The Millers take Manhattan, 2

Internet access wasn't included free of charge with our hotel room, and neither was coffee--but there was an umbrella.  Fortunately, Tuesday was bright and sunny and 80-something degrees, so we left the umbrella in the closet.


We went around the corner to a cheerful bakery and got an egg and gouda sandwich to go.  We took it to Central Park, a block from our hotel, and found a huge rock to sit on and picnic.

  

After we were fortified, it was a lovely day to walk in the park.  We headed toward the Central Park Zoo first.

Being used to the National Zoo, we're unaccustomed to actually paying for a zoo.  So we just walked through the open areas.

Sea lion!

We enjoyed walking in the park all morning.  

This is a Hans Christian Andersen statue, where they apparently have weekly storytimes.

Bethesda Fountain.

Angel of the Waters

Bow Bridge, overlooking the body of water appropriately named The Lake.
Also, there were signs posted:  "Algae blooms have been spotted in The Lake."  You think?

Entering The Ramble.

Famous landmarks and all, but everyone loves a furry squirrel picture.

We made it at last to Belvedere Castle, about a third of the way through the whole park.  

If you didn't know that there's a castle in Central Park, now you do.  It's where the official weather stats for New York City are taken.  Whether it was built as an Enlightenment-era defense against fuzzy squirrels, I am not sure.  But it has a great view.

We were curious about the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we were now relatively close to it, so we walked over on the off chance that it, unlike the zoo, was free of charge, like the Smithsonian museums.

No surprise, but it's not.

Although, technically, it's pay-what-you-will, so maybe you could get away with willing to pay $0.  The "suggested donation" is a bit higher though.

We contented ourselves with sitting on a bench and looking at this Pharaoh guy in the lobby.  Jason searched Yelp for a good place to eat while I mused on how I'd like to reread From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  

Jason did find a perfect deli a block or so away, and I got a slice of real New York pizza.  We sat outside the MMofA and put our feet up and ate and watched the world go by.

Like pigeons.  Pigeons were going by.  Also people.  And traffic.

We agreed we were tired from hiking Central Park all day.  Jason suggested we get a pass for one of the many double-decker tour buses going by, and just then letting a motor coach do all the work sounded great to me.

He bought the ticket online and we got on a bus right there.  We rode it about four stops to Times Square, where the tours begin and end.  From there we got on a new bus, all the way in the back, on top, the breeze in our hair, and settled in for the full tour of downtown while we rested our feet.

The tour guide was very entertaining and informative.  She called Times Square Crazytown, and so it is.

Nothing stays still.  All those signs are giant screens that change and blink and move constantly.

And the very first sight she pointed out was the Naked Cowboy.  

God bless New York.

Also, it's amazing to see how many people take their life in their hands by riding bikes in the street, right among cars whose drivers take red lights as more of a suggestion than a rule.

 

One of our first lessons was how to distinguish the Empire State Building from the similarly-styled Chrysler Building.  Below, the Empire State (and a church [which is probably famous, but I don't remember what it is now]).

We saw the Flat Iron building and went past Greenwich Village, where she rattled off a whole list of famous people who live there.  

We crossed over Houston Street (pronounced "HOW-ston") and learned that the super trendy neighborhood of Soho is so named because it's SOuth of HOuston Street.  Noho, is, of course, north of Houston Street.

There I also learned what a "walk-up" apartment is, which I've always wondered--despite even having googled it once.  

{A "walk-up" is an apartment in an old tenement-style building, which is never more than six stories high, because they were built before elevators were invented.  Thus, you have to "walk up" to your apartment via stairs.  Ohhhhhhhhhh.}

We entered the Financial District and went past Wall Street, which is practically a tiny alleyway.

We drove along the waterfront.  She pointed out the Staten Island Ferry, a free ride to and from Staten Island that runs 24 hours a day.  

View of Brooklyn

Below, the Gehry building, on the left, is supposed to evoke the folds in the robes of the Statue of Liberty.  In the center, with the spire, One World Trade Center.

And back to the home of the New York Times, which lends its name to Times Square.

AKA Crazytown.

In Times Square, nighttime is brighter than daytime.

Since a night tour was included with our ticket and also left from Times Square, we took the tour guide's advice and ate dinner at the Majestic Deli.  Jason said his sandwich was a little dry, but my spinach pie was nice and flaky and delicious.  We finished off with a $10 slice of real New York cheesecake each.

Afterwards we sat out on the street for as long as we could stand it, waiting for tour time.  Eventually I was overstimulated and agitated enough that we had to find a relatively quieter street corner.  Thankfully they let us on the bus a little early.  

And we were off again.  Empire State Building,

up over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn,

and back via Greenwich Village.

walk-ups!

From there we went ahead and walked the mile or so home, enjoying the city at night one more little bit before we went to bed and slept for ten straight hours.