Day 15 - Tuesday 23rd September 2014.

Our very last day.  We will be flying back in the early evening but need to get moving to Newark Airport in the afternoon.  Arriving back in Manchester about 7.30am Wednesday.

We have been through the normal breakfast routine.  I get up by 8am and the kids come down shortly after 9am.  We swipe a bagel each and cream cheese to make our lunch.  I always have a bage for breakfast too.  Not surprisingly I am starting to look like a bagel, certainly round but no hole in the middle.

We had a tour around Radio City Music Hall before leaving the city.  It was well worth it.  I hadn't appreciated how grand it was.  It's a beautiful Art Deco building in the Rockerfella Center.  Here are a couple of pictures..

...and lastly we had our last walk to Central Park and Coloumbus Circle on a beautiful day.

See you back home.

Day 14 - Monday 22nd September 2014.

The last full day.

We had covered most things we wanted to do but there were dome things still on our list!

First we went to the Chrysler Building.  You can't go up but we went to the foyer. 

Onward to Chinatown.  Everyone seemed to be Chinese and we were right next to Little Italy.

This was part of a Chinese market we walked through.  Some strange items were on display!

This was part of Little Italy.

This was the firestation used in Ghostbusters.  The sun was in the wrong place for a good photo and so was the fire engine.

A tiny bit of retail therapy was needed too.  A bit on the expensive side but worth a visit.

Bit of Art.

Day 13 - Sunday 21st September 2014

Our meal out with the Wood's at Ted's Montana Grill was good.  We mainly had buffalo burgers.  They were very tender and tasty.  The Wood's had a pre-paid City Pass ticket that included going up the Empire State Building at night so they went off to do that and we took a chance to get an early night.  Although we are now watching 'Gangs of New York' film.  It's a violent film of the early part of New Yorks gang history, I don't think it's based on any real truth!

The day was given up to getting to and from the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey to watch the New York Giants v Houston Texans American Football match.  The Wood's came with us too.  The tickets had been expensive (and we were in the cheap seats at the top) and they were a bit of a hassle getting them delivered to the hotel.  Never mind, it all worked out.

The stadium was massive, in held approximately 90,000.  This photo of John, Oliver and Daniel was taken at half time.  The final score was 30 - 17 in favour of the Giants.  It was a good game and I really enjoyed getting a full match commentary from the New Yorker that I was sitting next to.  He was brilliant at explaining all the rules and I converted him to be a Burnley soccer fan!

The trip back to New York was slow but we went out for an Italian meal and laughed at the over zealous refilling of our water glasses by a young waiter.  I think it was his sole purpose in life to refill our glasses if they were not completely full.  We were frightened to drink any more water otherwise we would have drowned!

We had a great Football experience which is what I have wanted for a long time.  Mission accomplished!

Day 12 - Saturday 20th September 2014

Had a great concert last night.  Rusted Root were great, the venue was really intimate and we sat at a table to 4 other people who were really friendly.  We had a dance during the concert and got a photo with the lead singer.  

Met up with Catherine and family again this morning at the Rockerfella Center.  We went up to the Top of the Rock, all 69 floors and enjoyed the views.  It's taken us this long to get to the top of a skyscraper.

We decided not to do the Empire State Building as it costs the same and the view is not so good (so I have been told).

Then back into Grand a Central a Terminal and had coffee and lunch.  Then up to Central Park again to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  When we got there there was a German Parade with floats and bands.  All in costume too.  It was a bit strange seeing lederhosen in New York.  Anyway, we managed to get in the museum again for 10 dollars each and enjoyed the Egyptian section and American and European painting sections.

This is inside the museum.  The building facade was the front of the Bank of America in Wall Street and was dismantled and brought here.

Outside of the museum.

Off out to Teds Grill tonight.  

Day 11 - Friday 19th September 2014.

A quieter day was planned. 

Set off to South Bronx on the metro to see the Yankee Stadium.  Home of the Yankees Baseball team. It was a nice tour of the stadium where we found out about Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Vernon 'Leftie' Gomez!  

This photo was taken in the players dugout.  We then walked south through Harlem which felt a bit different from the centre of the city.  No other tourists and we stood out.  John regularly gets approached by black men trying to sell stuff. They start the conversation by saying... 'Hey big guy, do you play basketball? Where do you come from?'.  If he replies they hook him into some sales pitch.  It was all done without any feeling of threat but there is a little bit of pressure being applied because two or three other guys appear.

We continued our walk through the northern part of Central Park. In areas we hadn't been to.

What Rebekah didn't know was that Catherine, Alan, Oliver and Daniel were also having a holiday in New York and had arrived this afternoon!  I was regularly texting Catherine telling her our position and arranging a meeting.  We met at Bethesda fountain in Central Park and Becka was completely surprised.

We all walked down to Times Square before splitting and going back to our hotel before going to a concert at BB Kings Blues Bar to see a band called Rusted Root.

Not such a quiet day after all!!!

Day 10 - Thursday 18th September 2014

We really enjoyed watching Phantom of the Opera last night. The theatre was very grand and the performance was powerful.  We came back to the hotel and concluded watching 'When Harry met Sally' film.

This morning is gorgeous and sunny again.  We west off walking up to Central Park.  It's very big and I keep loosing my bearings (that's different from loosing my marbles!).

We spent most of the afternoon in the Natural History Museum.  I had been told that you can ask for a reduced price ticket.  Normal ticket entry price starts at 22 dollars each but I managed to get in for 10 dollars each.  I know I must be a cheapskate but I justified it because Americans can go into our big museums for free!  Everything so expensive here it's nice to get something cheap.  The museum is vast and well displayed.  We mainly looked at stuffed animals and dinosaurs bones.

This was one of the displays, not the remains of John's last order of barbecue ribs!

Rebekah had contacted an American friend she had met in Manchester (a friend of a boy who was a flatmate when she was at Uni).  He was called Jonathan and he worked for a music management company in New York.  He is involved in managing bands like Walk the Moon, Ray LaMontagne and Passion Pit.  He suggested meeting up in a bar on East Side called Top Hops.  It was a nice bar with hundreds of different beers.  He was really friendly and interesting.  It was great to meet him.  He was going on to see a concert of some up and coming artist so he left and we went to eat.

We went to a diner called Katz that was nearby.  It just happened to be the place they filmed a famous 'yes, yes, yes' scene in When Harry met Sally!  I had my first burger and fries of the holiday.  Becka had the best ever hot pastrami sandwich I have ever tasted.  Not much sandwich and an awful lot of pastrami that was soooo.. tender.

Back to the hotel, very tired after another great day.