New York, New York!

Nat surprised me with a trip to New York for my birthday!  We saw Wicked and Spider-man and did some sightseeing.  It was so much fun being by ourselves…minus the millions of people around us. :)  This was Nat’s fist time in New York and my second time.  I went with my Mom in the summer of 2003, just a few weeks before Nat and I met!

Our hotel was half a block away from Radio City Music Hall

As soon as we got to the hotel and dropped off our bags, we hit the town to find some good old New York City pizza.  Yum!  We first just ordered one slice each and a drink and wound up going back for seconds!

Our first day was filled with a Subway ride down to Battery Park and a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Lower Manhattan.
The tallest building you see on the left is the Freedom Tower that is under construction.

This is my picture taken in July 2003 of the skyline.
The Freedom Tower is on the very right and the Empire State Building is on the very right.

She’s breathtaking

This is the original torch.  It started out as solid copper (well, not solid inside, but the outside was copper sheeting) and went through several designs when they decided they wanted to light it from within.  They decided in 1984 to re-do the torch and stop lighting it so the new torch is made of copper sheeting with a gold leaf coating which is why it’s gold colored and not green like the rest of the statue.
They only offer a few tickets to the crown every day so we were only able to get tickets to the top of the pedestal.  This is looking up into the statue from the pedestal level.

A view from the pedestal.  It was fun going up there because in 2003, they weren’t doing any tours of the crown or pedestal when I was there.

Ellis Island
Why did they have to build that ugly steel and glass contraption?  I suppose it would keep people dry during rain, but it seriously takes away from the awesome façade of the main building on Ellis Island.

The main hall where the immigrants sat in rows and rows of wooden benches.  Nat and I both love history so we got the audio tours for both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Yes, we looked like total dorks.

Cool tile work all the way around the floor where doors used to be.

Just a few pictures of the exterior

From Battery Park we walked the 2 or so blocks up to Ground Zero.  It was a completely different experience than when I went in July of 2003.  It was very much a whole in the ground.

There was a walkway with walls filled with pictures and memorials of those who died.  And you could look down and see where the subway was beneath the complex.

Now, in July 2011, everything is closed off and there are construction workers and security people everywhere.  You aren’t allowed to go up to the fence and look in.
They are working on several buildings, including the Freedom Tower.

On the way back to our hotel, we encountered a fire in the Subway.  And were trapped first on the platform, then on a Subway car, then on the platform again, then back on a car, until finally leaving.  Why is it that they turn the A/C off in the cars when you are trapped inside of them?  And who’s bright idea was it to build a tunnel in the ground with the only air flow being small grates at street level?  Yuck.

That night we saw Wicked!  It was awesome and I teared-up at every song just because I couldn’t believe I was really there, seeing it on Broadway!

Our second day began with breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner where the waiters take turns singing to you!  They are all aspiring Broadway actors and have a pretty good track record of servers making it on Broadway.

We decided to be geeky tourists (again) and do a bus tour of both Downtown and Uptown.  It was actually really fun and informative!  We got off in Greenwich Village and Chinatown to walk around and explore.  We should’ve gotten off in SoHo but I knew I’d just want to shop!

I took far too many pictures of buildings.  But they are cool!

Empire State Building

Nat watching a basketball game in Greenwich Village

We were stopped at light at one point and the tour guide was talking about some on the left side of the bus.  My gaze drifted to the right of the bus and this is what I saw out of the corner of me eye….(look up on the top of the building in the foreground.)

This was peeking from behind the building.

New York City LDS Temple
We had talked about finding it but didn’t really have time so I was so excited that we drove right past it!

Our second night we saw Spider-Man.  It was very different, but cool.
After the show, we hit Times Square!  We did some shopping and just had fun being out with millions of people.

Our hotel was right next to Rockefeller Center so on our way back from Times Square we walked around and checked out 30 Rock (the building, not the show)and the NBC studio.  They were prepping the plaza for the Journey concert that the Today Show was doing in the morning.  The next morning we got to listen to Journey warming up from outside our hotel window!

I had really wanted to go to the “Top of the Rock” because I hear it’s a better view and much less crowded than the Empire State Building, but we ran out of time.

There was SO much more we could’ve done and we definitely want to go back someday.  Thanks sweetie for a wonderful birthday present!