Statue of Liberty & all that jazz.
Wow, what an incredible day! This morning we met as the BYU group to go to the Statue of Liberty. Of course it took forever to get down there with the weekend subway schedules and the construction. There were about 12 of us traveling together, but 4 of us hadn't had a chance to grab anything for breakfast. So, we stopped at some little deli on the way and got separated from the rest of the group. We weren't too worried about it since we were just a few blocks away, we just ended up going straight south down the island instead of turning to go west, so we took the scenic route. It's a good thing we did though, because we ended up running into the Joseph Smith statue downtown, one of the things I really wanted to see while I was here. So, that was great.
Laurel, Chris, Sherilyn and I finally made it to Battery Park to catch the ferry and met up with Dr. Cressman, who gave us our tickets and then sent us to the front of the line since we were in a group. The was really nice, considering the fact that most people probably had to wait 2+ hours to get to the front, even at 8am! I LOVED the Statue of Liberty and took TONS of pictures...on the way there, on the island, in the statue, from the statue, leaving the island...lots! I wanted to catch up with Lyndsey & Brandon and the others that we had started with, but they were further through the process, so we didn't see them until later. I really enjoyed the staute though and was glad that it was compliments of the BYU program, because it would have been fairly pricey. The ferry first drops you off at the island and then goes to Ellis Island before taking you to Manhattan. I was between so many different groups of BYU students the entire day, that I think I ended up seeing every individual in the process of the day. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get off at Ellis Island because I had called my dad and found out that we didn't have anyone from our family go through there that he knew of.
It was hot, I was tired and hungry, so I decided not to get off, along with a few other BYU students. We got back to the island and Angie Wallace, Angela Fischer and I went to Little Italy to meet up with Lyndsey, Brandon, Meridth and her friend Cricket for lunch at this cute little restaurant called Da'Nico. We sat in the patio area out back and even though it was a steaming hot day, it was nice, cool and relaxing. The service was great! Their lunch menu came with bread appetizers, a meal with a pasta and salad, zappoles for dessert and was even a great deal! I ended up paying $12 something and that's only because my meal was a shrimp pasta. It was fabulous!! Afterwards, everyone split, but I ended up staying with Angie and looking around Chinatown. She needed to find some knockoff purses for her mom and sister and it isn't exactly the most safe place to go by yourself, so I went with her. I ended up getting this cute little pink Chinese outfit for Payton, but that's about it. Throughout all of Chinatown, there are people on the streets who will come up to you as Americans, and say "handbag?". If you're looking for knockoffs, that's when you follow. They'll take you to some obscure apartment somewhere that usually has no a/c and will show you all their purses. In one of the places, we passed their little "factory" where they were making the purses, too. In all honesty, I didn't really feel good about the situation and just kept thinking...wouldn't today be the perfect day for someone to break in and do a bust and find me there. Oh geez. I decided since I didn't feel good about it, I definitely wouldn't consider buying anything from those places. It was so hot outside and we were just longing for water and coolness.
After we went through Chinatown and Angie found what she was looking for, we headed to Rice to Riches, which is located at the corner of Spring and Mulberry, the northern part of little Italy, south of Houston Street (pronounce How-stun here). On our way we ended up being in an Italian parade, which was highly entertaining, although we didn't know what was going on until we got to the front of it. :o) Rice to Riches was great. It appears on a few movies and was given pretty good coverage in the movie Hitch where they even show the front of the store for a few seconds. It's a rice pudding place, and other than the one time I had rice pudding on the last day of school in Provo, I had never had it. But it was great! My favorite one was the chocolate chip. I sure hope that Pudding on the Rice in Provo has it! I also drank 2 entire water bottles just while we were there! It was a hot day.
Angie and I got onto the subway and she was meeting up with some friends at Central Park. I was going to go to Grand Central to catch the 7 and head back to the I-House. I think it was like 2pm and Lyndsey and Brandon wanted as many people to go to the Wicked lottery at 5:30pm to help them win tickets (since Brandon was in town and he had never seen it. I was tired though and had decided I would only help if I was still out and about. I got on the subway though and my plans changed...a young boy and his dad had a bag from the new Apple store that had opened. My dad asked me about it the other day when it had its grand opening, but I didn't know where it was at. So, I asked them where the store was and decided I would go for dad's sake and take a picture. Besides, I had heard that it was pretty cool -- a glass cube above ground, or something of the sort. So, I decided to go on up and check it out.
