Trip to NYC: Day 5

After an exciting Monday, we decided to start Tuesday off with a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'd heard good things about it, but was still impressed by the great views of Manhattan, some of the other bridges, and of the Harbor that can be seen while strolling across the bridge. The Bridge itself is also quite impressive.







It took us about an hour to get across the bridge, and to our next objective: Grimaldi's Pizza. We got down from the bridge and had to walk back to the area under the bridge to find it, and we arrived about half an hour before it was to open, so we strolled over to a nearby pier on the river and also admired the large buildings owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses located there. They didn't look very interesting though. Just big buildings that said Watchtower on the top.



Once Grimaldi's opened, we got inside and ordered ourselves a large New York-style thin crust pepperoni that turned out to be really good. Probably my favorite meal of the trip. After polishing off half a pizza each, we were ready to head back to Manhattan.



We found a Subway stop with a little help from a local, and made our way back. We stopped in lower Manhattan and made our way to a little place called TJ Maxx where I picked up a hoodie and a tie. From there, we got back on the Subway and headed North toward Central Park.

Before hitting the Park itself, we paid a visit to FAO Schwartz and looked around inside for a while, stopping briefly to stand on the giant piano. It was cool, but would have been cooler if 12 other people hadn't been standing on it at the same time. Hard to play chopsticks with that many people, you know?



After leaving FAO Schwartz, we ventured forth into Central Park. We walked around for a good while, strolling past the Bethesda Fountain, checking out Strawberry Fields, and then on to the Belvedere Castle. Given that it was a cooler, overcast day, it wasn't too surprising that there weren't many people out in the park.





We then left Central Park, paused outside the American Natural History Museum and considered going in, but it was only going to be open for another two hours or so, so we decided to pass. We realized we were fairly close to the Manhattan Temple, so we headed down that way. I have to say its kind of cool, the way its tucked in there with lots of other tall buildings. We went inside the building and the doorman suggested we might want to check out the LDS chapel that is on the 3rd floor of the building. That was kind of a surreal experience, because upon stepping out of the elevator it felt like walking into any other LDS chapel that I've been in. Never mind that its on the 3rd floor of a building in the middle of Manhattan. At this point my feet were pretty tired, and I took advantage of the sofas there to sit and rest for a bit while we planned our next move.



We decided to go swing past the TKTS booth and see if there were tickets available for any Broadway show we'd be interested in seeing. We headed down there and didn't really see anything that piqued our interest. Our backup plan was to check out a deli that a friend of ours had recommended on Times Square. He had commented on the huge pile of meat that came on his sandwich, and he wasn't lying. These sandwiches were pretty much all meat and only meat. Two tiny slices of bread and a thin layer of lettuce and tomato and cheese were the only things standing between me and a literal pound of turkey. It didn't really work for me. Sure, I like turkey, but just a big pile of plain turkey? Maybe I should have tried something else, but honestly I wouldn't recommend that place.



At this point we were pretty worn out, so we headed home with Randall, who'd shown up while we were eating. We finished off the evening by going out for ice cream at a diner in Queens near their place. Then I worked on getting my luggage in order, as we were heading home the next afternoon.

More photos from Day 5.