Empire State Building and much more... 10-6-08

Vacation posts are back. Let me catch you up on one more day of our trip before I forget what happened!

When I left off, Micah and I were left with one more week before heading home. We had a list of places we wanted to see and no idea how to prioritize. Unfortunately, in a city like New York it is easy to get distracted when you don't have any direction. We got a late start on the day and then slowly made our way to the first stop - The Strand.

Let me tell you what I knew about this visit: "The Strand: 28 Miles of Books." 

Martin had a bumper sticker on his notebook and that is what it says. So, the Strand is a new & used bookstore - mostly used. From the moment you walk up the street all you see is books. Even the outside of the store is lined with carts of books from $0.25 to $1.00, and not just junky books you've never heard of. There were several classics, several typical high school reads, and even a few bestsellers (just not of recent years). Inside there are books from floor to ceiling on three separate floors. It was AMAZING (and not smelly like other used book stores)!! Micah and I each picked out a few books to purchase (some of which I had to put back) and I got a book bag too. FUN!

We were there longer than we planned, so we were starving. Conveniently, there was a nice cafe just a block or two up the road. On our way to find food, however, Micah and I discovered a movie theater. If you know us, y0u know we like movies. We even joke that our entire honeymoon was spent in various movie theaters (although there isn't much funny about that when its true). Needless to say, we ate lunch/dinner at the tasty cafe and then stopped and watched a movie.

Sidenote: Don't bother seeing Eagle Eye. If you've seen any major blockbusters in the last 5 years, you've already seen this one too.

After a few wasted hours we were anxious to do something a bit more touristy. We hopped on the subway to go to our second stop - The Empire State Building. On the way Micah witnessed his favorite site in the big city: street performers. More accurately, these were subway performers. Somehow four tap dancers, one drummer (with full drum set) and one pianist (with piano) made their way into the subway station. They were out there just sweatin' away working hard for their money. We so appreciate their talent and showed it with a nice tip. Hurray for subway performances!!

Finally we arrived at the Empire State Building. We went straight up to the Observatory. Security took a while, but the lines were short. Micah almost lost his Leatherman. Apparently multi-tools are not allowed in high-profile tourist locations. Luckily we were able to pick it up after sight-seeing. I'm not really sure what to say about this. We did the audio tour, which was fascinating. The sites were beautiful and we got a lot of good pictures (see below). I love New York.