'Twas 5 months ago....

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all well and good.

It's a long weekend here, so I thought it was a good opportunity to update my blog! So, where was I? Oh yeah, our trip to New York ...

A significant motivator in deciding to spend Christmas in Canada was the idea of stopping off in New York on the way home to join the New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square and see the dropping of the ball. So, on the last day of the year, after some intense sight seeing - see photos below - we returned to our hotel to have a bit of of a rest and freshen up before heading to Times Square. It was about 6pm when we got back to the hotel and turned on the TV, only to find that they were already closing down the square because it was already full. Very disappointed and extremley annoyed at our lack of planning, we decided to head to Times Square anyway to see if we could squeeze in somewhere.

As soon as we got out of the subway, we noticed that there were police everywhere... I think it was a very busy night for the NYPD, they must have had the full force on duty. They told us that Times Square was closed, but if we headed north we may be able to able to gain entry to the street directly north of Times Square. However, as we headed north, so did everyone else... as we reached each cross street up, the police had closed it off and told us to keep heading north. Something like an hour later we finally found an entry point... 11 blocks away. There was no way that we were going to be able to see Times Square, let alone the ball.


After standing around in a crowd for about 20 minutes, with only a view of the Ed Sullivan Theatre and Times Square on a large TV screen, we decided to leave the throng. We head dinner at a small Thai restaurant, then headed back to the hotel with a bottle of champagne to watch Times Square and the dropping of the ball on TV! At least we can say we've seen the New Year in in New York! ;P

Sight seeing in Times Square, New York

We happened to be in Times Square for a trial run of the dropping of the ball.
At least we got to see it once!
I was completely surprised at how tiny it is... all this fuss for not much!

After lunch at Sardi's, and some post-lunch strolling,

for my Christmas present, Gideon took me to see Spamalot. :D



A New York Pharmacy

Grey M&M's?

A very Christmassy scene at the Rockerfeller Centre.


Deciding to skip the 2 hour queue to get up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, we got a view of the building from the observation deck of the Rockerfeller Centre.

Gideon in a room full of movement sensing flashy lights.



A view of Manhatten from the Staten Island Ferry.





Surrounded by buildings and filled with people, there is still something peaceful and beautiful about Central Park.





Horse and Carriage ride in Central Park... it goes around really slowly in a not very exciting circuit and costs a heap, but it had to be done.






Gideon takes some time out in the park



Who knew Hans Christian Anderson was so tall?