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We had a bit of a sleep in on Saturday as we had tickets booked to do a studio tour of NBC at 11:30am so didn't bother doing anything beforehand. It was quite good and informative, although they do give away many trade secrets so it will spoil the illusion from now on. We saw the sets of the Nightly News, Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live but none were "working" so we just got to see them. They also showed us how they apply makeup, including some makeup changes for Saturday Night Live that have to be done in under 2 minutes, including masks, etc. A couple of people from the group had to read the news and weather (we didn't volunteer and I'm glad because the weather was really hard but the girl did well!).
Having already agreed to see another show, we hot footed it to Times Square to see if we could get cheap tickets to a matinee but the queue was ENORMOUS...note to anyone: do not come to NY at New Years, while it is probably quieter than summer, there were so many Americans visiting for NYE that everything was booked up - we booked the NBC tour on Thursday arvo and Saturday lunch time was the earliest time available....and we only had 45 minutes until most of the shows started. We were going to see the Little Mermaid but accidently walked past the theatre and decided to try our luck for White Christmas. They had tickets available (Yay!) so we asked for the cheapest ones they had left. Now, the amount we paid should have put us in the middle or back of the mezzanine but the guy said to Emma, I'll find you some good seats and boy, he sure did! Fourth row, centre block, just to the side....no complaining from us. I was beginning to think it was our lucky day as the usher caught us with outside food and drink (I mean, they charge US$4 for a bottle of water!) but she just said to put it away until the lights when down because then she can't see it.
The show was great. It is based on the movie which is based on something else (can't remember) with lots of singing and tap dancing. And at the end of the show, it snows! Well, it snows on the people in the expensive seats =P It was actually bubbles but looked like snow until it landed on you...I want one of the machines that do that!
We then walked 5th Avenue, admiring all the shop windows. Loads of them were still done up for Christmas and they go all out here for that. Macy's and Saks have stories to their windows. Lord & Taylor just have some very classy scenes that move - like they've come to life off a Christmas card. It's been great just walking the windows, never mind actually going into the shop. We shopped in the Disney Shop and saw De Beers and Tiffanys (unfortunately, no shopping in there!) and then went to FAO Schwartz. I will have to admit that Hamley's in London is much better...
Last stop for the evening was the Empire State Building. Every time we have gone to go (no matter the time day or night!), the queue is enormous, stretching out around the corner and down the block so we never stay. Again, our lucky day, no queue. We got straight in for tickets. We enjoyed the Skyride, which is like a virtual helicopter ride over New York, and then headed to the 86th floor. While it was blowing a gale and freezing on one side, it was calm and almost balmy on the other. New York at night is amazing. The photos don't do it justice. We spent over 3 hours in total in the Empire State Building so got back a lot later than we thought to a note on our door to contact reception as we have to move rooms ASAP...what a pain!
Up early on Sunday as we planned on getting up early but now also had to move rooms. We finally got going and by the time we got to Battery Park, we had just missed the first ferry to Liberty Island. We got tickets and got on the next ferry at 9am. While the Statue of Liberty is impressive as a structure, she's much smaller than I would have thought she would be. The view of Manhattan is breathtaking from there and from the ferry. As we went so early in the morning, we were able to go inside the monument even though we didn't have tickets as there wasn't too many people there. Now, we'd been through security before getting on the ferry (like airport security - remove jackets, large jumpers, watches, belts) but to get into the monument was another thing. Even our aircraft are not as protected as the Statue of Liberty. First of all, they give you a card to hold while you wait. It's got facts about the Statue of Liberty on most of them but they are used to detect traces of explosives. You have to had your card to a guy at the door after you've queued for a bit and he pops it in a machine and if it's, ok you go to the next part. You remove everything like above and it all goes through an xray machine. Then you have to go through what could possibly be an xray machine! You have to wait for the machine (it's like a metal detector on steroids) to say you can step in and then you step in and it blows air from underneath - just sharp little gusts - and then you wait for a green light, which seems to take forever. If it doesn't like you, it beeps madly (again, like a metal detector on steroids). It went off on the guy behind Emma. Then, you walk through a metal detector and then you get your stuff back.
Anyhow, now that we are through security, they have a museum in the pedestal, telling all about how she came to be. You can then walk up to the top of the pedestal (base of the statue - 156 steps in total..yes, I counted) and the closest you get to her is at the base of the pedestal you can peer up her skirt! The view is gorgeous and after wandering around, we headed to the ferry to go to Ellis Island.
At Ellis Island, you actually go into the building where all new immigrants would go after disembarking in New York. The registry hall upstairs is where people would wait for their turn to be processed. Sometimes this could take 30 hours. They were given medical exams, intelligence tests among other things. If you had to have a special hearing, they had two dormitories upstairs that could sleep 300 people in each one. Each bunk would be at least 3 beds high. There were loads of photos of immigrants and what Ellis Island looked like back then. They have a hospital and a separate contagious disease building (although from the photos, there was over 20 people a room so unless they had the same contagious disease....)
We were running out of time and had yet to do the American Museum of Natural History so that we did. We were so tired, we barely scraped the tip of everything you could do and we were disappointed that T-Rex isn't in the entrance like Night at the Museum. There are dino skeletons but I think one is a brachiosaurus and I would have no idea what the other one is! T-Rex is upstairs in the dinosaur room so he is there! We also saw DumDum...I don't know if he goes by another name but in the movie he's always saying "Hey DumDum, you better RunRun"! There is just so much to see - you could take a few days and still not see everything. We then headed back to Times Square for some shopping - Tara wanted to check out the Levi's shop and Emma wanted to go back to M&M World. We ended up also stopping at Billabong, a souvenir shop and McDonald's.
We were up again early this morning (can you tell from my really bad rambling!) to catch the train to Niagara Falls. We were up at 5:15am and walked the 14 blocks to Penn Station from our accommodation as we thought this would be easier than walking the 2 blocks to the subway station and attempting to get us and all the luggage not only down the stairs but through the little barricades! I have written this on the train. So far, we've been on here for 7 hours and it's actually been quite nice, having a nap and watching the landscape change and the depth of the snow increase as we head further north.
Update: in Niagara now...pretty sure we can see the Falls from our window but will have to double check in sunlight!
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