New York City 2009

We left Wed. am at 9:30 on the train from Albany-Rensselaer and arrived at Penn station around 12:30. Took an interesting subway ride up to 7th ave. to get to our hotel...rooms not available until 4pm. We left our bags (for a $3.75/bag fee) at the hotel and headed out on the streets to site see. The Christmas Tree lighting at Rockefeller Center was that night and everything was very crowded (125,000 people came to see that alone)

We walked alot, saw lots of great sights. Had lunch at TGIF Fridays, headed up to Time Square to see the night life and all the lights. We didn't want to go to the tree lighting (good thing as it poured). We walked to Central Park and took the horsedrawn buggy ride. It was great! All the horses come from the Amish in Pennsylvania. We did more siteseeing then we went back to our room, got some great fresh pastries from the deli next door and laughed and visited til we were exhausted. (Molly and I roomed with Leanne and Carol at the Park Central hotel) It was really a great room...Brenda got it earlier in the summer thru Price line for next to nothing (after we split it by 4)

The next day we got up early, got coffee at Star buck's next door and had a great quick breakfast at a little restaurant across the road. We then decided to take a cab to the empire state building (instead of the subway or walking) It was definitely worth it. I think with a tip it was $10 or so. We arrived before any crowds and got right in. 2 elevators rides later we were at the top. Gorgeous day 60 degrees and sunny! Great views, definitely worth it. When we headed back down the lines and the crowds were outrageous. From there we headed to Madison square Garden to see the Cirque de Solei show. Also very good, we really enjoyed it. Lots of gymnastics and aerobatics to music. We left the show and Molly decided the taxi was the way to go to our next stop "The Body Museum" and offered to pay. We jumped in a cab and Carol visited with the driver and wanted to go to Chinatown first.....well he ended up letting us off at a very shady part of town...lots of big scary looking Black guys just mulling around and the driver told us to "hold onto our purses and don't talk to anyone" He then pulled away...Molly and I were very uncomfortable...Carol wanted us to "not look too much like tourists!" We scrambled into a bank (sort of safe) looked at the map and Carol felt we were only a few blocks from China town. She wanted to head out and walk. I was so proud of Molly! She said "no way! **** Chinatown" and saw a cab with it's light on approaching and popped out in the street and flagged it down. (Mind you there weren't many cabs around) She hopped in and I hopped in after her...Carol and Leanne wanted to keep walking) We gave the driver the address for the museum and were there in about 10 min's. The area was much nicer, cobblestone streets, down by the seaport. We had a great lunch at a little deli and met up with the other members of our group and headed into the museum. (Very interesting all real bodies with various parts dissected out, arteries, veins, nerves, skeletal system, fetal developement, various body parts with different diseases, cancer, strokes....

Carol and Leanne arrived while we were in the museum. From here we walked to Ground Zero, saw the planned memorial, then hopped on the subway to head back to the hotel. Mind you, it's now rush hour about 5:15. The subways were mobbed, our group got separated, and a couple of NYPD cops told us we weren't on the right line, we had to get off at Time Square and transfer. Meanwhile our friend were in the car ahead of us and of course cell phones don't work below ground. Luckily one of them turned around and caught Brenda's eye and she motioned to get off at 42nd street. We transferred, headed to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and hopped back on another subway to go back to Penn Station to catch our train home. (A cab would have been sooooo much easier) Anyway, we made it and were pretty exhausted by the time we got to Albany then another 2 hours home and in our beds by midnight! It was a great trip!