Start spreading the news!

Day 1 - Wednesday - We were all excited to find out that our Hotel was actually in a good part of town, right on 7th Ave and 33rd Street. Even more excited when we saw the lobby, all huge and sparkling.  This bubble was soon deflated when hotel staff tried to give Craig, Vara, Candice & Rhyanna a room with 2 single beds.  Back down to the lobby to get a new room.  This one had 2 double beds but about the size of a shoe box.  While Jane has 1 single bed in her shoe box.  Even though we arrived late, we had advanced 3 hours from San Francisco, so we walked down town towards Time Square to look for some dinner, but as it was nearing 12.15am our only option was Hard Rock Cafe, what a great choice it ended up being!!!  Ribs, burgers, fahitas, great fries and some great drinks all rouund.  The sights and sounds were amazing even at 1.30am.

Day 2 - Thursday - Before heading out for the day we decided to book tickets to see a Broadway Show.  Many choices including Mary Poppins, Shrek, Chicago, Grease, The Lion King and more.  After much debating on times & ticket seating we all agreed on The Lion King.

We then walked down 7th Ave to 'Andrew's Cafe' for breakfast, ordering apple & cinnamon pancakes.  We then continued many blocks to Central Park where we strolled the park seeing the skating rink, carousel, playgrounds & wildlife, mainly hungry squirrels.  We then decided it was necessary to take a carriage ride through the park.  Although expensive it was something we had to do!!  Our horse's name was Marcello, but don't ask the name of the driver!!

Next stop was the Rockefeller Centre where we bought a day/night pass for the Top of the Rock tour.  After taking the lift 67 floors) & 2 escalators to the top we had a spectacular view of New York & surrounding suburbs.  This was only our day viewing as we were heading back the next night to check the city out by lights. The lift has images on the ceiling and the lift well is lit up so you can see up where you are going - cool!

Next was the viewing of the famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree.  Although our first sighting of the tree was during daylight it was still an amazing spectacle, with a skating rink installed for the Holiday Season.

That night we took a cab down to Century 21, a discount label department store.  If we could have spent more time there we may have found more bargains. Jane had her eye on a waist coat with a fur trim inside which looked more like a darker thinner version of Rhyanna's curly hair (or man's chest hair)..... ATTRACTIVE.....not!!!  Candice and Rhyanna found a couple of things to wear, Vara had no luck and Jane wasn't looking, Craig got bored.  The funniest thing was the cab ride back.  It was raining and we had trouble hailing a taxi (or two as there is 5 of us).  A guy pulled over in a Lincoln or something like that and asked us if we wanted a cab - yes was the answer.  We are going to the Hotel Philadelphia said Craig - NO - Hotel Pennsylvannia the rest of us chimed!.  Anyway we all squeezed in - illegally.  He was an Indian guy and told us that if the cops pulled us over, we were his friends.  He started to talk to Craig about the cricket in amongst his Islam prayers and working his way through the beads hanging from the rear vision mirror and asking us if we wanted to stop for coffee and so on.  Anyway, we arrived safe and sound but it was a very interesting experience to say the least.

Day 3 - Friday - The morning started off very cold & we had purchased a 2 day Hop on Hop off bus pass which left from Times Square.  While waiting for the bus we had a persistent street merchant trying to sell us Hats, Ear Muffs & Gloves.  While we found him annoying, after sitting up on the open top level of the bus we wished we had bought everything he was selling. We took the express bus to Battery Park where we caught the boat over to Liberty Island. Plenty of photos were taken in front of lady liberty who started off copper in colour but has turned green from the salt in the air.

Hopping back on the bus we rode to the United Nations & took a short walk to take a photo of the Australian Flag which is lined up with all the other UN member nations' flags in alphabetical order - all 181 of them.  We also saw one of Donald Trumps apartment buildings. After making our way around the NY streets and sitting in traffic for what seemed like hours, the bus then took us back to our hotel where we had an hour power nap.

