After viewing the 360 degree NYC experience on the 86th floor observation deck, we went up to the 102nd floor! Even way up there, it still seemed less scary than the Hancock Building in Chicago last summer, I think because the bottom half of the wall wasn't glass like at Hancock. On our way back down, we picked up Ashley's tripod, as the ESB apparently feels the need to confiscate such things when you enter security. Fun fact - When built, the Empire State Building cost $9.20 per square foot.
Tamara Brown was awaiting our arrival when we descended to ground level! It was so great to see her and actually be able to chat and hang out, as the last three times I have seen her, one or both of us has been bridesmaiding it up. She took us to a great restaurant in Chinatown where they serve soup dumplings. You take the dumpling on your soup spoon, poke a hole in it with your chopstick, and suck the soup out before eating the dumpling. Odd, but delicious. Anyway, Chinatown smells awful, so we snapped some pictures of the cool fruits sold on the street and skedaddled out of there after lunch.
Elizabeth's friend suggested we go to High Line Park, and Tamara loves it so we hopped on the subway and headed (insert caorrect direction from Chinatown to HighLine Park here). I have never been as aware of how poor my geographical knowledge is until setting foot in this city. Anyway, back to the point. High Line Park was created where the trains used to run aboveground. There are fun benches, gardens, art installments, and yummy popsicle vendors. It is a unique experience to walk in a park OVER city streets. We all really enjoyed this part of the day!
Side note - car jails are unique to Manhattan (as far as we know) and befuddle the minds of suburbanites. There are rising platforms that have cars stacked 5 tall on top of other cars. This is too hard to explain and the picture is on my camera, not my phone. When I have the capability to, I will post a picture. Fascinating.
Final tourist event of the day - Yankee Stadium!!!! We saw the Yankees play the Braves, and of course, friends in Tennessee posting on Facebook walls in support of the Braves. We decided to go ahead and cheer for the Yankees since we have all heard the horror stories about the anger of the NY fans ;). There was a foul-mouthed, yet hilarious, New Yorker in front of Ashley, Tamara and I who had some great stories to share with the teenagers he was with. Just a little NY flavor. We ate the best nachos, classic Nathan's hotdogs, ice cream in plastic baseballs hats, and all in all enjoyed ourselves. The Braves ended up winning the game, which made for a lot of sad/angry Yankee fans. We then braved (yuk it up - I did it on purpose) the over-crowded subway back to the hotel. Somehow our timing was perfect and we all got seats on the train for the 30 minute ride home. Fun fact - There were 41,216 people in attendance at the game tonight! (It doesn't look like it because we got there very early, which is when I took this picture!)
We have another early morning tomorrow so we can get good tickets for whichever Broadway show we end up going to. Elizabeth is asleep and Carol is reading in the next bed over, while Ashley is sleeping with her elephant on her head next to me. Guess I should sign off and head to bed myself, especially since I am the one who likes sleep the most in the group. :)
Til we meet again,
~Ali
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