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Tonight was our big dinner cruise. We went for a ride on the Bateaux New York, a ship with all glass above deck, that also doubles as a floating nice restaurant. We cruised around Manhattan at sunset, and ate a very nice meal while at it. There was a wedding reception on board with us, as well as a large Spanish speaking party.

It's been a fun and exciting day so far. We started off today by going on a TV and Movie sites tour, where we got to see lots of places that have been used in television and film. It was a lot of fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting NYC. Check out the pictures for more on this. Afterward, we headed to 6th Avenue because we'd seen on TV that morning that it was closed between 50th and 55th Street for the shooting of Spiderman 3. We walked up to a small crowd and papers flying everywhere. It turned out that the front group of people were actually extras, which explained why they were wearing winter coats and suits in the 80 plus degree weather. This was apparently a shot from right after a fight sequence, as there was a cab with a table through its windshield. We saw Spiderman (probably the stunt double, not Tobey Maguire) talking to Gwen Stacy (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). It was pretty cool.

There are a lot of tourists in New York City right now. Times Square was packed. It's a pretty cool place though, definitely different from any place I've seen in the U.S. before. We went to Toys"R"Us, which was pretty incredible, including an indoor ferris wheel and a giant animatronic dinosaur. From there, we went up 8th to the Time Warner Center, but nothing fun was on display there. We then tried again to go to the Carnegie Deli for dinner. We got there and were seated immediately. When the waiter came to take our orders, I for some reason thought to make sure they took credit cards, as I was low on cash. Naturally, they didn't. So, we left the Carnegie Deli to seek an ATM and trekked down the 8 blocks or so to the Bank of America in Times Square, got some cash, and then returned to the Carnegie Deli. Finally, we got to eat. We had a hot pastrami sandwich, with a truffle cheesecake for dessert. Both were quite good. After a long day, we headed back to the hotel on the subway (and saw our first subway rat!).

We slept a little late today, so we basically lost the morning. But none the less, we're out and about again. We caught some lunch at a small deli near the hotel, and then headed out to spend much of the day checking out the shops on 5th Avenue and nearby. We started at H&M, but did not spend much time there. We then proceeded up 5th, past the Trump Tower, and stopped at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. It was mostly geared toward kids, but it was fun nonetheless. They at least had a giant Spiderman on the wall. We then proceeded up to the brand new Apple Store (make sure to look at the pictures of this, as it's quite cool). Then, we went on to F.A.O. Schwarz, where we got to play the giant piano from Big. Now, we're headed to Times Square.

After lunch, we headed to The Met. We're not big museum people, but we figured we had to go to at least one. We took the "Highlights" tour, which gives you a 1 hour overview of the museum. It was not bad, and I'm sure it would have been even better for those more interested in the subject matter. The more impressive thing to me was the architecture and sheer magnitude of the museum. It was amazing, including many many floors and rooms filled with artwork, a huge courtyard, and a room specially built to house an Egyptian temple that was brought over. After the tour, we headed to Central Park to check it out. We sat on a bench for a little while to rest, then walked from the midpoint to the southern end of the park. We didn't realize how big the park was, and so we've definitely had enough walking. We planned to walk down to the Carnegie Deli for dinner, but we didn't have enough time since our walk took so long. So, we got some hot dogs from a vendor in the park, then headed to the theater. The Producers was very funny though we couldn't tell the difference between the quality of this play on Broadway and the plays that hit local thaters such as the Hippodrome. I think we'll be sleeping in tomorrow.

We got to see a 360 degree panorama while at the Met in New York, which can be seen in this video.

It's lunch time, but we've already had a busy day. We started out by heading to the TKTS booth in lower Manhattan to get tickets to a show tonight. We got there about 10:00, and they didn't open till 11:00. We were about 30 people back in line, which was probably a few hundred people long by the time they opened. We got tickets to The Producers, about mid-way back in the Orchestra. It should be fun. We then headed down to Battery Park to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. When we got there, the line to the ferry was incredibly long (we were told 2.5 to 3 hour wait). So, we decided that we'd pass on going to the islands, and just take in the view on our harbor cruise we have planned for Sunday. We then headed up to the World Trade Center site. It was not the most exciting site, as it's basically a construction site now. We ducked into Century 21 which was crazy busy, so we didn't get anything. We then headed up to Broadway to Ellen's Stardust Diner, where the waitstaff are broadway hopefuls who sing to you. It was a lot of fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting. Now we're heading to The Met and then walking through Central Park.

We've seen a bit of New York now. We took the subway down to the Flatiron district, and saw the Flatiron building. We then headed back up by our hotel and got some New York pizza from Bella Napoli. It was excellent, and not very crowded. We then headed to the Empire State building, which was quite crowded (though I'm sure it will get worse in subsequent days). We had to wait a little while to go up to the observation deck, but eventually made it up and took some pictures. It was nice to see all the lights of the city.

We finally got here. Our cab driver in Baltimore was kind enough to use some aggressive driving to get us to the bus station in time to catch the bus to New York. We bought our tickets and waited a few minutes for the bus to arrive. When it did arrive, we went to board and were told that it was full. Thankfully, the bus driver asked the driver of the Carolina Trailways bus next to us if he had room to take us to New York. He agreed to take us, and we got on board. Unfortunately, it was his first time driving to New York, and he made a few wrong turns, but we eventually got here. We then bought our subway passes, and got on the right train going the wrong way. Fortunately, we realized our mistake quickly, and turned around. We're finally in our hotel, the Grand Union. Our room is small, but it's clean and has a mini-fridge. Unfortunately, it's too late for us to go get tickets for a show tonight, so we'll have to wait till tomorrow. Tonight, we're going to check out the Flatiron district as well as the Empire State Building, then get some sleep. It's been a long day already.

Well, we got dropped off at the Amtrak station with plenty of time. Unfortunately, we soon heard an announcement that the power was out to all trains up the northeast corridor. So, no trains were moving, and they didn't have any estimate of when this might be fixed. So we waited for a while, and we're now giving up and getting a refund. We're going to catch a cab and head to the Greyhound station to take a bus up. There's no telling when the trains will start running again, and when they do it'll be crazy with all the people waiting. So, this seems like a good alternative. Click here for a news article on this entry