New York - Day 2

This was our big sightseeing day, since we had nothing scheduled until dinnertime. We woke up pretty early were out of the room by 7:30. We ate breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts (a very New York thing to do, we thought), and found our way to Rockefeller Center. We saw the ice rink there and the entrance to NBC Studios. The Today show was being shot live there, and we saw Katie Couric, Matt Lower, and Al Roker when they were visiting the crowds outside.

Then it was on to the subway station. We had a lot of ground to cover today, so we figured that an all-day subway pass was the way to go. The subway system in New York is surprisingly intuitive and easy to use. There are stations near all of the important places we wanted to see, so that saved us a lot of time. First we stopped off at the Brooklyn Bridge. I suggested checking it out on a whim, but it's a good thing we decided to see it. There's actually a pedestrian path on the bridge, so we were able to go out on it and get some pretty good pictures of both the bridge and the city. New York City Hall is right next to the bridge. We tried to get in there to talk to Michael Bloomberg, but the security guard said that there was nothing to see in City Hall.

Wall Street was next. The station there is right next to Trinity Church, which is an impressive building. It was visited by the Queen of England once, a plaque said. Wall Street has the New York Stock Exchange building and one of the Trump towers, but not much for a tourist to really be excited about. They stopped giving tours of the NYSE after September 11. Our next mission was to find the Wall Street Bull. Weston really wanted a picture of him "grabbing the bull by the horns." It took a while to find, but we finally did. That was a good photo-op.

I was surprised that Battery Park was so close to Wall Street. Battery Park is located directly across the water from both Ellis Island and Liberty Island, which is where the Statue of Liberty is located. We had considered riding a boat around to both of those islands, but the line was almost a two hour wait. We were able to get some good pictures, at least.

Next stop was Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center Buildings. It's a strange thing to be walking around downtown New York City and to suddenly see a gaping hole in the skyline. I was impressed at how much work has already been done on the sight. Construction is moving forward. There is a sort of informal memorial off to the side, and I took some pictures.

When we got on the subway after that, we weren't exactly sure where we were going next or what we wanted to do. Weston and I were able to cover a lot of ground quickly today, and we had crossed off everything on our list by 12:30 or one o'clock. We ended up just jumping on the first train that came by. It ended up taking us underneath the East River and letting us off in Brooklyn. We weren't prepared for this and we didn't know exactly where we were, so we got lost in Brooklyn for about an hour. Finally, we got our bearings and decided to go to Coney Island. It was a long train ride, but it was worth it.

Coney Island seems like a place that's past its prime. I bet it was really exciting back in the '50s and '60s. Today, though, all of the amusement park rides were closed and the souvenir shops weren't high quality. The presence of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs made the jaunt worthwhile, though. Nathan's sponsors the world hot dog eating contest each year, and it was a treat to be able to try out their signature wieners. Coney Island also has a pretty cool beach. We walked around in the sand for a while and watched some high school kids trying to play football. They were very bad a football. I mean very bad. They couldn't punt, pass or kick of their lives depended upon it. My favorite attraction a Coney Island was a game called "Shoot the Freak." Apparently, the contestant shoots paintballs at live human targets as they run around in a maze. Too bad it wasn't open for business while we were there.

We still had a few hours before we had to meet up with the rest of our group, so we decided to cross the East River to get a look at the UN building from afar. We rode the subway and met a nice girl who attends City University in NYC. She talked with us for a while and gave us good directions. We got off the train and found a park with a great view. We stayed there for a while taking pictures and enjoying the amazingly nice weather. On our way back to the Marriott, we saw the famous Bryant Park. It's really nice, it has a big lawn and many small tables with chairs. It is located right next to the New York Public Library, and there were a lot of business people there taking a break from work.

For dinner we went to a Brazilian restaurant called Charrascuria Plataforma. It was so good! Probably the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to. To start off, we were seated and had a chance to meet our alumni hosts. Then we went through the salad bar, which had enough variety, quantity and quality for a whole meal itself. At this restaurant, when you're done with the salad bar you turn your drink coaster over from the red side to the green side. Then the waiters know to start bringing you the meat. They carry the meat around on these big huge skewers, and they come around and slice off pieces onto your plate. I must have had about twelve different kinds of meat on my plate at once, all cooked to perfection. When you couldn't eat anymore, you turned your coater back to the red side. I'm sure that this was a very expensive meal, probably upwards of $70 per person.

After filling ourselves to the brim, we decided that we needed some cheesecake for dessert. A subset of the group went to a place called Ben Ash with Bill Smith. We each ordered a different kind of cheesecake, and each one tasted great. Most people couldn't finish their dessert because dinner was so intense. I finished mine, but I was very, very full afterward.

The night was still young, so Weston and I decided to check out Chinatown and Little Italy. By the time we got there, most places were closed. It was still fun to walk around and explore, though. A lot of the cafes were still open, and we looked at their exquisite pastries and desserts. One place had a chocolate Easter Egg that was at least a foot long. After a bit of exploring, we went back to the hotel.