Home sweet home

Landed back on Friday morning after a flight that was delayed by two and a half hours, and contained two screaming babies.  Not fun. 

Just about over the jet lag and, big surprise, already thinking about next year.  Haven’t quite decided yet, but we’re thinking of Boston or Canada.  Boston is edging ahead, based on flights and baggage allowance, but watch this space.

Most holiday pics are now up in the picasa album here.  I might have a few of Chris’s to add, but that’s most of them.

Back to reality tomorrow!

Almost home

An early post for anyone checking in the evening. For those of you checking at work in the morning, we'll be back on British soil by the time you read this.

Had one last look round FAO Schwartz this morning - I so love the Tonner dolls, but there's no easy way to get them home and our cases are already bursting at the seams. Lunch at Lindys, then headed to JFK. After last year, when it was packed, we left plenty of time, but we got here and it was so quiet! We were through security in no time.

We're now sat in a rainy JFK departures lounge waiting to fly.

See you all when we get home!

Last Day

Most of today was spent packing, discovering we'd bought more than we realised, and finishing last minute odds and ends. Wandered down 8th Ave for a late lunch before heading to Coney for the baseball. Let's just say the Cyclones are having a bas season, and leave it at that...

Little bit of excitement of sorts on the subway home when the train came to a complete halt most of the way out the station. There's something spooky about being in a subway carriage without the noise of the engines. We had to walk through the train - all those doors between carriages that you're told not to use - to get to the platform for another train. We're still trying to find out if the official line about equipment failure is true, rather that the muttered rumours that they were checking under the train for a body. We may never know!

I can't believe we're flying home tomorrow, it's come round too fast!

On the waterfront

Headed downtown today, and after a wander round Battery Park, took a ferry over to Staten Island for the rest of the day.

Battery Park is named for the cannons that used to form part of the defenses in colonial times, and like a lot of the downtown area, is built on reclaimed land - look up a map of the NY coastline today, against a couple hundred years ago!  It's amazing how much of it didn't exist!

It also contains one of several memorials to Sept 11th, in this case, the mangled remains of one of the statues that stood at the WTC. Ground Zero itself is simply a building site now, but it's impressive how fast the new tower is going up.

The Staten Island ferry is a great way to do some free sightseeing - the views as you cross the harbour are fab.

The island itself is mostly residential - it's the closest we've seen to the movie idea of US suburia. We headed down to the mall and discovered that the island is a LOT bigger that we realised. In fact, it took about an hour on the bus!  We'll go back next time, but plan to spend the day, as the mall it huge.

Back on Manhattan we wandered round the South Street Seaport, and had a late dinner at Johnny Rockets diner.

Last full day tomorrow, I can't believe how fast it's gone!

Happy 4th of July

A bank holiday is a bank holiday, wherever you are. Public transport on a limited service, some shops closed, others on limited hours and sales galore. Scored some crafty bargains, and mainly just mooched about. People watched in Times Square in the evening and watched Macy's fire works on TV - much better view than crowding in with several hundred thousand people on the bank of the river!

Take me out to the ballgame

What a day, started and finished with loud bangs and flashes.

Woke up to a New York thunder storm, with rain for most of the day.  Mooched about, trying to stay dry, and ended up with a late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. Mid afternoon, we headed to Money for the baseball. At one point, it looked like the game would be rained off, but in the end it went ahead with just a short delay.

Unfortunately the Cyclones lost to the SI Yankees but hopefully they'll turn the tables tomorrow! We're back for their next home game on Wednesday.

End of the game they had a pre-4th July fireworks display. If the video turns out ok, I'll upload it once we get home.

Independence Day tomorrow. Be fun to see the Macy's fireworks from the Hudson.

This little piggy went to market

Again, we had no fixed plans today, except for a bot of shopping. So, we left the hotel, turned left onto 6th Avenue - and walked into a huge market.  They'd closed off a 3/4 of a mile stretch of on of the busiest avenues, just for a street fair for the USO. Can you imagine them doing that on Oxford Street!?  Made for an unexpected but interesting diversion for the morning.

In the afternoon we headed to Union Square and had a look round the farmers' market, before replacing my Sony e-reader, which had just died on me. The staff in Best Buy were less than helpful, so we headed to Barnes and Noble, where a very helpful young man called Bryce set up my new Nook for me, and rescued what he could from my Sony reader. He has ensured that any time we're over, we'll be shopping there.

Next, was a walk up Broadway towards the Flatiron building and Madison Square park. We thought about grabbing a burger from Shake Shack for a late lunch, but no matter how good their burgers are rumoured to be, the can't be worth the queue that snaked halfway round the park. Finished off the afternoon with some clothes shopping and after some people watching in Times Square, we are enjoying a lazy evening.

Off to the baseball tomorrow night - hometown derby again the Staten Island Yankee. Back to Coney, so I must remember my sunscreen!!

Lazy Day

First day we haven't had anything planned, so we pretty much just mooched. Headed down to Brooklyn and ended up at Coney Island. Warning, impromptu trip to the seaside when you don't have extra sunscreen? Bad idea! A walk down the boardwalk eating ice cream has left my shoulders a lovely shade of pink.  Ouch.

The evening was spent people watching at Times Square including a look round ToysRus with their 60ft ferris wheel.

Been a lazy day, but just what we needed.

Have some random pics, including Big Daddy Cane and his moll at Times Square.

It's only taken us four years...

After four years of trying, we finally got tickets for a filming of the Daily Show.  Now, given the blank looks I got when I went into work squeeing about tickets, I'd better explain.  The Daily Show is one of Comedy Central's headline shows, and offers a satirical look at the news.  It's also recognised as a more reliable news source than Fox News!  As with Richard Cheese, YouTube is your friend, but again, NSFW!

So, the day involved a lot of queueing and hanging around.  As with any show, they over subscribe the tickets to prevent empty seats.

We turned up at the studio around 1pm, for tickets being issued at 2.30.  This put us pretty much head of the line.  We were then told to come back for 4.45, when you're split into seating groups.  The rules about what you can and can't do in the studio are straightforward and well explained but it's amazing how many people had iphones confiscated!

Once we're seated, the warm up guy comes out and explains how loudly we need to cheer for the mics - very - and gives us some practice.  Then Jon Stewart, the host of the show, takes some q&as before filming begins.

The actual taping seemed to be over really quickly. Basically, what you see on screen is pretty much as filmed. As ever, the show was funny, my only moan would be that we missed Tom Hanks as a guest by one day.

Seeing the set was weird, looking at the, I guess, optical illusions used to create what we see on screen.  A lot of what looks like 3d sets are flat matt backdrops but work really well on screen.

We're now watching back the show on tv, just to see what, if anything was edited!

Not sure what we've got planned for tomorrow - first day we haven't got anything booked.