Saturday Matt and I woke up around 9 and were headed to the Empire State bldg around 10.  I thought it would be pretty cool to go to the top.  As we were walking Matt decided it would be good to go by Grand Central Station on our way.  We walked a few more blocks before we finally arrived.  The inside was pretty cool.  The first thing you notice is the bright green ceiling and then the clock in the middle.  We walked down the stairs and started to wonder around.  It was really cool seeing all the train entrances.

We continued around until we got to the Market.  Matt wanted to check it out since it’s been on a few of the cooking competition shows.  I have to say I didn’t think it was extremely large but they seemed to have a pretty good selection of foods.

From Grand Central we made our way up Park Ave.  It was neat because at one spot there were brass/gold plaques in the sidewalk.  I took a couple of pics because I thought they were pretty neat.

Soon we could see the Empire State bldg in the skyline so we continue to walk that way.  A block or so from the Empire State Bldg I saw a really cool fossil and mineral store.  My dad loves stuff like this so I took a few pics just for him.

We entered the Empire State Bldg and started to make our way up.  Matt mentioned we picked a good time to come because when he went the lines were pretty long.  Thankfully it only took maybe 30 – 45 minutes to get to the top.  As you walk through they have pics and various things about the building.  My goal though, was to get to the top.  The first elevator we got in took us from floor 3 to floor 80 in about 5 mins.  It was super fast.  The next elevator that goes from floor 80 to floor 86 (where the observation deck is) had a 30 minute wait but the guide told us we could take the stairs if we wanted.  Of course a ton of people moved from the line and headed for the stairs, us included.  We got to floor 83 and the group started dragging.  I’m really glad I wasn’t the only one about to die.  Thankfully we made it to floor 86 alive. 🙂

We got to the observation deck and there was a girl who looked like she was going to pass out.  I overheard her say she hated heights.  HAHA!  I would say she probably never made it outside.  Anyway Matt and I headed for the door.  There were a ton of people gathered right there so Matt grabbed me and we kept moving.  As you went around the crowd thinned out so I grabbed a spot on the wall to take pics.  We made our way around and took pics of the city before heading back down.  But I am pretty sure we walked by a proposal.  Girl crying, kind of shaking.  It looked like a proposal to me.  Matt missed it. 🙂

By the time we were done both of us were starving.  Matt suggested we make our way back over to the Shake Shack.  We got to the park and the line appeared to be a tad shorter then the day before so we decided to wait it out.  Forty-five minutes later we finally ordered lunch, 2 shack burgers and 2 shakes.  It didn’t take too long to get our food and we found a little table to eat at.  Matt grabbed our burgers and much to our disappointment they were not really worth the wait.  Don’t get me wrong they were good but nothing spectacular.  The milk shakes were pretty good but again not really worth the wait.  Oh well.  At least we did it and now we know we won’t do it again. 😉

After lunch we headed down to the World Trade Center and Battery Park.  {Thankfully Matt said we could take the metro.}  It was awesome seeing the new towers go up.  We thought about going to see the Memorial but you needed an appointment and we didn’t feel like waiting.  They had the original site all blocked off so you couldn’t see in and the streets were also blocked so you couldn’t get too close.  I was very surprised to see cops with rifles standing on the corners.  Crazy.

We walked by Trinity Church, which was beautiful and then down Wall Street.  We didn’t see the Bull, Matt wasn’t sure where it was and well my feet really didn’t care, but we did see the stock exchange.  We stumbled across a cool little street where all the bars and restaurants had tables set up as we walked to Battery Park.

The first thing you see when you enter Battery Park is this weird structure of bamboo.  Inside the tepee structure was a garden.  Then we walked over to Castle Clinton.  I’m not really sure what exactly it was but I have pics if I want to find out. 😉  The tour boats were at the dock so we didn’t get a great view of the Statue of Liberty but you could see her out there.  I guess I never really thought about it but I kind of expected it would be taller or higher.  I’m sure it looks much more impressive if you actually go out there.

I should mention that as Matt and I were looking at the Freedom Tower from Battery Park, Matt thought it looked like King Kong at the top.  He thought maybe it was something “fun” they were doing since the tower is now the tallest in the city.  Thankfully my zoom lens revealed the real truth….it was the crane tower. 😉

As we were leaving there was a group of men playing some sort of traditional instruments.  Then as we were standing around waiting for Matt to find a bar, I found a four leaf clover!  HOLY COW!  As a kid I always tried to find them with no luck and here I am standing by some random fence in NYC and there it is.  I was tempted to try to convince Matt to jump over the rail when I noticed a little gate.  I opened the gate, picked my clover and we were on our way back to the cute street full of bars.  We stopped at the Dubliner for a drink before making our way back to the Hotel.

That night we went to a pizza place around the corner from our hotel called Pizzarte.  The food was amazing and they had some very interesting art on the walls.  I decided to ask the waiter who the artist was, Paolo Romano, and just how much the art went for, umm 4 grand.  That’s just a smidge out of my price range. 🙂  But I might have a new art project coming soon!

After dinner we walked over to Times Square.  Man was that place crazy so we just walked though.  I did manage to get some decent night pics but I think I will post all of the night pics in a separate post.

~K