Tourists in Midtown Manhattan

Many years ago Wayne came home from a business trip to New York City declaring that it was his new favorite city and promising to take me there some day. (You can read a bit about his other trip promises here.) When we learned our family cruise was leaving from New York, we thought it would be a good idea to go the day before the ship sailed and sample a bit of the city. Although we're not going to count our visit there this month as the fulfillment of his promise, it was a wonderful prelude for a longer trip in the future. We're excited about the possibility of returning to explore more of the wonders of this great city.

After a wet cab ride - in itself a fun, unique experience - and leaving our luggage at the hotel, we started on our self-guided walking tour of midtown Manhattan. Imagine our surprise to see a "Visit the Palm Beaches" sign as we turned the first corner! Walking in the cold drizzle, we were wishing we were back in Florida!!

The Palm Beach clock tower is even prettier in person. See here and here.

I had looked at several different books and websites to create our own walking tour, starting and ending at our hotel. First up on the list of landmarks to see was Bryant Park. Apparently this is a great gathering place for mid-week lunches and summer evenings, but it was a bit deserted on a rainy spring Saturday. We enjoyed walking through it anyway.

One block away from the park, we came to the main branch of the New York Public Library. This was a great place to spend a rainy day, and we could have spent hours here, treating it more as a museum than a library. However, after quickly traipsing through the magnificent structure, we headed off to the next point of interest.

That would be Rockefeller Center. I was a bit disappointed in this building. It turned out to be just an ordinary, kind of stark and empty, shopping mall. Maybe if we purchased the $100 tickets to take the elevator to the roof, we would have felt differently, but maybe not. It was cool to see the famous skating rink, though. 

The plan was to find a place to have lunch at Rockefeller Center, but none of the restaurants we saw had indoor seating. People were sitting on the floors with their food! 

After snapping a photo of the famous Magnolia Bakery, we headed on our way looking for another option. We thought some New York pizza would be a good choice for lunch, and Radio City Pizza looked like a good place to stop, so we did. I don't have anything to compare it to, but they did make a scrumptious personal pizza, more than enough for two to share.

After filling our bellies and warming our toes, it was time to head to Central Park. On the way we passed Carnegie Hall and the New York Athletic Club, along with a bunch of other buildings.

We weren't tempted to enter any of the gift shops, but there were plenty of options!

I'd love to go back to really explore Central Park; it was my favorite spot on our little tour. We barely scratched the surface of it's many features, yet the little we saw was wonderful. I particularly loved the twisting, turning pathways that led to fun surprises.

No slides or swings at this playground, but it still looks like a lot of fun!

There was a bit of a drainage problem under this bridge; good thing it wasn't part of our route!

We entered the park at West Drive and 59th Street, and then exited it at Columbus Circle. You could spend quite a bit of time at this intersection of many roads, but we didn't.

We headed down Broadway (above) to reach Times Square (below).  

While someday I may want to watch an actual show on Broadway, I have no desire to return to Times Square itself. It was loud and noisy, both visually and audibly. I guess I prefer peace and quiet. However, I'm grateful to have had the experience, and also to realize that I didn't feel as claustrophobic with all the people and tall buildings as I thought I might. 

Have you ever seen a larger needle and button?

Apparently, the hotel we selected - Homewood Suites - is in the Garment District, but we didn't do any exploring in that section of the city. It was time to get warm and dry our feet. (If it hadn't been raining, we would have walked to the Empire State Building; that will have to wait for another visit.)

The view from our window.

The view from the rooftop terrace.

Once we were wam and dry, we were ready to take one more little walk to get our dinner. Just around the corner we found a "hole in the wall" Italian restaurant - Tavola - and decided that would be great place to try. Our salad and pasta dinners were simple and delicious, and their gelato was a surprisingly perfect ending to our memory-making day in New York City.