Sunday we started our day off by having brunch at a classic New York diner “Astro Restaurant” at 55nd street and 6th avenue. Typical diner food, they serve large potions and they have grits! Afterwards we headed down to 44th street and Madison avenue where we did some shopping at Coach (ooo la la a new purse!). From there we walked over to see the New York Public Library at 5th avenue and 42nd street. They have free 1-hour tours everyday at 11am and 2pm but unfortunately we didn’t have time for it.
After getting some beautiful shots of the building we continued down 5th avenue until we reached the Empire State building. After being bombarded by ticket sales people out front we ended up purchasing tickets to the observation deck of the Empire State building and a water cruise along the harbor of Lower Manhattan (luckily we were planning on see the Empire State originally!) for $39.
From the Empire State building we saw amazing views of the city, particularly lower Manhattan.
After touring around the crowded observation deck we headed back down to the street level and over the Macy’s Department store. Macy’s reminded me of a big “The Bay” store. Not super pricey like Bloomingdales (Louis Vuitton or Chanel) but pricey enough to have big brand names like Tommy Hilfiger or Guess.
From Macy’s we headed down to Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station,
After she eing these buildings we took the subway over to Broadway and 23rd street to see the well-known Flatiron Building.
It was late afternoon and by this time we needed to head over to the Hudson River to catch our boat cruise. Our cruise was with Greyline tours and departed from the pier right at West 42nd street and Twelfth avenue which ended up being almost right beside where the USS Intrepid is docked.
Our boat tour was about 90-min and took us down the Hudson River, around Lower Manhattan and up the East River. We were able to see Lower Manhattan, New Jersey, Brooklyn and the three long spanning bridges across the river (Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge).
En route back to port the tour boat took us over to get some great shots of the Statue of Liberty.
When we were just about to return to the dock the tour guide informed us that the plane that was set down in the Hudson River in 2009 landed in the exact spot where we were that moment just across from the tour company’s building.
After we finished the tour we began a very long walk along the water toward Lower Manhattan (59 blocks, yikes!). We walked by pier 54, this is where the White Star Line building was once located and where the Titanic survivors got off the Carpathia.
The water front was busy with bikers, runners and other walkers but we were able to find some quite spots to take in the views.
By the time we reached Battery park our feet were ready to fall off! We grabbed the Subway from there over to Brooklyn where I randomly ran into someone I knew from Ottawa (how does that happen?) and we grabbed some delicious pizza!! One of the most popular pizza joints in New York, Grimaldi’s is known for its yummy coal brick-oven pizza!
carpe diem = travel 
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