I’m going to update on the Manhattan part of our trip. I’ll leave it to Kat to talk about the wedding and Poughkeepsie.
Manhattan Part 1
[Manhattan Part 1 pictures] We got to New York City early on the red-eye. We managed to get early check-in to the hotel, which was awesome. After a bit of a nap, we hit the city, ready to go.
- Our first stop was the American Museum of Natural History. This was chosen as the one big tourist stop. I spent my entire childhood being dragged around to museums and thinking “I thought they were supposed to have dinosaurs at museums.” Finally, I got to go to a museum with dinosaurs. Even though I’m not eight anymore, it was pretty aweseme.
- We took the subway to the museum, which is right beside Central Park. Subway: check. Central Park: check.
- We pretty much walked from Columbus Circle around Midtown for the rest of the afternoon: Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, the TV studios there, the MoMA store, the theatre district, Times Square.
- After a little rest back at the hotel, we went out to see things at night. How bright is Times Square at night? I was shooting up to a full stop over my camera’s meter to get things to look right.
- Somewhere in there, we found some pizza and hot dogs in the local style.
The next morning, we went out to grab a bagel, and had a leisurely walk to Penn Station to get the train to Poughkeepsie.
Manhattan Part 2
[Manhattan Part 2 pictures] On the way back, we had a nice long layover in Manhattan: our train got in at about 3:00 and our flight wasn’t until 10:30. We managed to check our bags at Penn Station and get a few more hours in the city:
- We started at the Empire State Building. It was a clear day, so it was a nice view of the city.
- The big reason for going back out: we went to the NY Public Library which had the original Pooh and Piglet stuffed animals. (It was closed for part 1.) Kat has always been a big Piglet fan (“He’s little, like me.”) so this was definitely a highlight.
- On the walk back to Penn Station, we happened by a White Castle. Summary: I can’t imagine why anyone would drive overnight to get White Castle. Maybe being stoned helps.
I had my handheld GPS in my camera bag and on for most of the walking. So, I can offer our tracks in Google Earth for your viewing pleasure. Keep in mind the error inherent in the GPS, particularly when surrounded by tall buildings: we weren’t walking around as spastically as it looks.
Overall, I think we got as much as we could have done without ever entering “death march” territory. Excellent trip. Next time, we’d stay at the south end of the island: Chinatown and Little Italy.