Things Best Left Unsaid: I'm Not as Think as You Drunk I Am

Day 4:

I was starting to hit the wall at this point. I just came off my fourth night of three hours sleep. My ankles were getting so swollen, I didn't know how much walking I could do, but this was a free day (until dinner) and I was determined to make the most of it.

Steve and I headed out first thing. We decided to make our way down towards the New York Public Library to check out it's massive reading room.

We walked down to the Helmsley Building (thats right, the Queen of mean) and through the tunnels that mark the end of Park Avenue.

The Chrylser Building is just off to the left. As I said before, a real stunner. Pictures just do not do it justice.

The exterior of Grand Central Station

This is the library. It was closed of course and wouldn't open for an hour. Closed on Sundays. I had to scratch it off the list. The reading room alone is two blocks long.

We went to the "Top of the Rock", that is the top of Rockefeller Center. This is the way to go. The Empire State Building has a 2 to 3 hour lineup, and not nearly the view of the Rock. We walked straight in an up. Now I don't like heights at the best of times, and my hangover wasn't helping, so most of these shots were taken from the fetal position as I laid on the ground.

It was a little overcast, but it cleared up fast. It was perfect by the time Dave and Dan went up.

The interior of The Rock. I just love these buildings.

Carnegie Deli.

Excuse me miss? I believe I ordered the large sandwich.

These things were monsters, pure novelty. Very good though. Another place that exemplifies the efficiency of the city. The service was excellent, they just wanted you out. The line up was huge.

The walls are lined with autographed pictures of pretty much anyone you could think of.

That's what I had to leave behind. If you look really close, you can actually see a slice of bread.

Ryan Dempster. What were the odds?

Classic

The Museum of Natural History. Fascinating place, great buildings. I was really losing steam here but I pressed on.

The first thing you see when you walk in.

The North wall

The lobby is a Teddy Roosevelt memorial. There are some great quotes mounted on the wall. I respect the guy, but i've always had a problem with "conservationist" that shoot things. When you came to the dioramas of stuffed wildlife, you only had to look down at the name of the person who donated it and you knew it was just an excuse for him and his cronies to go out and shoot big game. George Eastman, J.P. Morgan et al.

The camera doesn't work so great in here (more of the operator being the problem I think)

This is a diorama. Awesome. If you click on it you can see a little guy of a flying carpet about half way up the right side. Amazing what people can do.

Honk if you're horny

That thing that lives in my closet at night

What my spine feels like most of the time

Some of Nick's pets

That's a big chunk....of wood!!

Love this shot. Kids are terrified of this thing

Teddy himself, plus bird poop

The Dakota. An absolutely stunning building completed in 1884. It was so named at the time because the Upper West Side was so far from anything it might as well be in Dakota. What amazes me, is that this is probably one of the priciest pieces of real estate anywhere. Take a look on wiki who has lived there. At the same time, look at the a/c units hanging out of the windows. Chip in some dough and get central air people!!

The main entrance. John Lennon was shot right inside of the front gates.

The bridge into Central Park/Strawberry Fields

I was done walking. Dave and I took a rickshaw back to the Avenue of the Americas.

Fifth Avenue. Bring your wallet. Dave an I decided to play a game. The store with the best air conditioning was the most successful store. The winner.....Versace

I always buy trinkets to remind myself of chapters in my life, especially vacations like this. I dragged Dave into Tiffany's to see if I could get something to match my bracelet. Walking into this place is nothing like walking into the Vancouver store. It's massive. We checked out the directory when we walked in and I saw we had to go to the third floor. They still had the old school elevators with the well suited man operating them. They don't let them stop at separate floors, but rather wait until a car is full going to a certain floor. We entered the one for the third, as the doors closed we had about 10 people aboard. The operator suddenly took a deep breath, and in a voice I could never duplicate (nor want to) said "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Tiffany's, I am about to take you higher than you have ever been before." Then he stepped into my face as the elevator came to a stop. "Welcome to the third floor, where we have diamonds, and silver, and ohhh so much more." Yikes!!

I could see Dave trying to make eye contact with me through the peripheral, I turned away before I started snickering. The doors opened and we all climbed out, subconciously acknologing what we had just witnessed. I made my way to the sales counter and took a look at the necklaces they had. The Saleswoman said they had a new one that just came in that matched my bracelet. She grabbed it from the back and wrapped it up and we were on our way.

We had the same guy on the way done of course. He decided to make it simple on the way down and just belted out his own version of "New York New York."

De Beers St. Regis

Back to the hotel to ice the feet

Dinner time!! We changed and met at the Bull and Bear lounge in the hotel. Recognized as one of the 2 best lounges in the world. Beautiful old school mahogany. The Cosmopolitans started flowing again. You should check it out, they film the stock recap on the FOX news network there every Mon.-Fri. between 5 and 6