We have had wonderful weather. We haven't had a day that it was much over 80 degrees. In fact, its been cool enough at night that we've had to wear jackets, plus we've had no rain at all except for a little bit driving into Charleston WV on Sunday night.
Thursday was double decker tour bus day. We did the downtown from midtown down to the tip of Manhattan, the uptown from midtown to Harlem, and the night tour which took us across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn for a wonderful view of the skyline from across the East River. We saw some awesome sights that you hear about and see in movies and TV.
Our downtown tour started on 47th St and 8th Ave, which is literally 100 yards from Bill's front door. Family knows about our dear friend Bill McKinley that we met at WDW 26 years ago when Jean and I were dating. He's an man of many talents- singer, actor, (tv and movies). he does cabaret, bodywork and most recently is an ordained minister. He's always been very generous with his time when we visit NY and this time allowed us to stay in his apt. while he is in Indianapolis visiting his mother and attending his HS class reunion. This trip would not have been possible without his help and support. Anyway, highlights of our downtown loop was Times Square, Macy's, Madison Square Garden, Empire State Bldg, Ground Zero-World Trade Center site, Soho, Greenwich Village and the United Nation. The tour guides can make or break these tours and our 1st one on the downtown was very knowledgeable, born in Brooklyn, but we lost her when our bus was taken out of service. Our next tourguide was Asian-American, who spoke very broken English to the point that we couldn't understand half of what she said. Plus, she told us jokes that we think were more funny to herself than anyone on the bus. We tried to tape her just for laughs and I may try to get it on the blog, give us some feedback if you can make her out or not.
But we survived and we had lunch below Rockefeller Center and then got on the uptown loop bus. As in the song, Jean and Gail were our "Uptown Girls". Our tourguide, Steve, was from Brooklyn too and spent the entire trip soliciting tips for him and the driver when anyone hopped off at one of the stops. Not as much history on the trip except which famous person lived her or there. Highlights were seeing, Central Park, The Dakota Apt. where Oko Ono still lives and where John Lennon died, Grant's Tomb, Harlem, Guggenheim Museum as well as the Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is just so much to see in NYC that you would walk, ride and subway yourself to death just to try to see most of Manhattan, plus theres 4 other boroughs of the City to see too. I've yet to make it out to Coney Island, Queens, Bronx or being a baseball fan seeing a Yankee or Mets game, even though they both are in new stadiums. At the end, it was nice to bid Steve goodbye as we headed back to the apartment to pick up our jackets. We talked all day about the "dreaded" walk up of 3 flights of steep stairs to the 4th landing to get to Bill's apt. Once we head out for the day we try to not go back until we're calling it the night.
Anyway, we got our jackets and hopped on the R train subway at 47th and Broadway and rode it down to 34th and 6th Ave which is right there by the Empire State Building. Gail and Bob went up to the observation deck on the 86th floor, while Jean and I waiting on solid ground because we've "been there and done that" :) Gail said that Bob "chickened out" and wouldn't go anywhere near the edge to look down at the city. So, each of you have the right to call him a "wimp" the next time you see him. They were actually in and out of the ESB in less than an hour which is record time for summer high tourist season.
We caught the subway back up to 47th St to catch our night tour loop bus. Now the highlight of this tour is the photo op from Brooklyn. Our driver must have been Tony Stewart or something, because we literally "flew" through Times Square, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, Westside Highway, and the Battery Park area at the tip of the island to get across the bridge in record time. But it was a once in a lifetime photo op which I've put on the top of this posting.
We were famished after this long day and dreading the "walk up" that awaited us, we started looking for an italian place to eat. Carmines (family style servings) was packed with over an hour wait, so we walked around.. and where did we wind up..... Gail's most favorite... Yep you guessed it.. Olive Garden overlooking Times Square. We had a table by the window and had a nice dinner with wonderful views. With full bellies, we made it back to the apt and drug ourselves up the stairs into the safety of our 4th floor apt by 11pm.
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