Bonus Day!

Due to Delta's blunder on the 23rd, Mops, Pops and I all had an bonus day together on the 29th!

I didn't take any photos on the 29th - annoyingly - but we had a really lovely morning going to see the Frick Collection. It's absolutely incredible to think that all those pieces of art were Mr. Frick's personal, private collection! His house was amazing enough in itself, but it was just full with wall to wall works or art, from the paintings on the walls, to the tables and chairs, to the rugs on the floor, everything was a masterpiece.

I came away from gallery wanting to know a lot more about New York back in the 20's and 30's, when the prolific families like the Frick's and the Carniegies and Astors would have been around. What must New York have been like back then with these rich families more or less running the city?! It must have been a fascinating time - I'm definitely going to look into a bit more.

After the Frick we did a spot of shopping at the new Uniqlo flagship store on 5th Avenue (amazing bargains!), and mooched around Barnes and Noble before having a very delicious lunch at Fig & Olive. It was a really lovely, relaxed restaurant and the food was absolutely delicious, we all had mushroom and truffle soup and their steak skewers with cous cous - yum! It was another great new restaurant find in New York, and made even more special to be able to go there with Mops and Pops.

There was just enough time after lunch for a stroll back to the hotel and a cup of coffee in the Plaza Hotel lobby, before having to say Cheerio.

It's always horrible having to say goodbye, but this time it felt even harder than normal (the same for saying bye to Tom the night before). It was such an amazingly special and unforgettable Christmas, and a perfect holiday for us all. It was such a treat to have Mops, Pops and Tom here for so long, and to be able to share Christmas in New York together.

I will never, ever forget it. Thank you all so so so much!

Up On The Roof...

In the evening, we all went to the rooftop bar at 230 5th, near the Flat Iron building...

 It was a beautiful clear night, a wee bit windy, and bloody freezing, but a lovely night, the perfect night for some cocktails on the roof, looking out at this amazing view...

I've only been to the 230 5th bar a few times, and every time the view takes my breathe away, as you step out of the double doors on to the terrace and see the Empire State Building standing there so proudly, and the Chrysler Building in the distance and the Times Square buildings to the left. Amazing!

One of the other great things about the bar is that if it's cold, you can wear one of their dressing gowns! So we did...

  We were all rooftop cocktail Jedi's!

It was such a special night, and the perfect way to say Cheerio to Tommy who was flying back to the UK that night. It was a great idea of his to go to the bar, maybe next time we're all there it'll be a bit warmer and we won't need the dressing gowns?!

Journey To The Stars...

In the morning, after a tasty breakfast at the Green Cafe we made our way up to the Natural History Museum Planetarium for an adventure to the stars...

When we got there we were amazed to see the queue snaking all the way out the door, down the stairs and running for the entire block, almost round the corner! Luckily when we walked to the back of the queue we realised that we could join the smaller queue for the Planetarium bit.

However, once we got inside, it was time to join another queue for tickets. We had a bit of trouble with the ticketing machine as we kept trying to buy tickets for the show and they were selling out by the minute, so the only ticket we could get was for 3.30pm (it was about 11.30am at the time!), so it was a bit frustrating. But then, as we were having trouble a very nice lady came and helped us out, and told us that she'd escort us to the front of the queue for the show and get us in to the early showing!

It was pretty amazing, she walked us through the museum, going through 'staff only' sections and in the 'staff only' lift, rushing us through so we'd not miss the show. Just as we got to the show we realised that I'd got the name of the show wrong and she was taking us to a different exhibition instead, but she didn't mind at all - she didn't flinch, she just turned us round and rushed us to the right exhibition and got us in early without queueing. It was fantastic. The staff at the Natural History Museum were so friendly, especially this lady, and she refused to accept a wee tip too, so it was all purely to keep the customers happy and give them a great experience, which she did - so Thank you!

The show was absolutely incredible, it was in the dome roofed room, and the stars and planets were all projected in almost 3D on the ceiling - it was amazing because it felt like the planets were really floating in air in front of your eyes, but you didn't need glasses or anything. It was a far more impressive experience than any of the 3D films that are out at the moment.

