Day 2

I was awoken by the rich aroma of hazelnut and vanilla infused coffee, picked up from our local 711. What a perfect way to start the day. For breakfast Niki and I went to get a couple of bagels (what else when in new york!), a bacon one with jalapeno cream cheese (really good) and a sundried tomato one with sundried tomato cream cheese (really really good). Then, around half 8, the 3 of us headed down to Battery Park to see if we could catch a boat to see the great Lady Liberty.

From Battery park it was surprisingly easy to get our tickets and get onto a boat ($18 apiece for Liberty and Ellis island including an audio tour), although there were a couple of attempts to scam us $30 each along the way, but once we were on, the views of the Manhattan skyline were truly awesome. It was maybe a 10 minute ride to the statue, and we spent a good 40 minutes taking her in.

We found this awesome Japanese guy who saw me on the floor taking pictures (you know, to get the whole statue and Dad and Niki in, not because I’m crazy) and he asked if I could take his picture. Of course I did, and then he took our camera and took some of us, and he ended up almost lying down in the middle of the path! I love it when people genuinely want to and try to get a good picture of you.

After the statue the boat took us to Ellis Island before Manhattan, but we stayed on the boat because who wants to go to an immigration museum? Where are the dinosaurs? Exactly. So we went on to Manhattan, then walked up to Wall Street just because, then got on a train to Katz Deli, where Harry Met Sally! Sort of.

Now the avid film fans all go for the scene location, but we are here for the food, so we went for a Reuben on rye (Sauerkraut and provolone on top of pastrami). The Pastrami was truly excellent. Warm and tender and succulent. My mouth is watering. I think my exact words as I ate it were: “This is really…mmm…yeah” So good.

Then we headed to Rockefeller centre to get to the observation deck on the Top of the Rock, where we were told our time to go up was in 2 hours. “You can’t possibly walk to Central Park and back in time the ticket seller informed us…really?  10 blocks at 1 min per block – it was a stroll to the park…

I had read about this place called Luke’s Lobster and knew it was very close to Central Park in a Plaza of some kind. But we seemed to be surrounded by plazas, so we asked a man in Central Park if he had heard of Luke’s, and he told us that there was a food court in The Plaza Hotel, and we thought, bingo, that’ll do. Sure enough, Luke’s Lobster was there and WOW. The Lobster Roll we ordered was $15 dollars and worth every penny. A pan-fried buttery roll stuffed with lobster claws and tails, lightly dressed with something delicious. That was special. Best lobster roll I reckon I’ll eat. Yum. I’m having trouble forming coherent sentences.

After that mindblowing sandwich we took a walk through the park, listened to a man playing chill music under a bridge, saw loads of turtles (yes, turtles!) swimming in the pond. It was really lovely just sitting and relaxing. I like Central Park.  Dad wanted his picture taken on the bridge where the scene from Highlander was shot, so we did that to keep him happy.

Then it was time of the Top of the Rock, and honestly if we had been in New York for a year we couldn’t have picked a better day for it! The views were amazing, astounding, so so beautiful. Worth every penny. I could have stayed up there for hours.

Apres ca we took a leisurely walk to Times Square, stopping at a Five Guys on the way (good burger, better fries), and sat on the red steps in the square, just taking in the atmosphere watching this latino lady preparing mangoes…

Observations on Mango peeling

Remove the top of mango (near the wider part)

Stick a stout screwdriver through the top just off centre of the stone

Peel away form the top towards the pointy end with a potato peeler while rotating the mango using the screwdriver handle

Once peeled, cut the mango still holding it with a screw driver

The whole process should tale about a 1min per mango

Options:

Sprinkle dry salsa chilli powder mix, salt, and hot sauce and lime.

There is something special about Times Square, bustling, full of lights and people in costumes, some more child-friendly than others. We sat for a while waiting for our Restaurant reservation at Guy Fiyeri’s place.

We ordered a Steak, Nachos and Chicken wings, and the food was really good, better than I expected, especially the steak. Then we got a tumbler from the Hard Rock Café and took some night shots before heading home. We couldn’t help but get another slurpie from 711 (pina colada flavor yum) and some ice cream from  Baskin Robin before finally hitting the sack.

What a day.