New York: Part 2

Our second day in New York consisted of midtown Manhattan. Our first stop was the G.E. Building, where they have the "Top of the Rock". This is one of my favorite New York attractions because the views are incredible. Unfortunately for us, it was very cloudy but it was still beautiful. While on the 70th floor and 850 feet above street level, you see the Empire State Building and southern Manhattan from one side and on the other, you see Central Park and northern Manhattan. Being above most of the buildings really is amazing. This is one of my "must see" attractions if you are ever in the Big Apple.


After Rockefeller Center, we walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. As we walked inside, I noticed that a wedding was taking place. To my surprise, I was able to walk up to about the 5th row and take some pictures of the ceremony. Since witnessing a wedding at St. Patrick's isn't something that can be planned, I was very excited to be there. I doubt that will ever happen again.


While in New York, we took the subway everywhere. It was really nice when Bryan was with us because we didn't have to figure out where to go. Taking the subway got a little boring, but Erik did a great job navigating our stops. We got on the right train every single time. Me on the other hand, had a difficult time getting through the gates. I scanned my Metro card once and didn't get through fast enough so I had to ask a girl if I could squeeze behind her as she walked in. Thankfully, I only had to do that once. :)


Last on our agenda for day 2 was a piano concert at Carnegie Hall with Jon and Bryan. You'll notice in the picture that Jon and Bryan are dressed up and we weren't. Erik and I had been out all day sightseeing so we didn't have time to change. I wanted to dress up, but oh well. Anyway...I've been to NY a couple of times and this was something I had never done before. This was the pianist's Carnegie Hall debut and she played absolutely beautiful! The concert lasted about 1 1/2 hours and I'm guessing she memorized around 75-100 pages of music. Being a pianist myself, I can't even imagine memorizing that many pages and playing so many songs back to back. Her forearm muscles must have been sore! Afterwards, we started talking in the lobby and she came out to see her family. I asked her if we could take a picture and they were very excited. Her husband took pictures with their camera so she could have pictures with her "fans". :) It was pretty funny.


Stay tuned for part 3. Erik's favorite day....the U.S. Open!