Okay, I am starting to fade work-wise... so here was our "can we possibly see it all in one day" tour of Manhattan.
As mentioned, it rained the entire full day we were in the city... thanks to Tropical Storm Tammy. I had to laugh when I read my pre-vacation post that weather.com was saying that there would be a 60% chance of rain... it ended up being more like a 160% chance... the rain pretty much never stopped, it was just a matter of whether it was raining, pouring, or deluging... and throw in some heavy winds and it was certainly a challenging day to be out and about. But nevertheless here is what we saw...
Arrived at Penn Station at around 9:40am... headed outside where everyone was already popping up their umbrellas and we began walking north to our hotel just off of 6th Ave on 46th Street. Look to the right Madison Square Garden... off to the left Macy's... just down the street the Empire State Building (during our entire stay we never saw the needle).
Hit the sensory overload that is Times Square and head a half block down 46th Street to our hotel. They tell us our room will be ready in about an hour so we head back out... umbrellas in hand and up! We turn the corner and see Radio City Music Hall, head down the street and check out Rockerfeller Plaza, GE Building, and The Today Show studio. Head across the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral (the only place where our bags are asked to be opened/checked) and then up the street a bit to Trump Tower. Next, over to the Plaza Hotel on Central Park South... sad to see the grand hotel pretty sloppily messed up as it is under going renovations (to eventually be part hotel, but mostly condos). Back to the hotel around 11am... room is ready, we unload some baggage and then it is back out to the wet.
Catch a subway to downtown... head on over to Ground Zero. Having been back in NJ several times since 9/11, I still can not get used to the empty skyline. This is the first time I am back at the actual site since I was a kid. Walking down the street you already get a sense of foreboding... in a crowded city there is just never this much open real-estate and, despite that we all know what happened, the gap is still striking. While perhaps cliche to say, the area does in fact feel like sacred ground... and surprised by my own feelings... totally now understand the complexities of what should/should not go there.
Walk on down to Battery Park. Again, another 9/11 memorial with the damaged sphere that once stood in the plaza between the Towers. An eternal flame is lit and once again it is all suprisingly moving, even if pigeons seem to be more interested in trying to use it as a a dry space. This is in contrast to all the other activity in the park... tons of sidewalk "vendors" selling "Rolex" watches and "Gucci" purses... and throngs of people in tourist bus rain ponchos waiting to get tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Women (or perhaps men?!) are dressed as Lady Liberty with full green body make-up to take pictures with tourists... the torch in one hand, and comically an umbrella in the other. As we round the corner of the park, we use our umbrellas to combat the wind... holding it straight out in front of us like a warrior's shield.
Next stop, over to Trinity Church (another 9/11 memorial of a preserved tree trunk and roots that were ripped up that day) and stumbling onto the grave of Alexander Hamilton (much to the delight of my other half). Down the street to Federal Hall (where George Washington was sworn in as President) and then down Wall Street (a surprisingly narrow street even now that it is closed off to traffic) to the New York Stock Exchange.
Starting to get really soaked, we continue down to South Street Seaport and views of the Brooklyn Bridge... we use the overhead highway to give our arms a brief rest from holding up the umbrellas. Then it is off to find City Hall... or actually the City Hall subway station where we catch a ride up to Grand Central Station, which really is quite as stunning as the pictures I have seen. Out of the station we head off in the wrong direction (a surprising rare miscue on an otherwise "we didn't get lost" day), but quickly turn around... and catch site of the NYC Public Library (with the famous lions out front) and the Chrysler Building (we managed to seee the top of that... barely!)... our destination is UN Headquarters and we know we are getting close when we start hitting Itzak Rabin Way and Nelson & Winnie Mandela Corner... the rain is really bad at this point... folks are being tossed around in the wind and our umbrellas are once again defense mechanisms agains the wind and water.
We begin the long walk back to our hotel... the weather has really worn us down and it is not letting up any... we are completely drenched and I can hear my feet squishing in wet socks and sneakers. We get back to the hotel around 3:30p or so and try to find some dry clothing... and use the hair dryer and heater to do the rest.
With not much else to check off our list and just really knocked out by the rain/wind, we don't plan much for the evening... we catch a subway (the first subway experience where we are "packed in like sardines") to Columbus Circle and the Time-Warner Center. Just a lot of shopping there, but we enjoy going into the CNN store, though we don't purchase anything... we don't exactly need another coffee mug, even if it does say CNN (sorry Anderson!) on it. Head back down to 30 Rock and check out the NBC store (again, no purchases)... and then the long journey to find some place that is not crowded or over $30/entree for dinner... after way too much more rain and wet clothes and sneakers we stumble onto a casual and reasonable steakhouse/brewery type joint.. and are just happy to be seating and dry for about an hour or so. Headed back out for pumpkin spice lattes at the Times Square Starbucks... and battled thousands of folks with umbrellas plowing thru the streets (how I managed to not get my eye poked out, I do not know).
And that was it ... what a day! As the post title suggests, I whined way too much about the rain all day long... pleading with Mother Nature just to give us even a little break... but it was not to be... at least next time it HAS to be better... there is definitely still more to see and do... we just have to make sure we don't come during a snowstorm!
You know it has to be bad if I didn't even feel like taking pictures! No wonder we saw so much, in so little time. No worry, I did managed a few shots as we left on Sunday morning... I will post those when I have some time... but the rest will just have to stay in our memory banks!
