Monday, October 6, 2014

New England Day 7: New York City - Midtown and Brooklyn

I really wanted to go see Aladdin on Broadway while we were in New York, but it doesn't run on Mondays, so we weren't able to. It did give us a chance to see a few things the day before that we'd missed. We went to Chinatown for lunch and got sidetracked with a little bit of shopping. I really felt like I was in a different country while we were there. The buildings were different, the people were different, the shopping was different. It was fun. 

We had some Chinese food for lunch, which was mostly good, but we were so hot that we had a hard time enjoying it fully. The restaurant itself was out-of-control. There was no real order for how people were being seated or served. We actually shared a table with some other people. And they would only give me water in a tiny glass that probably held 5-6 ounces at a time. What does a girl have to do to just get an entire pitcher of water? I mean, really.

Our next plan was to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was really hot and our feet were already tired so we opted for the subway. Best decision ever. I'd still like to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe someday when it's not the middle of July.

Government building in Civic Center.

Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan

There was this pool in Brooklyn that had a beach next to it, with real sand. It was crazy. But it was blazing hot, so more power to them. A little slice of heaven in the middle of the city.

We strolled around Brooklyn Heights, which is the cutest neighborhood. So many cities along the East Coast had these adorable row houses - I think I already put up pictures of them in D.C. I would love to live in a neighborhood like this.

We rode the subway back to Manhattan and got off at Lincoln Center, which I thought was right next to the LDS temple there, but when we got out, the map was saying it was farther away so we started walking. We decided to double-check on our phones, though, and pulled up Google maps and it was saying the temple was right where we were. We were so confused, then we looked up and it was literally right in front of our faces. It's so deceptive because from street-level, it looks like any other square building. But when you look up, you see Moroni and realize this is no ordinary building (There's symbolism there, huh? Look "up" to see the value of the temple...). All the buildings are so tall, that we rarely looked up to the see more than a story or two, and we had walked right by it! We were so grateful that we double-checked first, because it was hot and we were already tired (I think I've mentioned that before...) We didn't have time to go in, but it was fun to see a literal piece of heaven right there in the middle of a monster of a city.

We were tired and hot (oh wait, did I already mention that?) so we made our way to Central Park to rest and people watch for a little bit. It's crazy to me that a park this huge can be in the middle of a city this huge. It just doesn't look very big on a map, but goodness it's big. We were pretty disappointed at the lack of street vendors. I guess they only really come out on the weekends. Again, what is this? This is not the New York City I've heard about. I expect constant life all the time.


We found a Groupon for sushi so we hit that up for dinner. To be honest, it didn't even hold a candle to Happy Sumo, or even my next-best-thing in Indy.


We wrapped up the day at Times Square and Rockefeller Center. These things just look larger-than-life on TV and movies, but they really aren't that different from the rest of the city. It actually took us a minute to find Times Square. But there was an insane amount of people there.

Saks Fifth Avenue.

Rockefeller Center



Radio City Music Hall and Empire State Building

Times Square at night. Those utility bills....I can't even imagine.

We took the bus back to Jersey and Sister Van Wagenen graciously picked us up, since we'd taken the wrong bus and ended up a little bit farther away from their house than we'd originally planned. After visiting New York for the second time, I felt the same as I did after most of the places we visited on this trip - I could've spent a lot more time there. This part of the country has SO much to see!

No comments:

Post a Comment