You'll note that I went a little blog crazy here but that's only because we went totally NYC photo crazy when we were there putting our new camera to work! I think the most unbelievable part of this city is just that you cannot comprehend what it is like until you are there. There are huge buildings everywhere.
We drove into NYC Wednesday afternoon thinking that we were prepared for the driving thanks to all of the crazy Montreal drivers - ha! After a quick pit stops in the Bronx - for a cash machine to pay the bridge tolls (I turtled in the car while Steve made a very very quick stop into a very very sketchy corner mart) - we managed to navigate our way to Erin's place after which we immediately parked the car vowing not to drive again until we had to navigate our way out of the City on Sunday! We spent the first couple hours wandering Astoria which is where Erin lives and then caught up with her for the evening.
We got our first real glimpse of Manhatten Thursday morning when we followed Erin to her office which is located about two steps from Time Sqaure. After pointing us in the right direction, she went to work and we spent the first couple of hours just wandering around trying to get our bearings. We managed to hit a number of must see sights on Day One: Grand Central Station, Time Square, Central Park, the UN, Rockerfeller Centre, and the Empire State Building, to name a few.
While we woke up to the first major snowfall that Manhatten had this winter on Day Two it didn't slow us down and we spent the dayexploring lower Manhatten: specifically the World Trade Centre Site, the Stock Exchange, the Federal Hall, the Court House, City Hall and many more. We hit the Moma right before dinner thinking that we would be the only tourists taking advantage of its free admission and instead enjoyed the museum with us and our closest 10,000 other NYC tourists. That night we hit Tribeca with Erin for drinks and dinner.
On Day Three we took the Staten Island Ferry for a ride, hit a 7 story designer clothing store (well Erin and I did, Steve sat on the stairs taking pictures of the chaos and crying) and then wandered Soho for a couple of hours before wrapping up the night with a new music concernt and a Susan Sarandon sighting.
Sunday was a bit of a quite day as we spent the morning hanging in Astoria with Erin until we had worked up the courage to brave the traffic and head out of town. I never thought I would say this but driving home through the Montreal traffic seemed almost like driving in Spruce Grove!
As our sampling of pictures show, it was a great trip and so fun to catch up with Erin. Thanks for being such a host E-Ro, we love you.
