Saturday morning after a wonderful cooked breakfast at our hotel we made our way to Manhattan via NJ Transit. We were meeting the Finns at Rockefeller Plaza at 10:00 a.m.. We were, as expected by anyone who know my mother and me, a little late but we found them without a problem. We bought tickets to go to the Top of the Rock. We tried to get tickets for the NBC Studios Tour as well, but the tours was closed by the Secret Service as John McCain was appearing on SNL that night. We went up to the 67th floor and I took this photo of Midtown. We also had fantastic views of Central Park and the Hudson River (see below). We had access to three floors and we were able to be outside. The weather was perfect and it was just beautiful.
After we left the Rock we made our way via the subway to the southern tip of Manhattan to catch the infamous Staten Island Ferry. The Finns wanted to see the Statute of Liberty, but didn't feel the need to actually visit it. We went to the terminal and it has been significantly renovated since I was last there. It was really quite nice. We lined up with hundreds of others for our now free ride to Staten Island(it used to cost a quarter, but they must have decided the work involved in collecting quarters from the passengers cost more than they made doing it - so you can just walk on and off. Since it was a Saturday, most of the people on the Ferry appeared to be tourists like us rather than commuters. If you ride on the right side of the Ferry going over you have a nice view of the Statute and of Ellis Island.
When we got to Staten Island, we boarded the Ferry to go back to Manhattan. The Finns got to see the Verizano Bridge - which is where the NYC Marathon would start the next day. We also saw the Brooklyn Bridge. Once back in the City we made our way to Chinatown and Little Italy to eat dinner. On the way we passed the Courthouse area which was particularly interesting to Olli and he is a lawyer in Finland. We saw the steps seen routinely in Law and Order. We had chosen to eat in Little Italy because the Finns needed to carboload for the big race on Sunday. Last winter we had taken the kids to NYC for their 10th birthday and we had eaten a special meal at DaNico's on Mulberry St., so we decided we could recommend it. We were able to get a lovely table in the back garden, and again the weather was so perfect for outside dining. All of the food was good. I had a wonderful shrimp and spinach ravioli with a bolognese sauce (2nd shrimp meal). Ulla's seafood dish was something amazing to behold. I thought I had a picture, but I can't find it so you'll have to take my word for it - the bowl was huge and filled with shrimp, lobster, clams and other yummy things in a garlic butter sauce.
After dinner the Finns wanted to go back to their hotel to rest up. they had to be up at about 4:30 a.m. to eat breakfast because they were catching a 6 a.m. bus to Staten Island for the start of the race. Kevin went up with them to see if he could get discounted tickets to anything at the TKTS booth in Times Square. Mom and I stayed in Chinatown to shop. We did not find any great deals. We were most amazed by the inexpensive prices of the seafood stands. Kevin called and said that he had gotten 1/2 price tickets to Spamalot, so we made our way back up to Times Square. We went to Toys R Us to get presents for the kids and then went to the theater. Our seats were a little far off to the right of the stage, but as Monty Python fans we thoroughly enjoyed the show. We got an extra kick out of the Finnish jokes in the program and the opening fish slap dance scene. We got back to the hotel in time to see John McCain on SNL.
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