On Monday I actually felt pretty good after the marathon. It was a little hard to go up and down stairs, but other than that no real issues. Kim, mom and I headed into the city to meet Kims mom at the Empire State building where we were going to take a little tour and take in the view from the 86th floor. But first we stopped at the "Marathon Monday" store to pick up finishers gear and souvenirs. I made out pretty well with a couple shirts and a new track jacket.
We were really lucky and all met up right when the tower was opening so we didn't have to wait in line at all.
The views from up there are amazing. You can see the whole city and the taxis look like ants.
After the Empire State Building, we all got on a tour bus to take a tour of the city. It was nice because we could get off at any stop, look around, and then get on another bus and keep going. A lot easier to see the city like this than doing all the walking (especially after running a marathon).
We went through all the little neighborhoods, saw hundreds of Starbucks. We got off at the City Hall stop. Here is Kim in City Hall Park. Pretty cool area. I couldn't believe how many parks the city had.
Next, we walked over towards Ground Zero of 9/11. It is crazy the amount of open space there where 2 huge towers once were. Very somber there. But it is being built up again.
After walking by that, we headed to Battery Park. I was starving so I got a pretzel. Tasted great. From here we saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
We didn't take a tour this time because the lines were so long, but that will give us an excuse to go back. We hopped back on the bus at Wall Street.
The next stop was Chinatown.
If we go back, this will be once place we skip. It was interesting to say the least. It just seemed so dirty there. Lots of smokers, fish for sale, dirty sidewalks...Just not real nice. But we made our way through and finally got into Little Italy. It was amazing the change from one street to the next. All of a sudden the smell of garlic was in the air. Our main purpose here was to go to Lombardi's Pizza, the oldest pizza joint in America. There were 4 or us so naturally we decided to get a small "White" pizza (different kinds of cheese, no sauce) and a large prosciutto. All in all, 14 big slices of pizza. Of course I made a pig of myself and polished off about 7 of them. It was so good and I couldn't let them go to waste. We were walking a lot, so I didn't feel too bad about it ;). Mom had to catch a subway back to the hotel so she could get to the airport so we parted ways. it was nice to have her wile we did though.
Now, Kim, her mom and I headed back over to the bus. We went by all of the "rich" apartments like the Trump tower were a bunch of Yankees live.
We also passed by the UN building. That is another place I would like to tour too. After passing by a bunch of other landmarks, we got back off near Macy's and headed back up towards Rockefeller Plaza. It was election night so it was pretty busy with all of the NBC people out there. I went into the NBC store and got a 30 Rock shirt (one of the best shows on TV).
We walked past another Trump building, the Trump Tower and decided to go inside. It was a really neat building. We went to the second floor and sat down at Starbucks to rest our feet a little.
A cool water wall in Trump Tower
After recovering, we went a little farther north and found FAO Schwartz. Very cool toy store. This is where a famous scene in the movie "Big" was filmed where Tom Hanks played on a big piano.
Lego sculptures and huge toys were everywhere. We were getting hungry, so we headed over to a little place called Serendipity 3 for dinner.
This place is famous for their desserts so Kim and her mom were ready to get to that part. This is their famous Iced Hot Chocolate.
We were pretty worn out from a long day of touring and walking so we headed back to the hotel with a quick stop in Grand Central Station so Kim's mom could see. Once we got back to the hotel, I was out pretty quick but ready for another day.
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