On my way to the Apple store, I found FAO Schwartz, the toy store. It was one of the places that I wanted to check out while I was in New York, so I was excited to check it out. I couldn’t believe the size, costs and quality of some of their products. The store was huge and everything was so nice! There was a seemingly life-size elephant and baby elephants for sale. I think the big one was $13,000 and the small ones were like $5,000. They were pretty cool though. That was just on the main floor. After that I went up the escalator to the second floor, where the real store is unveiled. Holy cow! I couldn’t believe the stuff up there. The first thing you see when you go up is the giant floor keyboard that Tom Hanks played on the movie BIG in 1988. You can buy a keyboard just like it, and only for $250,000. They also have a place where you can custom design a doll, find all the collector Barbies, even Tammy dolls, and even a nursery (with a nurse and all!!) set up with the dolls in the beds. I saw a life size Hagrid, Wookie and Darth Vader, each made COMPLETELY of Legos. There was also a 3-D movie ride inside the store, too, but I didn’t go on it because there was a little line. They had every game you can possibly imagine and every type of stuffed animal you could ever want. Not everything is super overpriced like the things I mentioned above, but of course those are the things that stick out the most.
It turns out that the Apple store was located right next to FAO Schwartz so I got to check it out, which was pretty cool. It really is just a glass cube above the store and the entire store is underground (see picture below). After that I just walked down 5th Avenue towards the Gershwin Theatre (where Wicked is) and checked it all out. I passed Tiffany & Co., the NBA Store, Trump Tower (but this is the one where they have the office they use on The Apprentice) and lots of other places. I stopped in the Disney store, which is 4 floors tall and filled with the coolest stuff. I couldn’t believe it. There were lots of life size Disney statues and products. There was even a huge tub of Mr. Potato Head products that you create your own. They had bodies and then various parts that you could pick and choose from, including a pair of Disney ears for hats and every type of outfit you can imagine. It was so cool!
I passed through Rockefeller Center and watched a man making a giant sandcastle on board. It was pretty cool! I stopped at Godiva and got a chocolate milk shake. I took a picture with NBC headquarters and Radio City Music Hall. I made my way over to the Gershwin Theatre and put my name in the Wicked lottery to attempt to win for Lyndsey and Brandon. There were about 10 BYU people there in total, but only 3 of us trying to get tickets for Lyndsey and Brandon (other than themselves). We weren’t really expecting to win since it was the Saturday of a holiday weekend (Memorial Day). About 7 names later…mine was drawn! I won the Wicked lottery!! I couldn’t even believe it! So crazy! Good thing I had already been. :o) After we got the tickets, we walked down to the Ed Sullivan Theater to take a picture in front of the David Letterman show and the Hello Deli. We walked over to Lindy’s to grab a bite to eat, but it was so stinkin expensive and I was so tired, that I decided I was just going to wait until I got home. They’re supposed to be famous for their cheesecake, but I wasn’t feelin it and I wasn’t super hungry anyway.
So, I just got water and then I decided to walk up to Columbus Circle to check it out. On my way I saw one of the three mini Statues of Liberty on Manhattan Island. I went to take a picture of it and instead, it looked like I was wearing the crown! It was a sign. That’s how much I love the Statue of Liberty! :o) I also saw Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Deli, and ran into the edge of Central Park, another on my MUST see list. Then, I walked over to 59th street to visit Columbus Circle where there was…surprise, surprise, ANOTHER Trump building. The Time Warner center is also there which is a kind of mall, but with no real stores in it…just a bunch of rich fancy ones. I went to the third floor to take a picture of Columbus Circle (it’s a huge roundabout with a tall pole and a statue of Columbus on top), but couldn’t get any good ones because of the lighting. On the third floor of the building though there was this Sony electronic game thing that you could touch and move things around and check out parts of the city. It was cool. It reminded me of something out of Mission Impossible…I think that’s the movie…but it’s definitely something with Tom Cruise in it. Anyway, that was neat. I went into Borders on the second floor and found some NYC maps that I picked up of the subway system, bus system and then the businesses on Manhattan. I think they’ll be really helpful.
