Memorial and St Paul's on Tuesday, we decided to go into Burger King for a quick lunch. It's so different there. When we walked in, I headed straight to the counters to order. They said that was for carry out only. Eat-in was upstairs. They seated us with a Burger King menu, took our order and delivered our bag of food to our table on a tray. Then they brought mayo and ketchup packets on a tray! I have never tipped at a Burger King before!

I guess they have this sign in case you don't recognize the boy/girl  pictures?

There was a woman's restroom and one for both. This guy was waiting when I went in the womens' and was still there with three guys behind him when I came out. So, was it a man or woman in there holding things up?

What's the weirdest fast food experience you've had?

We loved seeing the art work, musicians and other people in the subway. We never took a  picture without 
dropping money in the instrument case.

 We went to the Museum of Modern art. We only went because we had tickets in the city pass book. 
We were not impressed and didn't stay long. Hard to believe the above and below pictures contain "art." 
I grew up with a garage full of old chairs, bike tires and shovels and
I didn't consider it art.

To me, broken dishes belong in the trash. But I guess it is

in the eye of the beholder.

My brother got a $1,000 Tiffany's gift card and nothing to do with it, so he sent it to me and we took it to NYC with us to the flagship store. Most of it went to a necklace for Jessica. 

 We stopped at FAO Schwarz toy store.
Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for Aladdin at Amsterdam Theater.

There's more from Tuesday, but I've messed something up and everything keeps going off center, so I'm going to end this post for now.

New York 3

On Tuesday morning we planned to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Since we had to take the subway to the 9/11 Memorial to do that, we decided to stop by there first. But when we got to the memorial, it wasn't what we thought, and I realized that what I wanted to see (the letters and the photos etc) were probably in a building we'd passed that cost $17 to get in. And we'd already donated $10 each to the Memorial. So I decided to find the church that had been open for the firemen etc during 9/11. That was St Paul's. We found it and went in.

Near the Memorial

One of the pools at the Memorial

The rest of these pictures are of remembrances at St. Paul's. And this is what I'd wanted to see in the first place. I guess a lot of it has been moved to a remembrance building that costs to get in.

There were so many photos of people who were lost. So so so much loss.

St. Paul's

We spent so much time doing this that we decided to save the Statue of Liberty until Wednesday.

We did some more things Tuesday that I'll post about in the next post.

New York 2

Monday was our first full day in New York.

We went to the Museum of Natural History first.

This is the museum from the movie Night at the Museum. 

I love the subway. I love all the different people you see there, the stuff on the walls and the random musicians. 

We went to the Empire State Building. We bought a city pass book and the museum and this were both in it. There are a couple of art museums in it that we aren't that thrilled about, but we'll go since we paid for them.

Jessica bought a new camera right before the trip. My Nikon died right before the trip! The auto focus isn't working.

Yeah, I have issues with heights. I didn't until I was into my 20's.

So far we are loving New York. We are staying in Long Island City. People told us we wouldn't like being this far from Manhattan, but it's a 5 minute walk to the subway station and only three stops on the E train to 5th and 53rd street. So we are there in 15 minutes. And I get to people watch.

In NYC!

The auto focus went out on my Nikon last week so I only have my iPod touch and a little point and shoot camera for this trip! So don't expect really great travel photos
 : )

We are safely in New York. Our hotel is actually in Long Island City not Manhattan. We are paying $95 a night instead of $300 a night. It takes us five minutes to walk to the subway station, and then it's only three stops to 5th Avenue.

We made great time to our nearest airport this morning. We arrived at 6:15 a.m. By time we got to our gate, they'd already boarded our section.

We flew into Atlanta and only had 25 minutes to get from the C concourse to the A concourse. The whole flight was boarded by time we got there!! So there was no waiting for either flight!

We took a bus from the airport to Newark Penn station and then the train to NY Penn station where we caught the subway to Long Island City. It was pretty inexpensive, and I'm glad we did it that way. It was only a ten minute walk from the subway station to our hotel with all four pieces of luggage--once we figured out which way to go!!!!!

I took a lot of random pictures. These are the tracks.

Two guys sat up their drums and started drumming on the subway. I love people watching. All sorts of people on the subway. Guess it's the writer in me. Or I'm just plain nosey.

Once we got to our hotel and unloaded, we set back out for NYC. We just hopped off the subway at 5th ave and W 53rd St to see what we could find. I LOVE it. Did I already say that? So many different kinds of people here.

This lady was selling wooden roses on the subway. Jessica bought me one.

We got to this church on 5th Ave right after a special service ended. If we'd known, we'd have tried to get here earlier. But we had no plans, just walked around to see what there was.

On the entry way floor.

I only got as far as snapping this photo when they kicked us out to close the church.

This is a different church nearby.

Door to the first church. 

Lots of vendors down 5th Ave. Funny to see them in front of the fancy stores.

In Central Park. I wanted to take more people pictures but didn't feel I could just go up and stick my iPod in people's faces. But I threw money in this guy's case, so I figured I could take a photo. 

The Apple Store on 5th Ave

Jessica said she'd buy me Mother's Day dinner, but we didn't really come across any restaurants, so we did this.

We wanted to stay in NYC longer, but it is Sunday night, and the stores started closing at 7:00. We didn't buy anything but food.

So that was day 1. Travel and figuring out what we were doing.