Whoopie Goldberg took us on a tour around the Universe, showing us Brown Dwarfs and White Dwarfs and even showed us Uranus! He he... It was all fantastic!

The Natural History Museum never fails to be amazing, all the exhibitions in there are wonderful and interesting and entertaining. I love it.

After landing back to earth we went for a lovely stroll through the park to the Boathouse for a spot of lunch...

It was a wee bit busy but we managed to get a table and enjoy our burgers and fries before hitting the shops for a spot of sale shopping at Bloomingdales.

Hugo...

After some tasty tea at the Coffee Shop at Union Square, we all went to go and dry off from the pouring rain in the cinema. We went to see Hugo...

I think it we all collectively pooled what we could remember from the film during those times we were all awake we could probably tell you what the film was about!

Unfortunately the mix of warmth, food, beer and a bit of a slow story line meant that at one time of another we all drifted off to sleep, some of us even snored!

The 3Dness of the film was very impressive, but the rest of the film was a wee bit slow, but never mind, it kept us warm and dry for the evening!

The World Trade Center...

On a very wet afternoon on the 27th, we queued up in the grim weather to see the 9/11 Memorial Gardens. It was far far busier than the last time I went, and a much different atmosphere in the rain, compared to the hot and sunny September afternoon like last time. In a way, the rain seemed very fitting though.

The clouds were hanging low of the World Trade Center, hiding the final top portion of the new tower...

It's amazing to think that when this huge building is finished, those top floors will be in the clouds and sometimes above the clouds on some days.

As we were there in the late afternoon we were able to see the memorial pools all lit up this time...

They took on quite a different presences all lit up, they were beautiful.

It was incredibly wet and windy though, so we didn't stay for a great deal of time. You couldn't even stand by the second memorial pool as the water was being whipped up and blown about, like the sea on a pier during a storm.

It was nice to be able to visit the gardens during another season, seeing the trees looking quite different in the winter, and seeing some more progress on the construction sites surrounding the garden. I think it's going to be somewhere that we can visit again and again. 

 The Christmas lights near the World Trade Center were beautiful. I think (although I'm probably wrong) that this plaza was where all the Occupy Wall Street protestors were camped out just a couple of months ago. It looked completely different this Christmas. It was beautiful.

Boxing Day...

After the helicopter flight and a little tasty smackeral at the South Street Seaport, we headed back to Central Park for a little horse and cart ride...

It was bit of a scramble to get the cart at first, with people pushing in and trying to hail them like taxis, but we managed to get a lovely black cart pulled by a beautiful black horse.

It was a lovely time of day to go round the park, with the sun just beginning to go down. We did a little loop around the bottom part of the park, passed lots of different spots where films were shot - as our driver pointed out quite a lot.

It was fantastic riding through the park, seeing the Plaza through the trees, looking all grand and proud. It's such a beautiful building, inside and out, and we stayed there!!! I still can't quite believe it.

After our ride was over, we made our way over to my apartment in Brooklyn for a spot of Boxing Day tea (turkey sandwiches and sausages rolls!). It was so lovely to have everyone in the apartment, making it feel like home. It felt very special, and a really lovely end to an incredible day.

Up, Up & Away...

On Boxing Day morning Tom and I met Mops and Pops at Pier 6, at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport because we were about to go up in a HELICOPTER!!!

From over two blocks away we could here the blades spinning round and the helicopters taking off from the river, and as we got closer we started to see them all in the air...

 

 After waiting for a wee while, we were given our life jacket belts, watched our safety video and then were escorted out onto the helipads to board our chopper...

 Then it was another short wait while another helicopter landed, and then it was time for take off!

Our pilot (who looked far too young to be flying a helicopter, let alone be in the army - which he said he was!), took us up, flung us round and headed took us down to the bottom of Manhattan over Governors Island...

... towards Ellis Island and Liberty Island...

... then round the bottom of the island and up the west side of Manhattan, passing close to the new World Trade Center...

The views were absolutely breath taking, the weather was perfect, the sun was beaming on New York casting crisp clear shadows from the skyscrapers, it was just amazing...

