Stateside, Part 1

I'm afraid I have fallen quite behind on the blogging, and it has now been one month since I updated my dear blog. However, to keep up appearances (and chronology), I am going to back-date these entries to when they actually happened. So there!

Part 1 of our US visit involved a whirlwind day in New York City, as I attempted to convince Elder that New York is a city worthy of our attention and affection - perhaps as much as his beloved Washington, D.C. which he fell in love with last year on his visits to me.

We were very fortunate to have perfect weather for our day, so we first set out to downtown Manhattan, where Elder grabbed the bull by the horns (or the eye and snout) and shoved away all the Japanese tourists grabbing its balls (yes, they were).

We then walked around Battery Park, saw a view of the Statue of Liberty, passed by all the people sweating away in the mile-long line to get on a tour boat, and ambled along for a tranquil walk in the tree-lined river promenade. Then back to catch a glimpse of Ground Zero (which you can't really see anymore because they're actually doing construction now) and Wall Street, and then up to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on foot!

Our reward for the sweltering, unshaded walk across the river was a big old sausage and mushroom pizza at Grimaldi's. Delicious! And well worth the wait outside which had me worrying whether we really had time for it.

We had to scram out of there to make our 4pm reservations for the observation deck at the Top of the Rock. Though it's a bit pricey ($21/person), I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I think it's a great sight for tourists, but I think it's particularly cool for someone who has lived in New York - to see the city you know from this perspective and recognize the spots. The view of Central Park is especially stunning.

After soaking in the view, we walked around midtown a bit, took an obligatory picture in front of the LOVE sculpture (and took lots more pictures of other starry-eyed couples. Seriously, it took us forever to get out of there, because new couples kept asking us to take their picture or video!).

Elder was excited to visit the Apple Store and test out the new iPad as I rested my weary legs on a store bench. And then we headed towards what ended up being Elder's favorite part of the day - Central Park!

We ended the day with a late dinner at La Bonne Soupe in midtown and then back to Uri's place to crash and ready ourselves for the long journey to Cape Cod the next day. Stay tuned for the next installment....