Thursday
Hotel is tiny, the breakfast space is limited and a squeeze if you mis-time it.
Anyway had some plastic food and a juice before heading out the door.

Decided on bus & NY Pass package - expensive and let's hope we get the value out of it.
Initially jumped on the downtown loop to get familiar with the program. Sun is shining and we took the chance with Liberty & Ellis Islands.
NY Pass got us tickets but the line for security was amazing. I think we slowly edged our way to waterside for nearly 2 hours for the privilege to undertake the mandatory US paranoia screenings - get used to it here I guess. Just slow and not well run, we can certainly teach them a thing or two. Again the blunt attitude shown out.

Remember - the dude with spray on hair to hide his baldness, thinking himself so good until learning he didn't have tickets and had to all the way out of line after +1hour = DOH!!

On the boat for small transit to Liberty with what feels like hundreds of our new friends.
It is a pretty spectacular thing is Miss Liberty. Last time was in NY years ago we only saw it from a distance. They are currently undertaking works and you can't enter the statue so all visit to island only. Had a great stroll around, read the history and some great photos. A quick snack for lunch before boat to Ellis Island. Some very interesting history and numbers from this place. They say 1 in 3 Americans can trace lineage thru Ellis. The processing room of the 2nd floor is amazing, the tiled roof from the 1700's is stunning. They claim recent renovations only saw a total of 17 tiles needing replacement - why can't we get tradespeople like that anymore?
TB and CB not real interested but EB and I had a decent look around. The island itself is something like 27acres, shared with both NY and New Jersey from old history.
Short boat trip back to Battery and we took a short stroll around to Staten Island Ferry building. Might go for the free journey if time allows.
Was going to connect with the next bus stop but was going to be a decent walk. We jumped in again and made our way uptown.
Jumping off at Rockefeller we got in line for Top of the Rock. More photos to enter (every chance they can - man they are trying to grab every $$$$ here) and more security. Anyway got to the lookout and what a view. With excellent clear afternoon we saw a lot, great perspective of Central Park.

It was now late afternoon and CB dying for Chinese from our next door restaurant. We made it back in time and had an early tasty meal.

Took a couple of hours refuge before heading out to see Times Sq at night. Great stuff and the ultimate people watching spot. Took a look at some souvenirs for later purchase and just soaked it in. Cool stuff
We saw the try hard character costumes trying to raise $$$ for photos - Elmo and the Cookie Monster with her head off, funny stuff.

Back to the shoe box around 10 something I think with further plans for tomorrow. Really do think we should have planned this a bit better.
Hope the weather holds as it bloody lovely at the moment.

Out