We had a short honeymoon in NYC, we stayed at an awesome B&B on E. 58th street on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. It's so close to everything, we just got metro passes for the subway and rode all over the place. Ground Zero, Coney Island, Washington Square Park, the Empire State building, NYU, it was awesome. I love NYC, the only way to see it is on foot. We met some cool people, all very nice. I know that there are places in the city where you don't want to go, but I think it's gotten a bad rap. We spent most of the ride to Coney Island (I wanted a Nathan's Famous hot dog) talking to an MTA employee about the city.
So, here are a bunch of pix, more to come later. These were all taken with my phone.
Note that I am testing the photo linking here, will add more photos once I get this sorted.
Ok, here's the lawn where we got married. My mom in the middle, wife's sister on the right, my stepson and the wedding cat. The cat just showed up while we were setting up and orbited around the whole time we were there.
This is the view from our terrace at the B&B. It's called the Ivy Terrace and it's well worth it. Parking costs were a gouge, but the garage was right next door.
My lovely bride, Sonya
The Plaza Hotel, just four blocks away from our B&B, as was Central Park, FAO Schwarz, the Apple Store, and tons of other stuff.
The entrance to the Apple store. This was awesome, there was only the top of the staircase and a clear, cylindrical elevator in the big glass cube, the whole store is underground. What was weird is that each morning there were about 1000 Chinese tourists just hanging out here.
Some tool in front of FAO Schwarz
Statue erected in Times Square to commemorate the 65th anniversary of VJ Day and the famous photograph.
Radio City Music Hall, this one didn't come out very well, it was getting dark.
Ground Zero. WTC7 is already completely rebuilt, but not much has been accomplished on the other two. The new building has about three stories completed and the memorial is going to be a fountain and will look great if they ever finish it. I have a few other pictures on my camera (don't have the data cable with me so I can't get the pix off) of the memorial plaques for the firefighters that died. What's amazing is that Engine Company 10 is RIGHT there and is still in operation. I simply can't imagine what a hellish experience it must have been to be there on that day. The place where the buildings stood is relatively small, it must have been a nightmare.
Me helping some fool sort his shit out.
This freak in Washington Square Park would act like a robot for a minute or so if you threw a dollar in his spittoon. He had spraypainted himself with copper-colored paint. There were a couple other nuts meandering around, including one that was quoting Shakespeare LOUDLY at people for money or smokes.
The view southward from the 86th floor of the Empire State building. Note the Flatiron building in the center, it and the Chrysler building are my favorite buildings in NYC. The thing that I loved about NYC in general and the top of the ESB in particular was the fact that there were SO MANY tourists from other countries there. It made me think that despite all of our government's idiocy and stupid, aggressive shit they've done to other nations, people still think that America is a great place and still want to come here to visit.
I think this was looking north, I was holding my phone out over the edge of the building and taking shots almost straight down. This made the wife VERY nervous, but it made for some great shots. I love the huge range of architecture styles in NYC, it's cool to spot the different ages of the buildings by their widths and heights.
Here's the rather phallic Nathan's Famous sign at Coney Island. That place has seen better days, it's pretty much a shithole now, but there's a lot of renovation going on. I got a couple shots of the Cyclone coaster, but they're on my camera. I would have loved to have seen the place back in its heyday when it was a really nice amusement park. What's great is that you ride the subway down, get off and bang, you're right there.
Found these bacon flavored jelly beans in this awesome three-story candy store right near the B&B. They were on a shelf right above the meatball chewing gum. They also had $16 jawbreakers the size of softballs and 32oz chocolate bars.
This was the Can't Say No sundae we had at Serendipity on E. 60th Street. There was a 40 minute wait to get into the place, but it was worth it. The sundae was a wedge of peanut butter pie with graham cracker crust, vanilla ice cream, bananas, hot fudge, and whipped cream. We couldn't finish it, it was too rich. This place also serves a $1000 sundae, it has a ton of gold on it, you have to order it 48 hours in advance, it's fucking ridiculous.
View of the Plaza Hotel from Central Park.
Doorman at FAO Schwarz, what an awesome toy store. I could have spent ten grand in that place, easy.
The giant piano floor in FAO Schwarz, I think this is the one that was used in the Tom Hanks movie Big.
That's it for now, I will post more when I get back to NC and get the rest of the pix. I wish we'd had more time in the city, but I only have so much vacation time and we have to get back to NC and move into our new apartment.
I figure I've been posting on this forum for so damn long you pricks are like a second family, and I wanted to share all this awesomeness with you.
Fags.
