Top to the bottom

So our first destination of the morning was the Battery Park area.  My original intent was for us to just take Staten Island Ferry which gives you a pretty solid view of statue.  We prepaid  for the tickets (or so I thought) as part of a New York “Explorer” pass.  When we went to redeem our internet tickets for real ones I realized what we actually paid for was the tourist ferry out to statue island which was fine, I never did it before.

Getting on the ferry required an airport style security scan. The only difference was we got to keep our shoes on.  When we boarded the ferry it felt cold, despite the forecast highs in the 50’s.  As we chugged across the open water Cindy and I were both pretty frozen.

It was cool seeing the statue up close and personal.  We walked the perimeter of the island, taking pictures along the way.  We didn’t spend an extraordinary amount of time walking the island and were anxious to step into the gift shop for a few minutes to warm up.

We hopped back on the return ferry which also made a stop at Ellis Island.  I have to be honest, before today I thought the Statue of Liberty resided on Ellis Island.  Today I realized they are two different locations.  Cindy and I were content to skip the Ellis Island part of the trip and just stayed on the boat to get back to Battery Park.  On the last leg of the ride a nice asian family had their two young boys sitting next to us for most of the ride.  They were both very cute.  The 5 year old was talking to Cindy most of the way.

Once we got on solid ground we decided we would walk up to the 9/11 site.  We discovered an awesome bike/walking lane in the middle of the automotive traffic.  It made the walk up to the site very enjoyable, despite the cold wind that was still annoying us.

The 9/11 Memorial visit was a somber one.  Seeing the massive footprints where the Trade Center buildings once stood seemed a bit surreal.  I personally thought it was in poor taste to see people with selfie sticks happily snapping photos at the spot thousands of people died horrible deaths.  We decided to skip the 911 museum, the line was freaking ridiculous.

We ate lunch at a nearby small deli style place where Cindy and I both had a cup of soup and split a “gozlene”, some Turkish panini looking thing that was quite delicious.

We decided to go check out the incredible church, St John of the Divine.  I suspected Cindy would find it fascinating.  I was right. Even though I had been there once before I was happy to visit again.  The beauty, size and architecture in the church literally takes your breath away.  I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of skill, engineering, and patience involved in building the church.  It is just an amazing testament to what man can do when motivated by higher powers.  We spent a lot of time there, checking out every room we had access to.

Since we were close to the northwest corner of Central Park we decided to walk over there as well.  I had never been in the northern end of the park.

We walked around the park for close to an hour, getting out just as the sun was setting.  We located another subway entrance and mapped out a course to get us to the Times Square area.  The subway cars were ridiculously full, since it was around 5 I assume it was work commuters.  At one point we were shoulder to shoulder with people and had 5 different hands grabbing onto the same pole.  I don’t enjoy those type of situations.  i have no idea how a germaphobe would exist in a place like New York.  I am sure when the next pandemic breaks out NYC will go down very quickly.  The amount of cross contamination that goes on is off the charts.

When we got into the Times Square area it was a freaking mess with rivers of human beings flowing in both directions.  We walked it just long enough for Cindy to see the area where the ball drops and little else.  We ducked down a side street and ate at an Irish restaurant.  Both Cindy and I were hurting big time from the Stonepark workout marathon the day before.  We just wanted to get off our feet for awhile.  We both had fish and chips which were tasty.

We decided to make one last push for the day to see the Rockefeller Center tree.  Although I didn’t think it was possible there were even more people jammed into the streets in that direction.  Both Cindy and I were getting very frustrated and annoyed with dealing with so many people.  It just isn’t what we enjoy.  After a wrong turn we finally found our way to the tree.  My sense of direction in the city is awful since I have no bearing as to what is north or south.  I was using Google Maps on my phone and proceeded to kill the battery in the process from all the gps work.  I was pissed.

Finally we got to the tree and actually got much closer than I expected, within a few feet.  The tree was impressive as hell, looking too big to be real but it was.  We took a few pictures with Cindy’s phone.  Cindy also was excited to be able to stand right outside the Today Show studio and meander in the plaza the show shoots out of all the time.  We grabbed some hot apple cider and a delicious chocolate chip cookie that we split before we headed out.

Before we made the long walk back to the hotel we watched the awesome light show that takes place on the side of the Saks building.  It was worth fighting the crowds for.  The 15 block walk back to the hotel was not fun between the crowds and the overall body soreness we both were feeling.  Finally our hotel came into view.  It felt good to get back into our tiny room so we could unwind for yet another busy day tomorrow.

I hope my typical second day soreness doesn’t kick in like it normally does.  I could be hobbling around the city if it hits hard.