New York, New York

Wow! How to summarise New York and not fill up the Internet with words? Better use bullet points. All at once, New York is:

• Hectic (Times Square, Downtown)
• Serene (Central Park)
• Reflective (Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Ground Zero)
• Manic (Everywhere else)
• Glossy (5th Avenue, Broadway shows); yet
• Grotty (Bronx, Harlem, Queens)

We expected it to be big, we just didn't realise just how MASSIVE it would be. Luckily Bec had booked the superbly-located Hotel Mayfair, just off Broadway in Midtown Manhattan which allowed us to use all of the extensive subway network as well as milk the Hop-On Hop-Off (or HoHo as Johnny called them) tour buses leaving from Times Square.

Again, we did far too much to write about, so here are some highlights in pictures:

Johnny gets dazzled by Times Square's neon explosion:


Mangling Chopsticks Tom Hanks-style on the Big Piano at FAO Schwartz:


Obedient sea-lions put on a show at Central Park Zoo:


Bec makes a little friend at Central Park while listening to some Street Jazz with all the power-Moms:


Bec gets taken out to the ball game - Yankees beat Seattle 12-3!


Johnny at the US Open tennis:


The magnificent (and busy!) Grand Central station:


Central Park - how's the serenity?


Gotta do a Broadway show. We saw Curtains starring David Hyde Pierce, aka Niles from Frasier:


The crumpled remains of the globe that used to sit outside the World Trade Center, now forms the focal point of the memorial park:


With Lady Liberty:


A slightly hazy view from the Empire State over the Chrysler Building:


In New York, even the street signs have attitude: