NYC Trip report (9/26-9/29)
 

Part 1<BR><BR>We arrived to lots of rain. Bought 3 (husband, 14yr old son and I) $3 umbrellas and hit the street. First of all, we stayed at the Avalon Hotel (http://avalonhotel.citysearch.com/) and were lucky to get a fantastic special. Click on "special packages" on their site. The hotel was lovely and you could tell there are business men that stay there regularly. We had a suite (part of the package deal) on the 12th floor with a view of the Empire state bldg that was about 2 blocks away. Here's an image of our exact room: http://reserve.accommodationspecials.com/hotels/condos/11522-suite-3.jpg<BR><BR>Everyone was very nice and the restaurant in the hotel served a decent breakfast buffet. We didn't have dinner there though. The neighborhood is a little quieter at night but very close of other places to eat as well as subway stops. <BR><BR>My husband has been to NY many times, this is my 3rd trip and my son's first. He loves to walk big cities and we certainly did just that!<BR><BR>...cont'd<BR>

Day #1 - Rain....Since we landed around noon and got checked in our day was a little short, but we got in a few sites. First, was Grand Central Station. Always a lovely site. My husband especially loves the Grand Central Oyster bar on the lower level. On to the stunning NY public Library. If you go to the Rose reading room, which is the largest public reading room in the world (librarian told us) you will be amazed at the incredible ornate ceiling. It's a place where you can just sit and look around.<BR><BR>We walked to Times Square and my son found the 42nd St. Flea market...he's a shopper...We then strolled through the Rockefeller Center area (too bad the rink isn't open yet) and my husband bought me some killer shoes..subway back to the hotel and dinner at Bella Napoli by the hotel. The food was not that great.<BR><BR>Day #2 (Friday) rain off and on, kept umbrellas handy. We started the day by walking to the flatiron bldg then west to Gramercy Park. Such a beautiful neighborhood. We then took a cab to South St/Pier 16 because Fodor’s said you have to go there to get tickets to see ground zero – You do NOT--- Ground zero requires no tickets. More on that later.<BR><BR>..cont'd

...cont'd<BR><BR>From Pier 16, we headed up Wall St. passed the Federal Bldg and the giant statue of George Washington. (He took the oath of office in the Fed. Bldg) On through the financial district to the 300 yr. Old Trinity Church. A must see. Next stop was Ground Zero. I expect to be able to get to the viewing platform that I’d heard so much about but it’s not there. You can view the site from street level behind a fence. They, of course, keep you back pretty far and everyone is jockeying for position at the fence. I was a little disappointed in the fact that we couldn’t get a better perspective of the entire site but it didn’t diminish the fact of where you were and why. From Ground zero, we walked to Battery Park. In the park, they’ve placed the sculpture that was in front of the WTC…the gold sphere, with an eternal flame that was lit on 9/11/02. It was a very moving experience to see the mangled sculpture.<BR><BR>We boarded the ferry and visited Liberty & Ellis Island. This was a lot of fun. For some reason I expect the Statue of Liberty to be taller, but it was no less impressive. From there we took a subway to Chinatown where my son shopped for hours….made our way thru Little Italy, Soho and Greenwich Village. Whew! <BR><BR>...cont'd

...cont'd...<BR><BR>We had dinner in Greenwich Village at ONY (357 Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave.) W 4th St. & Washington Place) http://www.cheapotravel.com/ny/ny_re...l.php3?id=1123 I’d highly recommend this place for sushi and wonderful Asian noodle dishes where you can pick the broth, the thickness of the noodle and all the ingredients you want in it. Everything was so good.<BR>Subway home and crashed hard.<BR><BR>Day #3 was no less hectic but the weather finally cooperated.<BR>After breakfast we walked a couple of blocks to the Empire State Bldg. You can do this every visit and you never tire of the view. We took a cab to Central Park South. We spent an entire day (Saturday) in the park and it was glorious. If you have kids with you, they’ll love to climb on all rock outcroppings. We entered the park at the zoo and walked down the mall to the bandshell. There was an SPCA event going on so there were lots of people and dogs everywhere. <BR><BR>...cont'd

I hope you were here on Sat and Sun also, since those two days were bright and sunny and the Fifth Avenue Book Fair had Fifth Ave closed and a lot of people out enjoying the day.<BR>sounds like you did an excellent job of seeing NYC in a few days. Glad you liked it!

