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"",
"Fancy reflective office building.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This tall skyscraper along 5th Avenue stood well above its neighbors so we ",
"decided to take a closer look...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...and said, 'Of course', after we found out what it was.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We went inside Trump Tower and took a ride on the escalator.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The ground floor of Trump Tower has shops and a restaurant and even an aboretum-",
"like sitting area.  From the ground floor we are overlooking the restaurant.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Inbetween all the old and modern buildings were many churches.  This is St. ",
"Patrick's, where Pope John stopped by on his visit on Saturday during passover.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Churches use to be the tallest buildings in New York, hence the tall pointy ",
"steeples.  They are an interesting contrast to the modern skyscrapers.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The churches are really beautiful.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This church is St. John's, the largest gothic church in North America.  It's ",
"been around since the 1800's and they still haven't finished building it.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Outside of St. John's is a statue of archangel Michael slaying Satan.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Inside St. John's was very large and beautiful.  Walls were made out of huge ",
"stones.  There were many smaller chambers within the main chamber, each ",
"dedicated to a different saint.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The doors of St. John's depicts biblical scenes.  How many do you recognize?",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"New York is well known for its many museums.  On our tour bus we saw the Museum ",
"of Natural History...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the second largest museum in the US",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...and the botanical gardens in Brooklyn.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We also enjoyed seeing landmarks we've only heard of or seen on TV, such as the ",
"Flatiron building...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...the Empire State building...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...the United Nations...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...and the VA Hospital.  Seeing this was a nice surprise.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Of course, what is a visit to New York without seeing the Statue of Liberty?  ",
"Can you see it there way in the background?",
"Ok, we're kidding, we got closer than this.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We took the ferry over to Liberty Island and enjoyed the beautiful views. ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The boat was pretty packed.  We were lucky to get a seat.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"As we approached Liberty island, we got to admire the Statute of Libery.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"And here we are as close as we can get to the statue.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We didn't go to the top because we didn't realize we had to buy tickets two days ",
"in advance.  They don't let you go to the crown anymore.  The highest you can go ",
"now is the top of the pedestal.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We took a bike tour around central park from Liberty Bikes.",
"Our bike tour was on a Saturday, which was probably a mistake.  The park was ",
"packed.  It was sometimes hard to keep up with the lead tour guide.  The path ",
"around Central Park was shared by bikers, joggers, walkers, rollerbladers, ",
"pedicabs, dogs, and horse drawn carriages.  ",
"",
"",
"It was a beautiful day in Central Park.  You can see all the New Yorkers taking",
"advantage of the warm sunny day.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The Lady of the Water commemorates a promise to New York for safe, clean drinking water.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We are overlooking Central Park's largest lake.  One of the houses in the ",
"background is where Jackie Kennedy Onassis use to live.  Jackie Onassis worked a ",
"lot on beautifying Central Park, and this lake is named after her.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"In Shakespeare's Garden was this little castle which overlooked Central Park and ",
"an ampitheatre.  The ampitheatre has free Shakespeare plays during the summer ",
"and they're tough tickets to get.  The castle you see had 3 levels but only a ",
"single file wide staircase to climb up and down.  Needless to say, it took a  ",
"long time getting in and out of the castle.",
"",
" ",
"While in New York, we took lots of sightseeing tours and got great views of the ",
"skyline.  This picture is from our Brooklyn tour.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This picture of Manhattan is from our night tour on Circle Line Cruises.",
"We sat on the outside which got progressively colder as the night wore on,",
"and an entire high school on a senior trip annoyed all the other passengers",
