After saving up again for another 2 years, to be able to
travel back to the U.S, our early morning start to the airport was not without
it’s problems!
Firstly a flat car battery, so had to make a mercy call to a
good friend at 3am for a lift to the airport, followed by our 13 hours flight
time of the poor kid behind us throwing up the entire way across the Pacific to
Los Angeles. The 2nd flight across to New York the guy next to us decides to
pass out cold!
Anyhow moving on…….checked into our accommodation at our first
stop New York City about 11pm local time, thankful we arrived safely and slept
well!
Staying on Broadway, just 2 blocks from Central Park, on the
Upper West Side, we spent the day wondering around. Totally enjoying not having
to be anywhere in particular for work, appointments, school pick ups, sport
drop offs….just us and no pressure to run to schedule!
The weather here was not dissimilar to a Ballarat day of
about 8 degrees. Coats and scarves on and walked for about 7 hours around the
park. Beautiful lakes, ponds that freeze over, park lands, bridges, sports
grounds, playgrounds, Zoo and of course a skating rink. Not to mention the
gorgeous ‘Bouthouse’ restaurant! Took loads of photo’s and have popped them on
for you all to enjoy.
Day 2 – getting a bit colder now. Today saw us take on the
Empire State Building. Went up to the observation deck to take some great photo’s
over New York City. Then off to Madison Square Gardens for a tour. Home of the
New York Knicks (Basketball) and the New York Rangers (Ice Hockey). Seats approx.
20,000 people. To create the ice hockey rink they only have enough time to freeze
and melt the surface area once a year. When they have a concert or basketball
game straight after a hockey game they just place the court straight over the
top of the ice, taking only 3 hours to do so. Very interesting! At night we had
tickets to the New York Islanders Vs St Louis Blues ice hockey game over in
Brooklyn at the Barclay Centre.
Day 3 – Caffeine required! Grabbed our standard Dunkin’
Donuts coffee to start the day and off to catch our ‘Hop on hop off’ bus tour. 241
Starbucks coffee shops in New York but prefer the Dunkin’s coffee. However to
our Tour Guide’s credit he took us to a Pastry Shop that he said had the ‘best’
coffee in New York City. Yes – he was right. It was comparable to a ‘good’
Melbourne coffee back home. So am happy now we have somewhere to go on the
Upper West Side to have great coffee.
Covered the Harlem area this morning then back down to the
Rockerfella Centre to see the infamous Christmas tree! Yes very beautiful but I
was disappointed at how small the skate rink was, so chose not to skate here
like I’d wanted to. Took the Ferry out on the Hudson River to see the Statue of
Liberty and the amazing Manhattan Skyline.
Very, very cold today. -1 degrees
celcuis and I’d hate to think what the wind chill is. We have nearly all our
clothes on today, thermals, t.shirts, jumpers/sweaters, coats, hats, scarves (and
now gloves have been added to our collection)!!
It gets dark about 4.30 – 5pm
here, so headed to the Central Park Skate Rink to skate under lights on the
Trump Rink. Amazing time, just beautiful. Then walked from 57th
Street back to 101st Street to home.
Tomorrow see’s a day of shopping for the girls and a
baseball field tour of the New York Yankee’s Stadium for the boys.
