The Big Pear

I already titled a post The Big Apple so I used a relative of the apple for this post.  Today the target was the Empire State Building.   The rain was gone and the forecast was clear skies and sunny!  We walked down to the subway station, got our tickets (again, one at a time) and hopped on for a ride to 33rd street station.  For a Sunday morning I guess I was expecting the subway to not be very busy…I guessed wrong.

When we walked up out of the station we found ourselves in Greeley Square.  Steph spent most of her childhood growing up in Greeley Colorado which is the butt (I did that on purpose) of many jokes about cow manure stench.  I had no idea that Mr Greeley had also been famous in New York, but sure enough, he was!

We make our way to the ESB (Empire State Building) and the kids are excited because this is where Buddy the Elf’s dad, Walter Hobbs, works.  So they have to do a round in the revolving door like Buddy did.  We ride up the elevator to the 80th floor and get out to check out some of the views and displays.  Poor Brielle just wasn’t getting into the history and displays so her and I passed the time by making up games at the windows like “count the billboards” and “count the taxis.”  Then we went up to the balcony on the 86th floor.  The views were great and it was fun to get the birds eye view of the city.

Our hunger was calling so we sat down to have a picnic but security came over and told us we could not sit down up there as it was a fire hazard.  But it was ok to stand and eat.  Have you ever had a picnic standing up?  Standing up on the 86th floor of a building?  We have!

Next on the agenda was Times Square.  It’s a bit of a walk but we took a little rest at the public library which had a nice park like area with tables and chairs.  We walked further and eventually entered the craziness of Times Square.  I had it pictured bigger in my mind but it was still pretty epic.

The kids wanted to get some post cards and such so we found a gift shop for them to poke around in.  It had the normal tourist trinkets but they also had some unusual gifts with one such display rack right where the checkout line was.  Of course, it catches the kids’ attention and they start reading them out loud.  See if you can find the picture below that I’m talking about.

Steph and I get coffees and we just go out and sit to people watch.  This one guy dressed in a Elvis style leisure suit motions for Steph to get her picture taken with him and he gets a shot with the kids too.  “I work for tips” he says, not even in an Elvis voice.  Steph says she doesn’t have any money and he asks her to delete the pictures which she does.  Here is the tip I wanted to give him: make yourself a cardboard sign and just be honest about asking people for money…you don’t look anything like Elvis and you don’t sound like him…and moreover we did not even ask to have our picture taken with you, it was you who seemingly wanted a picture with us so its you who should be tipping.  If thats the worst thing that happens to us in NYC then we’ll consider ourselves pretty lucky.

Steph and the boys go to checkout Rockefeller Center while Brielle and I start back toward the subway station and take a break at Bryant Park where we wait for the other three to catch up.  We make the return trip on the subway with no issues and come home for dinner.  It is pretty cool to be able to take the subway to your very own house after a day in New York City!  Dacen wanted to see the city lit up at night.  So after it got dark we took a walk out to the boardwalk along the Hudson River to see Manhattan at night.  Wow!!  The sky line was nice looking during the day, but at night it looks really cool….I’d even say beautiful!

The temperature was perfect out and so we stayed for quite awhile enjoying the scene and watching time pass on the giant Colgate Clock.  I’m sure glad that Dacen wanted to see the city lit up.  I think that was the highlight of the day for me.