As I was going down into the subway, Laurel called me. She was at the I-House and wanted to go to dinner since the I-House was closed. I forgot about that, so we decided to meet at the subway and I would still get off at 125th and she would meet me there and we would figure out what to do for dinner (since it’s the weekend, I expected to have to go all the way to 145th and then catch it down, but the construction was done so I just went straight to 125th). We decided to get off at 116 and walk around to find some food and then ended up walking down to Tom’s Restaurant at about 112th. The food wasn’t too bad and thankfully was still open since it was almost 10pm. The restaurant was used in Seinfeld where Jerry and friends hung out; in the show it was called Monk’s Restaurant. It was also used for something else, but I don’t remember what. After we ate we walked all the way back to 125th and just enjoyed the evening.
By the end of the day, I’m pretty sure I had walked several miles. It was a long, long day, but a great one! I saw everything I wanted to see and even had some fun surprises. It was great!!
Well, I’m exhausted. G’night.
-mk
-------
So I FINALLY posted some pictures from this day. I took more than 150 pictures over the course of the day (mostly of the Statue of Liberty) so that's why it has taken me forever. Obviously I can't publish all of them on here, so here are just a few things I enjoyed.
Laurel & I from Liberty Island with Manhattan in the back. I obviously thought something was pretty funny, I just don't know what.
Just below Lady Liberty.
Man, I love this lady! (And I have like 85 pictures to prove it!)
John and I on the ferry leaving Liberty Island.
Ellis Island
The globe that once stood between the World Trade Center towers. It now resides in Battery Park as a temporary memorial of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
Little Italy!
Angela & Angie at Da'Nico.
Chinatown. I didn't take this picture for this reason, but can someone please explain to me what the yellow sign means? "Amy, May, Hair, Nar"
I'm guessing the Amy from the yellow sign was referring to Amy DeMott because it was found on the same street as this sign. I'm sure what your name REALLY means is Amy of (de) Mott. It's all making sense now...
The Grand Marshall of the random Italian parade that Angie and I were in. We were walking down the street and soon realized we were behind a band. So, we thought the band was just walking through the streets. Soon, we saw pageant queens and parade banners. We finally walked our way to the front to see what was going on and found out that this guy was leading it all. I wonder who he is...
With a sign like that, who wouldn't buy some?
A lifesize Hagrid made completely of Legos at FAO Schwartz.
The new Apple store on 5th Avenue. The entire store is underground and this is all you see of it.
Radio City Music Hall, across from NBC, down the street from Rockefeller Center.
Lyndsey & I in front of the David Letterman show.
I guess I like her so much that I became her! I found this statue on the street and when I tried to take a picture of myself, I was wearing the crown instead of her!
On my little adventure I ran into Central Park.
The NBC Building at Rockefeller Center.
Carnegie Hall
Laurel, Chris, Sherilyn and I finally made it to Battery Park to catch the ferry and met up with Dr. Cressman, who gave us our tickets and then sent us to the front of the line since we were in a group. The was really nice, considering the fact that most people probably had to wait 2+ hours to get to the front, even at 8am! I LOVED the Statue of Liberty and took TONS of pictures...on the way there, on the island, in the statue, from the statue, leaving the island...lots! I wanted to catch up with Lyndsey & Brandon and the others that we had started with, but they were further through the process, so we didn't see them until later. I really enjoyed the staute though and was glad that it was compliments of the BYU program, because it would have been fairly pricey. The ferry first drops you off at the island and then goes to Ellis Island before taking you to Manhattan. I was between so many different groups of BYU students the entire day, that I think I ended up seeing every individual in the process of the day. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get off at Ellis Island because I had called my dad and found out that we didn't have anyone from our family go through there that he knew of.
It was hot, I was tired and hungry, so I decided not to get off, along with a few other BYU students. We got back to the island and Angie Wallace, Angela Fischer and I went to Little Italy to meet up with Lyndsey, Brandon, Meridth and her friend Cricket for lunch at this cute little restaurant called Da'Nico. We sat in the patio area out back and even though it was a steaming hot day, it was nice, cool and relaxing. The service was great! Their lunch menu came with bread appetizers, a meal with a pasta and salad, zappoles for dessert and was even a great deal! I ended up paying $12 something and that's only because my meal was a shrimp pasta. It was fabulous!! Afterwards, everyone split, but I ended up staying with Angie and looking around Chinatown. She needed to find some knockoff purses for her mom and sister and it isn't exactly the most safe place to go by yourself, so I went with her. I ended up getting this cute little pink Chinese outfit for Payton, but that's about it. Throughout all of Chinatown, there are people on the streets who will come up to you as Americans, and say "handbag?". If you're looking for knockoffs, that's when you follow. They'll take you to some obscure apartment somewhere that usually has no a/c and will show you all their purses. In one of the places, we passed their little "factory" where they were making the purses, too. In all honesty, I didn't really feel good about the situation and just kept thinking...wouldn't today be the perfect day for someone to break in and do a bust and find me there. Oh geez. I decided since I didn't feel good about it, I definitely wouldn't consider buying anything from those places. It was so hot outside and we were just longing for water and coolness.
