NYC

Jean and I take a trip to New York City to celebrate my 40th birthday!

First, a few pictures of Peter's first attempt at solids!Kenny makes Peter laugh
First solids!Peter in his dragon outfit
Peter after a bathArriving in Newark Airport with Jean - the first thing I saw was a "ceral bar", where they sell cereal packs and milk. Interesting - but the mixes were made of mainly junk cereal.
In New York - we started out on Friday, taking the subway everywhere. It's not that easy to find your way around!Waiting for standby tickets for the Live with Regis and Kelly show.
Inside the show, finally. For details, see my blog
A tangle of lights up above
In Central Park. It turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day.
Back on the subway. My overall impression of the subway system - dirty, poorly run.
Jean with the Wall Street bullThis sculpture used to be between the World Trade Center towers. Now heavily damaged, it has been placed as a memorial at Battery Park.
What New York looked like in 1767On Ellis Island
Those immigrants that were detained on Ellis Island for whatever reason slept in these bunk beds. They were raised up every morning for more space.The whole Ellis Island facility was abandoned in the mid 1950's. This is the kind of stuff they found there.
The World Trade Center site. I wish I'd taken a picture of the proposed memorial fountain. It's not what I would have chosen - it looks like a set of twin graves.Bikes in New York were all locked up with this type of chain
The sink in our room was very efficient!The Empire State Building. It's an icon, and neither Jean and I had been up it before, so we had to go. But I have to say I thought it was a big tourist trap. There were very few people there because of the time of year. But the crowd control ropes were still set up AND they looped you all over the place on detours when you could have just gone straight to the elevator, going by photographers, people selling maps, people selling all kinds of stuff. Mail chutes
The view from the top. Looks like some kind of public housing
Looking downtownYou can catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty here.
The companies who have offices at the Empire State Building. I didn't see any big name companiesA market on Union Square
These guys had big bins of stuff they were selling, presumably illegally, on the street. There were packed up at the moment because police were nearby.The New York public library - looks like they're doing some work on it. It was interesting to see how they covered it only partially. Doesn't look all that bad.
Times SquareThis is our hotel room at the Pod Hotel. Tight, but well designed and adequate.
We went to see The Lion KingJean and I checked out Macy's on our last day. They actually still have wooden escelators.