In the evening we headed up the Top of the Rock again for our night viewing New York is a spectacular city by night and we were told that Time Square lights can be seen from space.  The Christas Tree at night is something to behold.  30,000 fairy lights and a large crystal star on top.  At tmed intervals there are crystal flashes all over the tree.  Huge crowds in the city to view it as it had only had the official "turn on" ceremony a few days before.

Day 4 Saturday - Final day of Hop on Hop off bus ride and we seem to have got some sense over night & decided to ride down the bottom of the bus where it is WARM!!  We went straight to the World Trade Centre site it's still a big hole in the ground so there wasn't much to look at but we found the Tribute Gallery, a visitors centre dedicated to telling the story of 9/11.  A very moving experience & had us all in tears by the end.  They showed a video which contained all the names of the people who lost their lives in one way or another in this tragedy, the video runs for four & a half hours.  This just goes to show you how many people so needlessly lost their lives, a real eye opener.  All visitors are invited to leave a message and we did.  However the one already there, amongst others on the wall, which was the most poignant and said it all was -

No man's ideology is worth another man's life.  So true!!!

We then headed up town to find the Maison du Chocolat where Jane bought $70 worth of chocolate including a world famous hot chocolate.  It was fantastic, even though Jane got it in a take away container and walked down the Avenue drinking it.  MMMMM!!! We then walked up the famous 5th Avenue where Vara bought some jewellery - and before you all get excited it was only an apple for her pandora bracelet.

The Empire State Building was our next stop............and what a LONG one it was.  We waited in 7 different lines for over 40 minutes for a view that wasn't anywhere near as good as the Top of the Rocks view.  Very frustrating & disappointing.  Which was then made worse by the 2 lines & 30 minutes to get down which included walking down the 6 flights from floor 86 to 80 to hasten our departure..

An early dinner at the Heartland Brewery gave us the chance to rest & relax before getting ready to go and see The Lion King.  What an amazing production.  Fantastic costumes & backdrops made this the perfect choice.  To top off a perfect night our walk home was in snow flurries, a truly magical experience for those of us that don't see that much snow.

Day 5 Sunday - An early start to the morning for our flight to Buffalo where we would do a tour of Niagara Falls.  There was plenty of snow coming into Buffalo which made the day bitterly cold.  The first falls we saw were the Bridal Veil falls,  for all of us, we were warm enough, except for our hands an feet which were so cold, we were nearly crying.  We tramped through gorgeous powdery snow for the view. We crossed into the Canadian border to view the falls and the obligatory souvenir shop and although we were only there for a few hours we can still tell everyone that we have been to Canada. More hats and gloves were purchased at the shop to add to our already impressive collections.  We had lunch at the Sheraton overlooking American Falls - what a view.  It was absolutely stunning and difficult to draw ones eyes away to go and get something from the buffet - well almost!

The falls were a sight we will never forget as was watching us all try and put on the very attractive yellow raincoats.  It took quite some time to sort Jane out as she was trying to put her head through the arm hole.  This had Vara in hysterics almost causing her to wet herself.  The falls thunder over for approx 650 yards at a heigt of 50 yards and about 34 million gallons a minute - mind blowing.  The spray and the icicles and the sheer force of the water is astounding. We visited the Whirlpool and also drove past the largest Buddhist temple in Canada and also some very gorgeous looking homes.  We also made a stop at the 3 Sisters Island which by this stage the sun had started to set & the temperature had dropped to -15 degrees.  Vara complained that her feet were so cold it was worse than child birth. From here it was back to Buffalo airport where the plane delays didn't get us back to the hotel until 11.15pm.  The time delay allowed us to dine on some Buffalo wings in Buffalo - spicy chicken wings with a blue cheese dip and some sweet potato fries with honey.  Different but good!  The flight from Buffalo to New York was uneventful but getting in to John F Kennedy airport was great.  Our aircraft flew in from the north and slowly circled the whole of New York city before landing.  We have never seen so many city lights in our lives.  Jane could even make out Manhattan Island with Times Square a huge blob of light and the space of Central Park reasonably close by.  What a sight to behold!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to New York & hello to Washington.