After we went through Chinatown and Angie found what she was looking for, we headed to Rice to Riches, which is located at the corner of Spring and Mulberry, the northern part of little Italy, south of Houston Street (pronounce How-stun here). On our way we ended up being in an Italian parade, which was highly entertaining, although we didn't know what was going on until we got to the front of it. :o) Rice to Riches was great. It appears on a few movies and was given pretty good coverage in the movie Hitch where they even show the front of the store for a few seconds. It's a rice pudding place, and other than the one time I had rice pudding on the last day of school in Provo, I had never had it. But it was great! My favorite one was the chocolate chip. I sure hope that Pudding on the Rice in Provo has it! I also drank 2 entire water bottles just while we were there! It was a hot day.
Angie and I got onto the subway and she was meeting up with some friends at Central Park. I was going to go to Grand Central to catch the 7 and head back to the I-House. I think it was like 2pm and Lyndsey and Brandon wanted as many people to go to the Wicked lottery at 5:30pm to help them win tickets (since Brandon was in town and he had never seen it. I was tired though and had decided I would only help if I was still out and about. I got on the subway though and my plans changed...a young boy and his dad had a bag from the new Apple store that had opened. My dad asked me about it the other day when it had its grand opening, but I didn't know where it was at. So, I asked them where the store was and decided I would go for dad's sake and take a picture. Besides, I had heard that it was pretty cool -- a glass cube above ground, or something of the sort. So, I decided to go on up and check it out.
On my way to the Apple store, I found FAO Schwartz, the toy store. It was one of the places that I wanted to check out while I was in New York, so I was excited to check it out. I couldn’t believe the size, costs and quality of some of their products. The store was huge and everything was so nice! There was a seemingly life-size elephant and baby elephants for sale. I think the big one was $13,000 and the small ones were like $5,000. They were pretty cool though. That was just on the main floor. After that I went up the escalator to the second floor, where the real store is unveiled. Holy cow! I couldn’t believe the stuff up there. The first thing you see when you go up is the giant floor keyboard that Tom Hanks played on the movie BIG in 1988. You can buy a keyboard just like it, and only for $250,000. They also have a place where you can custom design a doll, find all the collector Barbies, even Tammy dolls, and even a nursery (with a nurse and all!!) set up with the dolls in the beds. I saw a life size Hagrid, Wookie and Darth Vader, each made COMPLETELY of Legos. There was also a 3-D movie ride inside the store, too, but I didn’t go on it because there was a little line. They had every game you can possibly imagine and every type of stuffed animal you could ever want. Not everything is super overpriced like the things I mentioned above, but of course those are the things that stick out the most.
It turns out that the Apple store was located right next to FAO Schwartz so I got to check it out, which was pretty cool. It really is just a glass cube above the store and the entire store is underground (see picture below). After that I just walked down 5th Avenue towards the Gershwin Theatre (where Wicked is) and checked it all out. I passed Tiffany & Co., the NBA Store, Trump Tower (but this is the one where they have the office they use on The Apprentice) and lots of other places. I stopped in the Disney store, which is 4 floors tall and filled with the coolest stuff. I couldn’t believe it. There were lots of life size Disney statues and products. There was even a huge tub of Mr. Potato Head products that you create your own. They had bodies and then various parts that you could pick and choose from, including a pair of Disney ears for hats and every type of outfit you can imagine. It was so cool!
I passed through Rockefeller Center and watched a man making a giant sandcastle on board. It was pretty cool! I stopped at Godiva and got a chocolate milk shake. I took a picture with NBC headquarters and Radio City Music Hall. I made my way over to the Gershwin Theatre and put my name in the Wicked lottery to attempt to win for Lyndsey and Brandon. There were about 10 BYU people there in total, but only 3 of us trying to get tickets for Lyndsey and Brandon (other than themselves). We weren’t really expecting to win since it was the Saturday of a holiday weekend (Memorial Day). About 7 names later…mine was drawn! I won the Wicked lottery!! I couldn’t even believe it! So crazy! Good thing I had already been. :o) After we got the tickets, we walked down to the Ed Sullivan Theater to take a picture in front of the David Letterman show and the Hello Deli. We walked over to Lindy’s to grab a bite to eat, but it was so stinkin expensive and I was so tired, that I decided I was just going to wait until I got home. They’re supposed to be famous for their cheesecake, but I wasn’t feelin it and I wasn’t super hungry anyway.