 It was fantastic seeing New York from such a different view, seeing all the different heights of the buildings, seeing the way things are laid out. It's funny, when you're down on the ground and driving or walking around Manhattan you get a real sense of the grid system of the roads - but from the angle we were looking at it at in the helicopter, it sometimes just looked like a jiggled mass of buildings.

We went up as high are about 72nd street, in line with Central Park before turning round...

It was fantastic seeing the park from that height too. Seeing the park from the Top of the Rock is great, but this was far far better, you could see everything, it really is a big old park!

Then we flew back down the Hudson River back towards the Statue of Liberty before going round Battery Park and back up to Pier 6...

Then it was back down smoothly onto the Helipad. It was all just so incredible, I can't actually believe it happened. It was such a fantastic surprise from Mops and Pops on Christmas morning, opening the envelope that said we were going up in the helicopter... I'll never forget it!

It was absolutely amazing!

Christmas Day!!!

Waking up in the Plaza Hotel on Christmas morning was so so special, and made Christmas morning even more exciting! The big comfy beds gave us a great nights sleep, so we woke up ready for a fancy breakfast downstairs before opening our presents.

The breakfast was rather lovely, with lots of things to choose from - I went for the eggs benedict, which I have to say were probably the tastiest eggs benedict in all of New York, if not the world, and I've had a fair few eggs benedict in the last couple of years in New York. They were delicious!

After breakfast we went back to Mops and Pops's room for a prezzie opening session...

Even being on across the pond, Father Christmas was able to find us all in the hotel! What a clever man he is.

We all had lots of lovely presents, and it was great to be able to talk to Beth on the phone too, so we were all together for a few minutes on Christmas Day. Then it was time to ablute and go for a Christmas Day walk in Central Park...

 It was a beautifully sunny morning, and although the park was quite busy, it still felt lovely and quiet and peaceful. We walked all around, over to the ice skating rink, where hundreds of people were standing watching, waiting for the rink to be open for their Christmas Day skating...

... and round to the boating lake and Boathouse...

It was such a lovely walk, working up an appetite for our Plaza lunch. But before we could eat again, a certain Christmas Elf had a little photo shoot booked in the park...

 

Tom very bravely stripped down to his little yellow tights and donned his elf hat for a Central Park Christmas Day photo... and then quickly got dressed again before the Park rangers had a chance to lock him up!

Then it was time for a spot of Christmas lunch in the Palm Court...

The menu was really nicely broken down into three sections, to begin, to savour, to indulge... and we did all three! 

Mops had the gravlax to start, Tom had the chowder and Pops and I had the delicious cauliflower strudel (much nicer, and less cauliflowery than it sounds!). 

Then Tom and I had the duck cassoulet, Mops had the beef and Pops had the Snapper. There may not have been any turkey on the menu, but it was all mighty tasty. 

Then for pudding, there was a whole island in the middle of the room, full with lots of different treats, constantly being topped up by the pudding chefs...

It was all incredible and a very special Christmas treat!

Then, as with any Christmas afternoon, it was time for a nap. So we went back upstairs for a wee bit, flicked through the channels on the telly and found Home Alone 2! So we were watching Home Alone 2 on Christmas Day, in the Home Alone 2 hotel...

It was so funny seeing the Plaza in the film, and seeing all the bits of Central Park that we'd been walking around that morning... what a coincidence!

Next to the Plaza is the Paris Cinema, a little arty cinema that shows films like the Showroom cinema in Sheffield, or the Hyde Park cinema in Leeds. They were showing the Artist, which had been getting very good reviews, so we all went to see it on Christmas Evening...

It was a great film, a clever idea doing a modern silent film, but made to feel like an old 1920's film... it was really lovely, and a full house too, lots of people must have had the same idea. But I bet not everyone was able to just walk across the road to their hotel room after the film finished.

The hotel looked beautiful at night, with the twinkly tree lights on the road that runs down the side of the hotel, and the hotel entrance...

It was such a very special Christmas Day, it felt really magical being in New York for it, and even more magical staying in the Plaza Hotel on Christmas Eve and waking up there on Christmas morning.

Tom and I went back to Brooklyn that night feeling very happy and incredibly excited about what was coming the next morning...