"but the views were still great.",
"",
"",
"",
"A view of New Jersey from our Circle Line cruise.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The Statue of Liberty is an amazing site at night",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We also took a lot of backstage tours.  Radio City Hall was our first stop.  This ",
"is the main lobby which has been restored to its original splendor when it was ",
"built.  The painting on the wall is original, painstaking cleaned of all smoke, ",
"repainted and restored inch by inch.",
"",
"",
"",
"We also got to admire the main lobby from one of the upper levels.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The Radio City Hall stage.  You can see the edges of where the stage raises and ",
"lowers.  The Radio City Hall only hosts events with very large audiences, such as ",
"concerts for rock stars.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Costumes of Rockettes from past performances are on display.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Tina has worked as a Rockette for seven years.  She auditioned twice and had to prove ",
"she could dance jazz, tap, and ballet.  Rockettes are different heights, but ",
"there is a height range requirement for them.  On the dance line, the illusion of ",
"having the same height is made by positioning the tallest dancers in the center ",
"and then in descending height towards the end.",
"",
"",
"Our second tour was Madison Square Garden. On the tour we got to sit in a $10,000",
"per event box seat. We felt very privileges as we sat in there.",
"The area floor is iced year around for hockey games.  Since it takes a week to ice ",
"the floor, they just cover the floor up with wood when hosting other events.",
"Our guide  said they will de-ice for the rodeo (dirt falls onto the ice) and ",
"dog shows.  Dogs can sense the ice underneath the wood and get very nervous.",
"",
"The Masidon Square Garden restaurant/event room.  The NFL draft is held here,",
"as well as major sports press conferences.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This is the actual scale used by fighter such as Muhammed Ali and others.  Drake ",
"is checking the accuracy.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We got to glimpse inside of the New York Rangers hockey team.  The doors are ",
"extra wide for easier access by the heavily geared players.  Interestingly, the ",
"floors are carpeted.  During the season, there will be thick rubber mats on the ",
"floor so the players can walk on it with their skates.",
"",
"",
"",
"We also visited the New York Knicks's locker room.  Our guide, Vincent, is ",
"holding up the actual shoes of the NY Knicks's tallest basketball player, Jared ",
"Jefferies.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We took a walking tour of Rockfeller Center.  This is a historical tour but it ",
"was very fun.  The guide was very entertaining and told great stories about John ",
"D. Rockfeller, how Rockfeller Center came to be, and interesting architectural ",
"and decorative features.",
"",
"",
"",
"We just missed ice skating by a few weeks.  The ice skating rink was melted and ",
"being prepped for a flower show.  During Christmas, this place is packed with ",
"people shoulder to shoulder.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Our tour guide pointed out all the artwork in the buildings.  John D. Rockfeller ",
"was very religious, but a lot of the art work he commissioned had nudes.  He was ",
"pretty unhappy that.  In fact, he refused to go through entrances to his own ",
"buildings which had nudes over it.",
"",
"",
"",
"This is the international building with scenes depicting joining of the western ",
"and eastern hemispheres of the world.  Each picture, including the clock, ",
"represents something about industry, business, and internationalism.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Our last backstage tour was at NBC studios.  Since cameras weren't allowed, this ",
"is an illegal picture of the NBC Nightly News studio.  It's actually pretty small",
"in there.  Out of the picture to the left is a revolving stage.  Our tour guide ",
"said that the stage revolves to put different backgrounds behind the newscaster ",
"in order to give an impression of a bigger studio.",
"",
"",
"Since we're in New York, of course we saw a lot of celebrities.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We got many lucky shots with them.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"And even got to party a bit with them.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"And this celebrity...oh...er...Ok!  You caught us!  This is really the wax ",
"museum.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Drake compares himself to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"These are just some of the famous wax people we saw.  Politicans, contemporary ",
"and historic...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Sports stars...",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Business giants....",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Movie and TV stars of old....",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"...and new.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We did see one real celebrity on the Statue of Liberty ferry -- Matt Damon.  He ",
"spoke fluent German.  We also saw Matthew Broderick at the premeire of the ",
