Our first day in The Big Apple

We walked around the 80th floor for ages looking at all the buildings and getting our bearings. Then we took an elevator to the 86th floor where there was an open air viewing platform. The view from up there was even better. Then we took another elevator to the 102nd floor and the view from up there was even better! We could see for miles as it was a clear day.

One of the guides told me that they have an annual competition to see who can run up the stairs to the 80th floor the fastest. The record is just over 9 minutes!

Next we chose to go for a walk around that part of Manhattan. We visited a park which reminded us of Wellington and San Francisco. It was warm but not too hot. We took a taxi to the Flatiron Building which is at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue. It was the tallest building in the world when it was built -20 stories high.

We found a Lego shop (I think Poppy just quivers when she's near Lego) and spent a bit of time (and a lot of money) in there. Statue of Liberty in Lego anyone?

By now it was lunchtime so we found a place selling New York pizza and we all had a slice for lunch. Andrew took us to an Italian food market to see all the produce. It was amazing and smelled delicious.

On our way back to the car, we stopped to see Grand Central Station. It was such a beautiful building. We took lots of photos and had a go in the whispering gallery. It was quite busy although Andrew said it was dead quiet!

By now we were starting to fade (we had been awake nearly 40 hours) so Andrew brought us to the hotel in New Jersey where we are staying. We had a long nap and freshened up before going out for dinner.

Andrew took us for a drive around the neighbourhood to show us his old home and the houses. He said the houses range in value from $300K to $25Million! We quite liked the $25 million places and could happily live in those houses.

We went to a Buffalo Wings place for dinner. It was a large sports bar with heaps of tv screens around the room. The wings were delicious although they were a bit spicy.

It's now quite late and we need to get some sleep as we have a big day in town tomorrow.

I'm going to try and attach some photos

1 -Floor 80 of the Empire State
2 - Grand Central Station
3 - Empire State Building - ground floor
4 - Outside Grand Central StationRead more