New York, New York...

Early on the New London Ferry- 7am.  Surprised I made it on time.  Docked at Orient Point, Long Island.  I didn't make any stops along the North Fork wineries for 2 reasons: 1) the obvious, I was driving. 2) the tastings/tours didn't start for another couple of hours and I didn't want to wait around for the rain.  This entire time the tropical storm and I have been dancing around each other, luckily only getting showers.  I figured if it worsened while I was on Long Island, at least I had nice, "accommodating" shelters along the way ;)  

I made it through Long Island, passing through Long Beach, and finally into Brooklyn.  I found a parking lot to leave the car and hopped on the train to Manhattan-- way too expensive to park and too crazy to drive in Manhattan.  Got off near the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across; the wind was so strong, but the view was so awesome!  

From there, I walked to Chinatown.  It has a lot more shops and vendors out on the street corners than the Chinatown in Chicago does, but I think the one in Chicago looks so much nicer and cleaner.  Headed over to see City Hall and the Supreme Court building, and then the reconstruction grounds of the World Trade Center.  

Got back on the train and took it to Times Square.  Wow.  Times Square is so much bigger than it looks on TV.  A lot more lights and a lot more exciting than I thought.  I walked along 42nd street then headed up 6th Ave. to see the Rockefeller Center.  Grabbed a hot dog from the corner vendor and got on another train to 72nd Street.  I met my friend there and he took me on a power walk tour through Central Park, the Met, passed the Guggenheim Museum, through the Upper West Side neighborhood and also The Upper East Side neighborhood.  The Upper West Side is very busy with restaurants and shopping.  I saw the New York Ballet Building and Julliard and the Lincoln Center. The Met had so many great pieces of artwork and sculptures; it was nice to see a variety apart from the Art Institute.  Central Park: so huge and so nice.  I didn't get through very much of it today.

I am so so grateful that Graham took the time to be my guide because I would have wasted a ton of daylight getting turned all types of around.  He actually lives around the corner from the Dakota building, where John Lennon once lived and the site where he was shot.  There is a nice area in Central Park, across the street dedicated to Lennon called Strawberry Fields.

We also walked to the coast and saw straight across to New Jersey's coastline.  It was dark, but the lights were quite a sight against the water.

Too much city, not enough time.  Tomorrow, on the way to my car, I have to try and get to see Grand Central Station and the Statue of Liberty (it was a bit too cloudy to see it well from the Brooklyn Bridge, and I ran out of time to go around to see it closer today).  But I did try New York pizza, finally.  Eh, pizza is pizza :)