New York City is one of those places that you just have to visit when you get the chance. During my visit to Long Island, I was able to do exactly that.
It was a two day visit. Patty, Eileen and I went in on Saturday so we could catch a friend of mine, Steve Poltz, playing at the Rockville Music Hall in Soho. It was Eileen's birthday, so I figured I'd spring for tickets. Steve is always "on", and always puts on a great show. You just never know what's going to happen at a Poltz show (including a synthesized "Happy Birthday" song, written on the spot).
I knew Eileen and Patty would enjoy it.
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| With Steve Poltz in New York City... |
The "big day", though, would be Sunday. We decided we would go into full "tourist mode" and buy tickets to ride one of those double-decker buses that cruise around the city. It was actually a pretty fun way to spend the day, and the guide knew an awful lot of New York City trivia, considering he was from Lubbock, Texas.
The nice thing about these tours is that they're "hop on/hop off", so you're not captive on a bus that meanders through the city. See something that catches your eye? Well, you can get off and check it out. Bored with the tour guide's lack of a sense of humor? Get off and wait for the next bus.
We had a great time wandering around the city.
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| Radio City Music Hall... In black and white... |
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| Rockefeller Center... |
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| The Flatiron Building, built in 1902, in lower Manhattan... |
I should probably be more familiar with New York City that I am, so it was good that I didn't have to figure this out on my own. I can easily wander aimlessly through the city, but it's good to have some direction from time to time, too. And, if you're going to take the time to figure out a strategy for visiting the city, you might as well do it over lunch.
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| Lobster mac & cheese for lunch. Best mac & cheese ever... |
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| Times Square, as seen from the Broadway Lounge at the Marriott Marquis on 8th Avenue... |
Other than the World Trade Center, I've never really spent much time downtown. I had a hotel room in Chelsea once, but spent most of my time in the city uptown during that trip. Lower Manhattan is a very cool area to walk around, though, with no shortage of landmarks and funky little shops to enjoy.
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| An entire store dedicated to The Big Lebowski... |
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| I always wanted to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge. Check... |
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| Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village... |
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| Looking through Washington Square Arch up 5th Avenue... |
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| The Empire State Building from waaaaay downtown... |
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| Hey, if you want chicken... |
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| A cool little bookstore in Soho... |
The tour we bought also included a boat tour of lower Manhattan, which was very cool. I'd never seen New York City from the water before. It affords views that you simply won't get any other way.
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| This is the closest I've ever been to the Statue Of Liberty, so I figured I should take a picture... |
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| The Manhattan Bridge, on the Manhattan side... |
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| The Brooklyn Bridge, on the Brooklyn side... |
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| I love how the Empire State Building dwarfs everything else in this photo... |
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| From one of the "hop off" points on the boat tour... |
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| I like the way this one turned out. It didn't work in black & white, though... |
If you lived a hundred lifetimes, I'm pretty sure you would still fall short in having enough time to take in everything there is to see and do in New York City. It was, is and always shall be the greatest city in the world...