"Broadway show A Catered Affair.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We made sure to educate ourselves by visting the Museum of Natural History.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The entire fourth floor was devoted to dinosaurs.  They had lots of skeletons and ",
"casts of huge and/or weird creatures, like this prehistoric turtle.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"There were many brontosaurus-like dinosaurs.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This was some strange aquatic creature.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The mammoths are always impressive.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"They like posing their dinosaurs in scary ways.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Ann agitates the T-Rex.  She obviously has not learned anything from the  ",
"aquarium or pet stores on how to treat the animals.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"In the dinosaur area, this was one of the few skin jobs.  It looks like an ",
"overgrown salamander.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"In the Rose Space Center we inspect this large meteorite.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We also cultured ourselves at the Museum of Modern Art.  Can you figure out who ",
"did this and what it is?  It's a Monet depicting a bridge.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This is the real Starry Night by Van Gough, protected only by a glass cover ",
"over it. We wondered why they the public get so close to these valuable works of ",
"arts.  But we figured, who would pay $20 just to see a photocopy of a classic?  ",
"With this picture, we are happy to say that we now have our own copy of Starry ",
"Night.",
"",
"",
"Before we went to New York, we wondered how safe it was.  ",
"We probably shouldn't have worried.  On our first night ",
"we noticed their conspicuous presence at Times Square.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We saw lots and lots of cops in Manhattan.  Police cars would always be driving ",
"around, and we'd often see a pack of police cars driving by. ",
"We saw these mounted patrol officers by Seaport Village.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We'd also see cops in SWAT gear in places for no apparent reason, such as ",
"this cop on Wall street wearing full body armor and carrying a machine gun.",
"Later, we read that New York has a program called 'Hercules' with the intent of ",
"displaying a police show-of-force at strategic locations simply to make of point ",
"of what they are capable of doing in order to deter crime and terrorism.",
"",
"",
"We had some fun at the Police Museum.  Drake is trying to disguise himself (he's ",
"much taller than that) in case this picture starts circulating the internet.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We made sure to visit a lot of famous New York sites, such as Grand Central ",
"Station.  It took us a while to find this place.  The station huge and there are ",
"many entrance ways which state Grand Central Station but only certain ones ",
"take you directly to the terminal.  It's huge with restaurants and shops.  We ",
"were very impressed.",
"",
"",
"We're inside Tiffany's.  We snuck this photo before the security guard told us ",
"to stop.  The chandelier to the left of Ann is very fancy -- glass panes with ",
"hundreds of small glass bulbs.  In Tiffany's, you could easily tell tourists  ",
"from buyers by their clothes.  Ann is modeling a tourist outfit.",
"",
"",
"",
"The Brooklyn Bridge sits near Chinatown.  Our Brooklyn tour guide told us an interesting ",
"story.  When New York had a big power outage a few years ago, she remembers ",
"seeing all Chinatown shoes being raided by women buying any kind of comfortable ",
"shoes -- flats, Hello Kitty slippers -- to make the walk across the bridge so they ",
"could get home.",
"",
"",
"On the south tip of Manhattan, we took this picture of the New Jersey skyline.  ",
"A lot of business people were lunching there.  It must be nice to have such ",
"beautiful views during their break.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"These lucky people have a ticket to the David Letterman show. Normally you have to",
"order tickets several months in advance. One of our bicycle tour guides had a friend",
"who was a graphic artist at the Jon Stewart show and could get us tickets to a show",
"that week.  We didn't take him up on the offer but it was nice of him",
"",
"",
"",
"Grant's tomb.  The tour guide said this use to be a popular tourist attraction ",
"until the 30's.  There weren't many people there, so it seems like it'll be a ",
"nice place to take a quiet walk.  The tomb is made out of a ton of white marble.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The site of the World Trade Center site is very noisy and busy as it is ",
"undergoing construction.  A WTC tribute center was built next to the site where ",
"they have pictures and stories from 9/11.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This is another view of the WTC site.  We didn't get a picture of it, but one ",
"building by the WTC was so heavily polluted by the debris from the attacks that ",
"it needs to be taken down.  But because of the poisons, they must take it down ",
"piece by piece instead of imploding or demolishing it.  The entire building is ",