...cont'd...<BR>We then strolled to the Bethesda terrace which is a beautiful lake where you can rent rowboats at the boathouse or just sit on the lawn and watch people. On to the Conservatory Water which is a smaller pond where people sail their remote-control miniature sailboats. It was so fun to watch the kids. There's street musicians all over- wonderful to sit and listen. We left the park at Madison and 76th/77th to a grab some sandwiches for a picnic. Found a place called Serafina's where we got some great things for lunch-back to the park.<BR><BR>We walked to the turtle pond and sat under a huge tree and had a picnic lunch before going to the Met. After the Met we found the obelisk (cleopatra's needle). It's a huge obelisk with Egyptian writing that is over 2,000 years old. Incredible. We then walk thru the ramble which is a densely wooded area, pretty hilly with lots of trails and rocks to climb on and made our way to Strawberry fields/Imagine circle dedicated to John Lennon<BR><BR><BR>...cont'd

...cont'd<BR><BR>Regarding the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) – it is truly world class. You can spend several days in there if you want to see it all. Since we had a limited amount of time, we looked at the floorplan map and picked the areas that meant the most to us. For my husband and I it was the European paintings (beyond belief) and my son chose Egyptian art. It still took us about 2 ½ hours to that that much but worth every second.<BR><BR>We left the park, walking by the Dakota and caught a cab to Pier 83, one of the locations where you can board to take the Harbor Lights tour. The tour takes 2 hours and begins at 7pm. Going out, they swing wide and take you very close to Liberty Island where you can get some nice shots of the statue lit up at night. It also takes you under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Washington bridges then turns around. If you’ve never seen the city at night from that perspective, you should try it at least once. Take a jacket, it’s cool and windy on the water at night. The tour is also narrated off and on by the captain…which was pretty interesting (he sounded like Paul Harvey).<BR><BR>...cont'd

...cont'd<BR><BR>As you can imagine, we were exhausted by 9pm when we docked so we caught a cab back to the hotel where our son crashed, without dinner (he snacked on the boat). My husband and I went around the corner to Baluchi’s and ate some really good Indian food, very reasonably priced. It’s on 29th between Lexington and Park. <BR><BR>Day #4 – Our 10th anniversary. We took the subway to 59th St. then transferred to the C train that drops you off right at the Museum on Natural History. – One comment about the subway – It was much cleaner and felt safer that when I was there last in 1996. We had no problems at all. It a fun, cheap way to get around. Don’t be scared to use it and if we weren’t sure that we were reading the map right, we just asked someone who looked like they might know and we always got help.<BR><BR>...cont'd

...cont'd...(Last one!)<BR>The Museum of Natural History is a mind blower! Not just for the obvious T-Rex fossils and things like that, but it also houses the Rose Center for Earth and Space featuring the Hayden planetarium which alone is worth the price of admission. (http://www.amnh.org/rose/) They are showing something called “The search for life: Are we alone?” which is narrated by Harrison Ford. It’s a spectacular view of the Big Bang and takes you on a journey into other galaxies..I can’t do it justice..but go to the website and check it out. If you’re in town, kids or not, you won’t want to miss it.<BR><BR>To end our day, since we had to leave early for the airport, we took a cab back to Times Square to grab a slice of Ray’s pizza and do a little more shopping then walked to Bryant Park where there happened to be a cultural festival. This allowed us an opportunity to sit and people watch some more. We then walked back to the hotel where the bags were stored and off to the airport!<BR><BR><BR>

Sorry, I interrupted:)<BR>I am glad to see that you were here for a lovely weekend!<BR>You really saw a lot, a really good variety of what wonderful things there are here to see, I am impressed!<BR>I also like Baluchis.

I can't believe we missed the book fair...didn't know about it..we certainly would have bought something as we are avid readers. Now that I think about it, I would have lugged around books all day...not a fun thought. Oh well.

Sandi, what a great trip, you really planned well. Thanks for sharing!

My compliments. Sandi, on both an outstanding report and for carrying an excellent game plan. Further, Sandi's experience is a great example of how you don't have to spend a lot of money to enjoy yourself in NYC. Note that most of their activities were free or required minimum payments.

We did invest in the CityPass which is a booklet of discounted museum fees like the Harbor Lights tour, Mus. of natural History (not inclu Planetarium) and the Empire State Bldg. It also includes the Whitney, Intrepid air & space and MOMA which we didn't get to do. We would have stayed in budget better if my son didn't love Starbucks carmel frappacino..at almost $4 a pop!

Sandi, I enjoyed reading your very cool in-depth posts about your trip to NY. Glad you and your family had a great time.<BR><BR>

Sandi,<BR><BR>thanks for your awesome trip report. Your itinerary put my 3 trips to shame, but I fondly recall some of the same great experiences you had.<BR><BR>I miss the big apple!

Bravo Sandi, thanks for the report. I'm sure this will be great help to many visitors. You did a terrific job of both reporting and touring.Kudos to you.

ttt-excellent report. Thanks to Sandi

Sandi - you supplied us with every bit of this past weekend's info except when did you have time to move your bowels?

you know, I wasn't going to respond but now I feel I must...you are an idiot. Everyday people ask questions about what to see and do in NYC. I simply showed people that if you map things out, you can see and do a lot of things and maybe how to organize a trip. You obviously have no idea what this forum is all about. I've been posting on the US and Europe forum for over 2 years and most people post detailed trip reports. Now go back under your rock.