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06/22/2004: "NYC - June 19"
Well... we got to New York and are running on less than an hour of sleep! We both tried to sleep on the plane, but it didn't work very well: I was in the window seat (good, right?), but I froze the entire night. I even had two blankets, but it was still icy. Mike kept waking up whenever I would change positions, so I don't think he was able to get much sleep either. First we went to Brooklyn Heights Pronade...a gorgeous view. Then we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge...also a great view. Mike became the official photographer and took lots of great shots. There were a ton of cops on the bridge, so we immediately thought that there might be a terrorist threat, but we later discovered that Kerri Strugg would be carrying the Olympic Torch across later today. After that, we headed to the site of the World Trade Towers. In the area, we saw St. Paul's Cathedral, which was having a 9/11 exhibit. For anyone who watched the endless coverage on 9/11, this was the church that was closest to the disaster - it housed many of the rescue workers during the recovery process, and surprisingly it was barely damaged. Later on, we headed out to the Statue of Liberty. By then we were getting tired, sore, etc, etc, and it didn't help that we had been awake for more than 24 hours, so we ended up not getting off the ferry at the Statue of Liberty. Instead, we took our photos from the boat. After that, we headed over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, and then on to Times Square, where we went into the monster sized Toys R Us: We ate lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner, where the wait staff sings show tunes, and then we headed back to Brooklyn for a long awaited nap. Tonight we will be going to Fiddler on the Roof, and having dinner with Pete and Raffi.
One of the funniest things about New York are all of the freaks wandering around. We saw Spiderman, silver man, statue of liberty, Naked Cowboy, and many street musicians. There was even a singing family that we saw on two different subway rides - the father played the guitar and sang, and the kids joined in singing and playing tambourines. After their song was over, they of course made the rounds, hoping for money. I was surprised at how many people paid up! It appeared to me like you could make quite a living doing something like this! Another thing that we just can't get used to is the smell...it's stuffy and humid, and stinks of trash and exhaust - Mike thought it smelled like pee!
p.s. It is actually Tuesday as I type this - we haven't had internet until today. This is the only one we will be able to add, since there is someone waiting in line. Also we've taken a ton of pics, and will upload as soon as possible 
