"50 Bucks so far and the train hasn't left the station"

The title is a Robin quote. We had just paid to park at the train depot and bought our tickets to NYC (Round Trip).  We observed in the City that parking garages charged $8 for 1/2 hour! $46 for 8 hours! Entrance to any of the sites like Top of The Rock or Empire State was $24+ each.

Great train ride to Grand Central. The station was just like you see in the movies. Just beautiful.


We then walked to St Patrick's cathedral and lit candles for Robin's Mom and Daniele. It is undergoing a lot of renovation so the beauty was hard to see.

From there we walked to Rockefeller Center and explored.

Then we went by Fox News studios. Right outside talking on a cell phone was Ollie North! We had a nice lunch near there and then headed to Times Square.

We then walked down Broadway to the Empire State Building. On the way, in front of one of the network studios, we were offered a pass to the taping of Jon Stewart's Daily Show tonight. Bruno would not have been pleased if we stayed in the City that late.

Hopped a subway there and went down to the 9-11 memorial. Erie feeling seeing the neighborhood that was so devastated, including the nearby Fire Station that lost a lot of their members.

Another subway back to Grand Central and a train back home.

Observations:

• The City really looks nice. No trash anywhere in our walks and barely any graffiti.
• Times Square was busy but nice.
• The subways were crowded and hot but clean.
• The 9-11 memorial is very moving. 
• Every single person we met was as nice as they could be. 
• I had trouble with the machine reading my ticket for the subway and a gent came up and ran his card through so that I could enter. He simply saw I was having a problem.
• Cashiers were patient and very helpful. 
• Street vendors of tourist things were polite and offered to help even if we didn't buy their merchandise.Even smiled when we declined.

 Pictures later.