NYC cont'd...

SUNDAY JULY 10, 2011

Sunday morning we woke up in the apartment in Greenwich Village and got ready for our walking tour. We booked the I Heart NY tour with Celebrity Planet Tours, and arrived at The Pulitzer Fountain to meet our tour guide. Here's a photo re-cap of the sites we saw on the walk:

Plaza Hotel above, Pulitzer fountain below.

This summer they had these statues on display showcasing the Chinese zodiac symbols.
Another shot of the Plaza Hotel, reminded me of Home Alone 2!

Tiffany & CO--------Bergdorff Goodman

Trump Tower ---------- 30 Rock

Service was in progress at St. Patrick's Cathedral
The church is undergoing renovations right now, still so pretty!
We stopped to go in the lobby at the Waldorf Astoria, so so fancy! I wish we could have stayed here, it reminds me of the movie Serendipity, one of my faves!!!

Our tour guide made us check out the bathrooms while we were at the Waldorf, and we were glad we did! Possibly the fanciest bathroom I've ever been in my life!


Next we went to Grand Central Terminal...been here before but loved seeing it again!
Fun fact about Grand Central- any filming crews that want to shoot on location have to do it between some crazy hour like 1-3 in the morning. So, next time you see this place in a commercial, chances are it was filmed in the night and lit to look like daytime.

Later we walked by the New York Public Library, and wanted to go in to see the famous Reading Room. Sadly the library is closed on Sundays, so a picture outside was the best we could do. Maybe next trip!
Behind the NY Public Library sits Bryant Park, home of fashion week! It's gorgeous, and the weather that day made us see why so many people were camped out on the lawn with books!

Times Square was the last stop on our tour so we picked up a few souveniers and enjoyed all the lights and signs! Funny story- our tour guide was an aspiring actor (aren't they all?) and on the walk from Bryant Park to Times Square he started singing to us, bragging about how low he could sing. We laughed awkwardly, and he kept up the crooning all the way down the block!
After the walking tour we decided to head south to Battery Park and see if we could catch one of the afternoon ferry's over to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We hopped on the subway, grabbed a hot dog from a street vendor and headed towards the ferry lines. Turns out Sunday afternoon is SUPER busy, so we decided to put that off until another day. We walked a while to SoHo and visited the Shabby Chic store...one of my favorite places!!
I love how frilly and girly everything in this store is!
When checking in at Shabby Chic on facebook (we definitely abused the FB check in feature on this trip!) we noticed that Dash was just around the corner. I admit Keeping up with the Kardashians is my secret junk tv obsession, so we decided to go and see what their store was like. Turns out there's a line outside to get in, there's a bouncer at the door, and they didn't exactly like us taking pictures. Oh well!

Next we caught a cab and rode up to the Empire State Building to see the city from above!

When I went to NYC for the first time in high school we went to Empire State and before going to the observation deck decided to go on the Sky Ride. It was new at the time and is a simulated ride that makes you feel like you're in a helicopter flying through NYC. I told Jenni how fun it was when I went and that we should definitely do it. 20 nauseating minutes later I was sorry I did! Let's just say the technology hasn't improved and isn't as impressive as it was 10 years ago!

Anyway, here are the pictures from the top of Empire State...

After all that we headed back to NY Penn Station to catch the next train to Summit. Aunt Martha had a tasty dinner for us, and we had fun telling the family all about our day's events!

Monday coming soon...