Today we all woke up pretty early (for us), got dressed and headed out to the Empire State Building. We wanted to get there early-ish to avoid any massive queues, which I’m glad we did, because walking through what would have been the queue area made me think about just how awful it’d be to have to wait in it. Though, if we did wait in the queue, we would have seen all the information/museum boards, which would have been interesting – instead, we walked right by them.
The views from the 86th floor (we didn’t go all the way up, cause it would have cost extra) were impressive. We walked around, taking photos and generally taking in the views for a bit, before heading down, exiting through the gift shop, as is customary at all attractions.
On the way down, we were looking for the SkyRide, something we had free entry to with the passes. We ended up on the ground floor, before being told it was back up the way. We eventually found it and got on.
It wasn’t good. But it was so not good, that it was actually kind of good. Kevin Bacon narrated it, so, y’know, there’s that.
After the Empire State, we went to find something to eat. Everyone apart from Hannah, Acloud and I were going to WrestleMania in the afternoon/evening, so we needed to get something quick, together, before they left.
We settled on the Tick-Tock diner, which was (and I’m sure still is) right next to Penn Station (where they’d be getting their train to Wrestlemania from). At the diner, we, pretty much, all had breakfast foods. Pancakes, etc. It was good. Allan and Acloud ended up sitting alone, cause they could only sit six of us together. It all worked out in the end though.
After, we said our goodbyes and the three of us left in New York headed back to our hotel to get organised, drop off stuff we bought at The Empire State building, all that kind of stuff. Once we’d done that, we all went to the NBC store and booked tickets for the Studio Tour – We had thought to do it the next day, but they couldn’t fit us in, so we ended up booking for Tuesday.
Then Hannah abandoned us.
Acloud and I walked up to Central Park and explored it a little more than we had the previous time. I’d marked a couple things on the map that I wanted to check out, so we hit them. Hannah was meeting with her friend from Uni, she text to say she was done and we arranged to meet.
We had talked about getting a night-time bus tour of the city, by the time we got to the ticket office, there was a bus due to leave not long after, so we bought the tickets and got on.
We went upstairs and sat at the back, an old woman came and gave us headphones, it later turned out that she wasn’t just the headphone giver, she was also the tour guide. Her name was Marge – or at least, that’s what Hannah decided her name was.
Marge was obsessed with food, not any particular food, just food in general. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican… She never shut up about food, except to talk about Jay-Z.
As we were driving through Brooklyn, she noted “Hip-hop fans may want to take a look to the right now, that building is the high school that Jay-Z attended. I’m not sure if he graduated, but…”
Acloud missed out on all of Marge’s little gems, as he’d taken out his headphones. When Marge wasn’t talking, she was breathing. Loudly. Down the mic. Sounding like something from the Ring.
I miss Marge.
After the tour, we decided we’d just grab a McDonald’s. We had thought about getting a pizza delivered to the hotel, but in the end, we were tired and just wanted food. Now. We stopped by Walgreen’s, then McDonald’s and went back to the room.
We lay and watched TV for a bit, before kicking Acloud out of our room, back to his and getting into bed.
I have vague recollections of Paula and Stuart coming into the room, but don’t remember them getting into bed or anything.
[this blog was written nearly a month after the events, due to it having disappeared the first time round]