New York, New York

New York is such a wonderful town that they named it the same thing twice. This morning we had to get up super early to go into New York Harbor and see the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. Tom’s camera takes really good low light shots. I’m not sure how many came out but we took a bunch.

We were berthed alongside the Intrepid Museum and boy did they have a bunch of fascinating things outside – we only wish we had a chance to go inside but there was just no time. They had a Concorde and a Blackbird spy plane, fighter jets, a Growler submarine, a Vietnam era destroyer, some helicopters and sea planes all outside.

Then we went to breakfast and at 10 A we started our 7 hour tour. First of all we drove around various areas like Greenwich Village, Harlem, Soho (which is South of Houston – which they pronounce Howston not Hewston), Chelsea where they have an amazing market, South Street Seaport where we had lunch at Fulton Street and yes I am convinced that New York pizza is better than what we have in California, Battery Park, then we went to Ground Zero (I cried), Chinatown, Wall Street and we saw the Occupy Wall Street protestors, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, Flat Iron Building, drove around all of Central Park, Theater District, Hell’s Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, Central Library – looked just like Ghostbusters, Brooklyn Bridge, Bowery, Little Italy, Union Square, Time Square, Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building and Fifth Avenue. So you see we were driving all over the place. The sun was out today and it was warm so we got a little bus sick.

At the Rockefeller Center we went to the Top of the Rock and I clung to the building while Tom leaned out and took some photos. Then because we had time we went to Nintendo World and wonder of wonders they were having a launch party for Pokemon Rumble Blast for the 3DS. Man I LOVE that store. They have an upstairs where they have all kinds of t-shirts and game related items like Link related Nintendo stuff and Mario Brothers, and Animal Crossing, and downstairs was ALL Pokemon. I bought the new game and they gave us a TON of free stuff – I didn’t get a t-shirt because we didn’t have time to do the scavenger hunt unfortunately but I got a back pack and a coloring sheet and a lenticular and some AR cards (which downloads characters to your game) and pins and a folio of art from the Black and White Pokemon games. And I got a super cool bag to carry it all in. When we got back to the bus the man sitting across from us said oh for your grandkids and I said, slightly sheepishly, no for me. He LAUGHED at me. Don’t care. I’m still all elated about it.

So we got back at the last minute and rushed onto the ship but we were too late for trivia and they lost without us. I’m afraid to tell them that we have a galley tour tomorrow during trivia. EEK.

Tomorrow is another sea day – then on to Charleston, North Carolina. Hopefully it will be warmer.