New York City - Saturday, July 11, 2009

On Saturday, July 11, 2009 we took a day trip to Manhattan with Carol and Dan. Carol is a long-time internet friend who I met on a discussion board that we both frequent and we've been e-mail friends for about 3 years. This was our first time meeting in person. Carol and Dan live in a suburb of Cleveland, so they took a long drive out to take this day trip with us.

As is always the case when we take trips to Manhattan, I spend a lot of time planning out the intinerary and all the transportation arrangements so that it's smooth sailing once we are there. Together we decided that the attractions we wanted to visit on this trip were Central Park, Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, the Circle Line boat tour, the World Trade Center site and end the day with dinner in Little Italy.

We caught the 8:36 a.m. NJ Transit train out of Hamilton, NJ and arrived at Penn Station in Manhattan at about 10:00 a.m. From there, we took the subway to 72nd Street at Central Park. We spent a couple hours walking around the park and talking, and stopping for some photos.

While walking around Central Park, we came across some musicians. This guy was playing a very interesting instrument. I forget what it is called, but from a distance it sounds like a harp, but up close it was some kind of drum and it sounded like a cross between a steel drum and a harp. Very cool!

And then we came across these guys, who were pretty entertaining too.

After Central Park, we headed to a local deli to grab some lunch. We were lucky to find a place that was reasonably priced (for NYC)....our sandwiches were about $6-$7 each. It was nice to sit down and take a break after so much walking.

After lunch, we got back on the subway and headed to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. This is something I have wanted to see for a long time so I was really excited about this. The wax museum turned out to be even better than expected. The rooms were set up in such a way that all the figures were standing randomly around the room, just as though they were real people mingling at a party, so we could walk right up to the figures and pose with them. We didn't realize ahead of time that they would be set up this way, or that we would be allowed to touch them. I imagined it would be set up like other museums where you can look but not touch. This was a very interactive experience and we had a blast taking lots of crazy photos.

What a fun time that wax museum was! The only disappointment is that I wanted to get a photo with the President Obama figure, but they had it set up with a pay photographer. I sat and had the photos taken while Phil stood in the background snapping a couple with our digital camera, but it turned out that he had technical issues and ended up not getting the photos. I wasn't about to pay $15 for the pay photos, so oh well, no Obama photos. (That figure looked AWESOME and just like him). Here's an interesting web site which explains how these wax figures are made.

After the museum, we were able to walk to the pier at 42nd Street to get The Circle Line boat tour. We decided to take the shortest tour...75 minutes, as we wanted to have plenty of time for all our other plans for the day.

It took us about 15 minutes to walk to the pier where we got onto the boat in the knick of time! At this point we were all very relieved to sit down and take a rest. Our feet were killing us!

The boat tour took us out into the Hudson River with the goal being to get a good view of the Statue of Liberty. We've seen her many times, but always the sight of her inspires wonder and pride.

That boat tour was a nice break and our feet were thanking us!

After the boat ride, it was back to the subway to lower Manhattan to check out the World Trade Center.

We didn't do any research ahead of time about the WTC site, so we were not sure what to expect or if we would be able to see anything, but we thought it would be interesting to stop by there to see where things stood with the redevelopment of the site.

We were not surprised to see that the entire area is blocked off and although development has started, from our perspective it didn't look as though much progress had been made.

It was odd to see that HUGE open space in the middle of so many buildings. It was very moving to remember the awful events of that day. The photo of the steel beam cross is actual wreckage from the site ("The World Trade Center Cross") that was found in the rubble. You can read more about it here.

At this point it was about 5:00 p.m. and we were all feeling pretty tired and very hungry. We had made a late dinner reservation at Pellegrino's in Little Italy, but we all agreed we were hungry and tired and ready for dinner. So we got back onto the subway and headed in the direction of Little Italy.

As always, Little Italy was a lively scene. Carol commented on how much more crowded and busy Manhattan is than Cleveland, which she says by comparison has a small town feel. This was interesting because from my perspective, things seemed a little slow in Manhattan compared to previous trips we've taken. I think the bad economy has definitely had an impact because it was easy to get around, easy to get seated at dinner - they had no trouble changing our reservation and the streets seemed easier to navigate than usual.

Pellegrino's is one of our favorite restaurants in Little Italy. We've tried others, but we always go back to Pellegrino's because the food is very good. As usual, Phil and me selected the same entree. This time it was pasta rustica which was a delicious homemade pasta dish with lots of mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and some other delicious stuff. I also got an appetizer of fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers and tomatoes that was to die for. For dessert it was this fantastic chocolate mousse fudge cake that was honestly the most delicious chocolate dessert I have ever eaten (and that says a lot because I am a chocolate fiend). Phil enjoyed some mocha gelato and Italian coffee. Carol and Dan each enjoyed chicken dishes and Carol got the same decadent chocolate dessert as me.

We had contemplated ending the evening by walking around Greenwich Village, but all of us agreed we were just too beat and ready to go home. So we headed back to Penn Station and caught the 9:01 train back to Hamilton. We were home back 11:00 p.m. We bid our friends goodbye (they were staying at the Days Inn in Cherry Hill and heading home the next morning) and in no time at all we collapsed into bed. A fantastic day!