Day 1 - We had so much fun!

Today, we landed around 10am and we boarded a van to take us to the hotel. This van driver was bent on freaking all of us out with his driving slillz...but we got there semi-safe and sound. Our hotel is nice. It's old but recently renovated. Kind of retro-chic. We immediately went to Times Square to take in the sights and sounds (and smells). We went by Planet Hollywood and looked around then walked around and took lots of pictured (see other blog entry for pics). We went to the Virgin Megastore and a giant Toys-R-Us that had a ferris wheel on it! We went back to the hotel and rested and then we to eat at Planet Hollywood for dinner. Then off to Spamalot! It was great! Very funny. After Spamalot we went to the Empire State Building. The line was very long, even at 11:30 at night. It tooks us about 2 hours to finally get to the 86th floor observatory. We took lots of pictures up there. That was it for Day 1. We crashed at the hotel after that.

Day 1 - Michael's left over dinner...

We ate at Planet Hollywood tonight before Spamalot! Food was OK, except Michael's "pizza". Here's what's left of it. Yuck!

Day 1 - The view from our room...

Day 1 - Times Square!

We got to the hotel, and our room wasn't ready, so we stashed our bags and hit the pavement. We walked down to Time Square. About 10 blocks away. <soapbox>One word about NYC blocks: the north-south blocks are short, and the east-west blocks are LONG! Very long. About 4 times longer than a north-south block. So, if you can walk only north-south, do it. Take a taxi east-west.</soapbox>

So here are some pictures of the sites we saw waiting for our room to get ready:

An honest to goodness Canadian Mounted Police. What was he doing in New York City? Must have taken a wrong turn.

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. We hope to visit there tomorrow.

He's just glad to be here, isn't he?

That is a big Joker!  Not Heath Ledger's Joker, which was better than Jack Nicholson's Joker, which was better than Cesar Romero's Joker, which was.....

Our hotel. The New Yorker. Great art-deco hotel. Well worth the price. As you can see it was near the subway, and it was near 35th St., and just down 34th St. from the Empire State Building.

A giant painted billboard on the side of a building. My boys from Mythbusters.

In front of MTV's TRL studios.

The real Death Star model (from Return of the Jedi) and a couple of X-wings and TIE Fighters (not to scale.) 

Tired already?!?!? We just got here. We had been up since 4am, but your guys are teenagers. You have unlimited energy, almost super-human. Here I am, a 45 year old gray-haired fat guy, and I out lasted them. Old Guys Rule!

 
As you can see, we saw quite a bit, and we just got here! There is so much to see and do!

Day 1 - Van ride to the hotel...

I had arranged a van ride to the hotel from the airport. Now I've ridden in a NYC taxi before, but never a communal van. They packed us in like sardines, and off we went, like a NASCAR dash to the finish! Now, we own a 15-passenger van, just like the one we rode in here, but I never knew a van this big could drive that fast, and make maneuvers like that. I also found out this kind of van can fit into spaces as small as a VW bug will fit. Must be a flux capacitor on-board. We got there in one piece, but a little frazzled. I'm sure we drove by some pretty cool sites, but they were all a blur.

Day 1 - We have arrived! New York beware!

Day 1 - On the plane!

Some cool pics from the air. Michael had the window seat, so he took the pics. Some are way cool!

Michael's first plane trip. "Look Ma, they have winders in this here aero-plane!"

Break out the binoculars. That's Lady Liberty.

Manhattan! Our destination. Can we get dropped off here?

Not quite the Skyway Bridge near our house, but it's a big one. I'm also not sure which bridge that is, but it's cool!

This is an aerial view of Flushing Meadows Park, where the 1964-65 World's Fair was held. Walt Disney was the builder/designer of the fair, and there's a good photo montage here that shows the fair in it's heyday. It's not in very good shape now. Some interesting facts about the 64-65 World's Fair: the Ford Mustang was debuted, the monorail used at the Disney theme parks unveiled, and a lot of the concepts for Disney's original EPCOT were experimented here. The globe in the background is called the Unisphere, and there's a 2 part video on YouTube here and here. Anyway, in the movie, Men In Black, these things were destroyed. They must have fixed them!

Financial District of Manhattan. We'll be there in a few days walking around (hopefully.)

Day 1 - At the airport!