Manhattan Meihem, Day 1

On the long weekend (Victoria weekend)I went to New York City with a group of teachers from my school. I was in the city 28 years ago for a day and I either went up the Empire State Building or the World Trade Centre. I would have to look at my pictures from back then to remember.

Some teachers went to New York City to shop while others of us wanted to tour. We left on Friday night at 9:15, travelled all night and went straight to Manhattan arriving at 9:00 on Saturday morning. I was tired after not being able to sleep well on the bus (who does?) but I spent the next twelve hours touring. We went straight to the Empire State Building since we were told that it will be hours of waiting if you don't get there early. I'm glad we did because as it was there was line after line after line and it was very crowded at the top. The views were wonderful.

Following the view from the top, Sheryl (a teacher friend) and I went on a three hour boat tour around the island. The guide was informative and witty and the views were incredible. Here is some of what I saw:

Yankee Stadium - just for you, Evie!

The Mayor's Residence

The Brooklyn Bridge

Sheryl and I then went to Times Square to eat and go on another tour - a two hour night tour. We sat up top on a double decker bus. I love the architecture of the city. Toronto needs to learn from New York and stop tearing down buildings or go back to some of the older architecture. Something interesting the tour guide said: for every New Yorker there are three rats. Just think of it, if there are 8 million New Yorkers, there are 24 million rats! Tasty, eh? One of the teachers saw a dead rat on the street and it was the size of a cat!

We went over the Brooklyn Bridge and stopped in Brooklyn for a view of Manhattan.

The Empire State Building at night. Apparently the colours change on it weekly. That night the colours were in honour of the New York Mets winning over the Yankees. Sorry Evie!

Following our tour we went into Maceys and took the escalator all the way to the top and back down again. Cool! Now I can say I have been there and done it!

Finally, at 9:30 pm, we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. I went right to bed since we would be up at 6:00 to get back downtown for another day of touring! Stay tuned for day two...