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Saturday was our last day in New York City. We finally made it up to the top of the Empire State Building, did some more fun shopping in Times Square, took a bus tour, and went to an improv musical. It was a great way to round out the trip.
We ended up nixing our original Saturday schedule in the Bronx that included the Botanical Gardens and Yankee Stadium, so we were able to fit in the visit to the to the Empire State Building that we had to postpone the day before. While we were in line to go to the top, we weaved through a museum detailing the building process of the city's tallest sky scraper. There were a ton of photos that made my stomach drop of construction workers casually sitting on beams hoisted hundreds of feet in the air. Eek. Then we boarded the elevator and headed to the 86th floor observation deck with a few ear-pops along the way.
When we stepped outside, the view was breathtaking. It was a gorgeous day, and the bright blue sky served as a beautiful backdrop to the miles and miles of cityscape. I couldn't believe how far you could see. From this vantage point, I could totally understand why New York City is called a concrete jungle. Also, even though we were nearly 90 stories into the air, pigeons still flew to the top of the building. I guess when you're flying that high, you need a place to rest.
It was so windy that high up in the sky that it was difficult to get a good picture. And when you're asking a stranger to take it of the two of you, you don't want to ask for a second one where your hair isn't blowing in your face. We had a little bit more luck on other side of the building.
You could see as far away as the Statue of Liberty, very small, all the way at the bottom of the island, or you could look straight down and see the giant Macy's. Visible were ice skating rinks and pools on top of roofs and Central Park could be made out behind some buildings. (I did take pictures of all of those things, but I didn't include them all in this post. I know y'all don't care about that many pictures of the view...)
When we came back down to the ground, we went to Times Square for our fourth and final time. By Saturday, we considered this active area of the city to be our old stompin' grounds. We went into the Disney store just so I could marvel at the big castle inside. It was wonderful. I walked around with my mouth hanging open and touching everything. I can only assume that the real Walt Disney World is even better than this.
We had passed the Hershey's store earlier in the week, but we decided it was time to head on in. They had more chocolate than even Willy Wonka could want, including Hershey kisses as big as my head! I wanted about one of everything, but we settled on a few of the mini Reese's peanut butter cups.
One of my favorite things about NYC wasn't a tourist attraction at all, but all of the street/subway performers. These people were so legit! Their instruments ranged from some buckets to a few horns all the way up to a full band set up underground. It was crazy. Our most favorite performers, though, were these break dancers down in the Times Square subway station. They had a boom box playing some music, and these dudes were just dancing their rythmic hearts out! Brad actually took some video of them, because we were so impressed. I was in awe and could have watched them perform for hours.
New York City has been the setting for an numerous movies and TV shows, and we wanted to see some places in person that were familiar to us through the screen. The day before, we took a tour of Central Park, and this day, we took another one that was city-wide. We rode around in a bus that would show us footage from films and shows and then drive us by the locations pointing out what was shot there. It was a convenient, foot-friendly way to see around the city, too.
Speaking of TV shows, we had dinner at McGee's Pub, which is the bar that inspired the creators of How I Met Your Mother. But did you know that sitcom is only set in NYC and is actually filmed in Hollywood! I was mind-blown and horrified when they told us that!
The very last activity of our NYC vacation was an improv comedy musical, and it was hilarious! It was made up of 4 performers and a band. They took suggestions from the audience, and ended up doing a two hour show centering around Desperate Housewives of Colonial Times. I'm telling you, we laughed so hard. They would accidentally make a mistake or say the wrong word and then everybody else would have to run with it and keep it up through the whole show. And sometimes they would start to go a direction different than the band, and have to try to work the correction into the piece, and it was hilarious. It may sound kind of lame, but it was awesome. (I couldn't take any pictures of the show, but we did take one in the lobby in front of a few past posters.)
And with that, the week was over. As we were packing things up to go the next morning, we listened to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" and Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" as a final closing to the best week of our lives. (No joke.) Then we sadly hopped on the train to New Jersey where we picked up our car from Brad's coworker's house who had been keeping it for the week, and began the long, depressing drive back home.
Overall, our vacation was amazing. Collectively, it truly was the best time Bradley and I have ever had. We got to see and do so many wonderful things. We came into the week with a hefty schedule, and we accomplished everything that we wanted to and were at peace with the few tasks we removed from the list. Luckily, the hubs and I travel the same, and we both want to focus on the same stuff (big land marks) and ignore the same things (shopping). I'm so grateful that we had enough time to do all of the things that both of us wanted. Now that we got the major tourist attractions out of the way, our next trips can focus on lower key events, Broadway plays, and Shake Shack burgers. I already can't wait. :)
See what we did the rest of the week:
Day 1Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
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