First off, we decided not to drive directly to NYC since it is a difficult place to drive a car, let alone find any parking. We instead opted to drive to Albany and take the train into NYC from there. We figured that walking around and taking the subways would be the best way to experience the city, and I think we were right! (Thanks Megan and Karl for the tip!)
The Statue of Liberty is an iconic "New York City" statue in many movies, and that was the main reason why I needed to see it for myself. It was a pretty cool statue to see, however; it was a lot smaller than I expected. Since we were traveling on a budget, we opted to see the Statue of Liberty by taking the free ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island. The ferry is free because it is a ferry for commuters, but it passes right in front of the Statue of Liberty so it is a great way to see the statue without spending money.
Below we have a picture I took from the "High Line Board Walk". It was a super windy day when we walked up and down this refurbished railway track. The board walk offered a great view of New Jersey across the water, and if it had been a bit less windy, it would have been a nice place to stop and soak in the sun, or enjoy lunch.
As Katie pointed out time and again,
you can't go to NYC and not see a Broadway musical! I agree. We ended up going
to see one of the newer musical's, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
instead of one of the classics such as the Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, or
Chicago, which all play on repeat in their respective Broadway theaters. As a
winner of many Tony awards this year, it was not surprising that the show was
both fantastic and mind-blowing!
We went to see the 9/11 memorial, which was quite a powerful site. The fact that it was raining heavily while we visited the memorial seemed to add to the impression it left on us.
The MOMA: Though I don't have any pictures, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), home of Vincent van Gohg's "The Starry Night" painting, was a very cool museum to see. As I said before, New York is renowned for its art, and is deeply immersed in artistic culture which runs rampant everywhere in the city. From the graffiti art covering the sides of the buildings, to the countless theaters and museums, and to the paintings in every sub-terrain subway stop, art is everywhere in New York. The MOMA was full of interesting, and sometimes strange, modern art. I'll admit that I found some of the works to be a bit too "out there" for me to understand, but such is art, and I greatly enjoyed visiting this museum! If you end up going to see it, leave yourself plenty of time, it could easily take three to four hours to see it all.
While visiting Wall Street we ran into this little guy, "The Charging Bull", which was an impressive sculpture.
What better way to see Central Park than to run through it. No weekend is complete without a little bit of training, so we laced up our shoes and went for a convoluted lap of central park. We were not able to see it all, but the portion we did see was very nice!
Katie and Bronwyn huddled together to withstand the wind. This was the same day as the New York Marathon, which certainly altered our Central Park running loop.
Later that day we ran into Morgan Freeman, welcoming people into the wax museum... he was remarkably still considering how many people were taking pictures with him ;)
To quote Hedwig; "So...long story short.." that was our trip, I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures! Experiencing New York City was overwhelming at times with all the vehicle and pedestrian noise and traffic, but it was also a phenomenal city full of interesting sites and people. I will definitely have to go and visit it again sometime, maybe I'll see you there!
Andre M.
"OWL Rafting - The Mighty Ottawa River"