NYC-Day 1

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Wood for coming to visit us for Madison's baptism and staying for Sarah and Jeremy to leave for a few days and go visit New York City childless!  Day 1 started before five o'clock in the morning...had to maximize our time!  We were out the door before six, leaving an awake, slightly unhappy toddler.  D.C. traffic at that time in the morning is not as horrible as I'd envisioned.  Jeremy said, "Give it 20 minutes."  We caught a very nice bus that left downtown at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in NYC by 1:00 p.m.  No one on the bus asked anyone else if we were there yet, a good sign to the start of our trip...

We were dropped off at Penn Station and started walking to our hotel.  We quickly passed by Radio City Music Hall and through Rockefeller Center.  On the way, we also decided to have lunch at a sidewalk vendor (Sarah had a gyro and Jeremy had a cheesesteak):

Our hotel was located on the east side of Central Park, about 1/2 a block from the United Nations:

We checked in, dropped off our stuff, and headed back out.  We passed the Chrysler Building:

Just for fun, we went in to Grand Central Station:

And then, we went up the Empire State Building:

Here's standing on the 86th or something floor looking up to the NE corner of Manhattan.  The Chrysler Building is right in the center of the picture:

Here's standing on the north side of the Empire State Building.  Central Park is the "big" green area in the center of the buildings:

Here's standing on the south side of the Observation Deck, looking at south Manhattan, and then looking SW with the Statue of Liberty in the center, surrounded by water:

And, since we were soooo close, here's the Tower itself:

And lastly, of the Empire State Building, here's what it looks like if you were to look down:

Once done with that, we wandered around and found the Flat Iron Building and this absolutely wonderful large Italian "marketplace" with little "restaurants" in between the aisles and in certain food sections.  For example, at one back corner, behind the rows and rows of pasta and sauce was the "pasta and pizza" restaurant with a sitting bar area and about 10 tables.  Everything sold in the grocery section is either fresh, or an Italian company.  Needless to say, we couldn't leave without dessert.  Sarah had the "Diabella" and would happily make another trip up just to eat it again!