"covered in tarp.",
"",
"",
"We spent a few hours walking along 125th Street in Harlem where we saw the Apollo",
"theatre.  Along 125th street were a lot of street vendors selling soaps and ",
"incense.  Inside the subway, we saw our first subway musician: a 3 man acapella ",
"group that the crowd enjoyed very much. ",
"",
"",
"",
"New York's Chinatown seems very much like San Francisco's Chinatown.  Some ",
"streets, like this little alley, looks like it could be in China itself.  We saw ",
"one business that the city closed -- the notice on the doors read 'trademark ",
"infringement'.  Uh-oh.",
"",
"",
"",
"This street is where the opening scene of original The Odd Couple was filmed.  ",
"In that scene, Felix Unger picks up a cigarette butt discarded by Oscar Madison.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The Wall Street bull stands on a tourist-packed little island in the middle of ",
"the street by Bowling Green park.  The bull was a suprise Christmas gift to New ",
"York City by an Italian artist in 1989.  It was initially unwanted and impounded ",
"by police.  Public outcry eventually resulted in the bull being moved to this ",
"location.  The bull is quite an impressive sculpture.",
"",
"",
"Wall Street is actually very short.  This building is the New York Stock Exchange.",
" We didn't know what this was until another tourist, probably some business ",
"student, asked us to take his picture.  We unfortunately could not go inside as ",
"it is not open to the public. ",
"",
"",
"",
"Speaking of New York streets, this was one was Ann's favorite place, right next ",
"to J&R's electronics -- Drake's favorite place.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"New York had lots of novelties for tourists and natives alike to enjoy.  The ",
"restaurant Tavern on the Green had these charming plant sculptures in their ",
"backyard.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"This elephant sculpture was really cool.  It's hard to see in this picture but ",
"the elephant's front left foot is off the ground.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Drake imitates art.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"On a building in Chinatown we saw this mural advertisement for Sony Playstation.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"The Sony building had a sitting area open to the public.  That was nice you ",
"didn't have to buy anything in order to sit at a table after a long day of ",
"hiking.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We've heard of car elevators but never seen one.  Some lots had smaller car ",
"elevators that could only stack two or three cars.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Funny, as we talked about how New York seemed to be a super-sized version  ",
"of San Francisco, we saw this.  Proof!",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We enjoyed a few Broadway and off-Broadway shows while we were in town.  We saw ",
"Mamma Mia, Altar Boyz, Spamalot, Little Mermaid, and Secrets of a Soccer Mom.  ",
"Little Mermaid was the best.  The scenes of the prince falling into the water ",
"and Ariel's fins turning into legs were really neat.",
"",
"",
"",
"We would have loved to see Lion King but that show's sold out, even after 10 ",
"years.  Oh, we also saw an Our Town opera at the Julliard school. ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We also saw street shows in New York.  We came across the New York Street ",
"Tumblers as we left the Liberty Island Ferry.  Here, one of the members leaps ",
"over six people.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"They were very funny and their stunts were impressive.",
"We gave them $5, which singled us out for special attention from the troupe.  ",
"Maybe they'll be on TV one day.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"And of course what is a visit to New York without seeing the skyline from the ",
"Empire State building.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"We started before sunset.  The observation deck was packed so all you could do ",
"is wait for someone to move or try to squeeze your arm in sideways.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"As night fell, the views became more beautiful.  This is a view of the ",
"northeast.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Drake worked hard to get night shots from every angle. ",
"You can tell this is a view of Times Square in the northwest by bright ",
"lights emanating from the streets and concentrated in a single area.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"If you look hard at all these pictures you can pick out the famous sites. ",
"In this southwest view you can just make out the Statue of Liberty.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Even though the observation deck was crowded, it was actually kind of peaceful to lean on the ",
"railing and be memeserized by the view.  The traffic noise is really muted from ",
"the 86th floor, and you don't notice the hustle and bustle of the city.  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"Well, sadly, our trip came to an end.  We had a busy, exciting vacation and hope ",
"to come back again one day.  Thanks for looking at our pictures!  ",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"                   Cheers, Drake and Ann.",
"",
"",
"",
"",
"",
""
)