The Big Apple

My parents came to visit me for close to two weeks and we started things off by spending a few nights in New York City (another thing I can now scratch off my bucket list).

The skyline that everyone recognizes

On the first day we went to Ground Zero and saw the new One World Trade Center which is not quite finished yet but it has already surpassed the Empire State Building as the tallest building in Manhattan. After that it was time to take the free Staten Island ferry where you got a great view of both the Manhattan skyline as well as the Statue of Liberty. After lunch and the round trip, it was time to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.

One World Trade Center

Obligatory pic of the you know what

A look back from the Brooklyn Bridge

In the evening we went to the top of Rockefeller Center and finished the night of at Times Square which reminded me a bit of Las Vegas with its crazy light show.

The Rockefeller Center

The view from the top looking north towards Central Park

Times Square

On day two I had had enough of walking and for the first time in our lives we decided to go for a "hop on, hop off" sightseeing tour in those London style double decker busses. It actually included four different tours and we started with the upper Manhattan tour. It was an easy way to see quite a few different places although the enjoyment depends quite a bit on how good a guide you get. While my parents visited some random museum called the Met, I took the lower Manhattan tour. In the evening we all went to the Night Lights tour which was a bit of a disappointment because of the poor guide and the fact that it had got quite chilly.

United Nations

I am not a huge fan of crowds and a walk through the Central Park was a nice escape from all the hubbub. The annual "walkathon" Walk for Aids happened to be on the same day and an estimated 45,000 people took part in the event.

On Monday the weather turned south and some heavy showers hit the town. We spent most of the time we had left in the American Museum of Natural History before flying from LaGuardia back to Denver.