So, I just got water and then I decided to walk up to Columbus Circle to check it out. On my way I saw one of the three mini Statues of Liberty on Manhattan Island. I went to take a picture of it and instead, it looked like I was wearing the crown! It was a sign. That’s how much I love the Statue of Liberty! :o) I also saw Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Deli, and ran into the edge of Central Park, another on my MUST see list. Then, I walked over to 59th street to visit Columbus Circle where there was…surprise, surprise, ANOTHER Trump building. The Time Warner center is also there which is a kind of mall, but with no real stores in it…just a bunch of rich fancy ones. I went to the third floor to take a picture of Columbus Circle (it’s a huge roundabout with a tall pole and a statue of Columbus on top), but couldn’t get any good ones because of the lighting. On the third floor of the building though there was this Sony electronic game thing that you could touch and move things around and check out parts of the city. It was cool. It reminded me of something out of Mission Impossible…I think that’s the movie…but it’s definitely something with Tom Cruise in it. Anyway, that was neat. I went into Borders on the second floor and found some NYC maps that I picked up of the subway system, bus system and then the businesses on Manhattan. I think they’ll be really helpful.
As I was going down into the subway, Laurel called me. She was at the I-House and wanted to go to dinner since the I-House was closed. I forgot about that, so we decided to meet at the subway and I would still get off at 125th and she would meet me there and we would figure out what to do for dinner (since it’s the weekend, I expected to have to go all the way to 145th and then catch it down, but the construction was done so I just went straight to 125th). We decided to get off at 116 and walk around to find some food and then ended up walking down to Tom’s Restaurant at about 112th. The food wasn’t too bad and thankfully was still open since it was almost 10pm. The restaurant was used in Seinfeld where Jerry and friends hung out; in the show it was called Monk’s Restaurant. It was also used for something else, but I don’t remember what. After we ate we walked all the way back to 125th and just enjoyed the evening.
By the end of the day, I’m pretty sure I had walked several miles. It was a long, long day, but a great one! I saw everything I wanted to see and even had some fun surprises. It was great!!
Well, I’m exhausted. G’night.
-mk
-------
So I FINALLY posted some pictures from this day. I took more than 150 pictures over the course of the day (mostly of the Statue of Liberty) so that's why it has taken me forever. Obviously I can't publish all of them on here, so here are just a few things I enjoyed.
Laurel & I from Liberty Island with Manhattan in the back. I obviously thought something was pretty funny, I just don't know what.
Just below Lady Liberty.
Man, I love this lady! (And I have like 85 pictures to prove it!)
John and I on the ferry leaving Liberty Island.
Ellis Island
The globe that once stood between the World Trade Center towers. It now resides in Battery Park as a temporary memorial of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
Little Italy!
Angela & Angie at Da'Nico.
Chinatown. I didn't take this picture for this reason, but can someone please explain to me what the yellow sign means? "Amy, May, Hair, Nar"
I'm guessing the Amy from the yellow sign was referring to Amy DeMott because it was found on the same street as this sign. I'm sure what your name REALLY means is Amy of (de) Mott. It's all making sense now...
The Grand Marshall of the random Italian parade that Angie and I were in. We were walking down the street and soon realized we were behind a band. So, we thought the band was just walking through the streets. Soon, we saw pageant queens and parade banners. We finally walked our way to the front to see what was going on and found out that this guy was leading it all. I wonder who he is...
With a sign like that, who wouldn't buy some?
A lifesize Hagrid made completely of Legos at FAO Schwartz.
The new Apple store on 5th Avenue. The entire store is underground and this is all you see of it.
Radio City Music Hall, across from NBC, down the street from Rockefeller Center.
Lyndsey & I in front of the David Letterman show.
I guess I like her so much that I became her! I found this statue on the street and when I tried to take a picture of myself, I was wearing the crown instead of her!
On my little adventure I ran into Central Park.
The NBC Building at Rockefeller Center.
Carnegie Hall
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