NYC Day One

 

Since our first day in New York City was spent mostly traveling to get there, I'll start with our first full day which was actually day two. We had been planning our trip to the Big Apple since last September when we found out that Mac's orchestra was invited to play at Carnegie Hall. We knew it was a once in a life time opportunity and didn't want to miss out. Ethan, Keith and I traveled separately from Mac and his orchestra group. Mac's itinerary was jammed packed with tours, Broadway shows, sight seeing and of course Carnegie Hall. Our trip wasn't as full of activities but we managed to fit quite a bit in, and a logged a whole lot of miles walking to and from everything.

We started our first full day in NYC with a tour of the United Nations Building. Keith and I have been to NYC several times but it was the first time for Ethan and Mac. We wanted to find things that would be interesting and fun for Ethan who was traveling with us, but also a few new things that Keith and I haven't experienced in NYC before. We thought the UN building would be a good start. 

  

 We took an audio tour of the UN building. Here Ethan and I are listening to our hand held transceivers. Even though our tour was an audio tour we still had to have a guide lead us through the building.

 

  

 One of the large Human Rights posters that was displayed in the Human Rights corridor of the General Assembly building.
 

One of the peace related tapestries inside of the building.

  School in a Box which is provided by UNICEF as a standard response in emergencies. The purpose is to ensure continuing education in emergency situations. Each kit contains materials for a teacher and up to 40 students.

 

 This is the Security Council room. We also walked through the General Assembly room but were not allowed to take pictures because they were in session.

After our tour at the UN Building we walked back to midtown and Rockefeller Center. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to eat our lunch outside near the skating rink.

After lunch we explored the Lego Store which had this huge wall of Legos as a backdrop.

 

Inside the store there were many structures made of Legos including this very fitting one of Rockefeller Center.

 

After visiting the Lego store Ethan was eager to visit Nintendo World which is the only Nintendo store in the World, hence the name. Inside the store there are 12 Nintendo 3DS systems, 18 DSi systems, and 17 Wii consoles that guests can play while visiting.

 

Ethan was in heaven and was happy when he found the piano score book for all of the Zelda songs. His one and only souvenir that he took home from the store. 

 Upstairs there is also a little museum of all the original Nintendo gaming systems throughout the years.

 After lunch and shopping we headed back to Times Square to see if we could get a glimpse of Mac and the orchestra. They had just finished lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and were doing some shopping of their own before heading to the hotel.

 

As we strolled through the city Keith was obsessed with taking pictures of all bike related things. Below is a close up of a the "bicycle" street light near Times Square.

Keith also pointed out this ghost bike to us. I had never seen one before.  He explained that it is a bike that is painted white and is left near a location where someone has been killed on a bike.

After a full day, Keith and Ethan headed back to our hotel to rest their feet and I headed to TKTS to get buy half price Broadway show tickets for that Evening. I had narrowed my choices down to three. You never know what might be available when you get through the line and to the counter. Since we had Ethan with us, I had to choose something appropriate for him as well. My top choice would have been The Lion King but that is not available in TKTS. Keith's top choice was The Book of Mormon, also not available. So my second top pick was Memphis, and I was lucky enough to get good seats for that night's performance that did not disappoint. The music was written by Bon Jovi and it was incredible. Memphis also won the Tony Award for best musical in 2010. Ethan was very impressed by the set and special effects only found on Broadway.