Empty Nest In The Midwest: NYC

We woke up fairly early because Lisa had to get ready for work. I looked out the window and this is what I saw. Taxi cabs and busses everywhere!

We walked outside our hotel and got bagels from this cart. They were fresh and warm.

Two "everything" bagels with cream cheese and 1 apple juice was $3.25

We were amazed at how inexpensive that was

We took our bagels back to our room.

A real New York bagel:

Lisa had to go to her work meeting, which happened to be in our hotel, so she didn't have far to go. I stayed in the room. I watched TV and went back to sleep.

I wasn't brave enough to venture out on the Manhattan streets by myself. That was way out of my comfort zone. I was perfectly happy in the hotel room, and I caught up on my sleep.

Lisa came to get me around 11:00 and we went out to get some lunch.

Her co-worker took us to a place called Brendan's that was down the street. They had very good food!

After lunch we went back to the hotel. I went back to the room and read my book (something I never get to do at home), and Lisa went back to work.

She came back sometime in the late afternoon and we got ready to go out exploring.

When we went outside and walked around for a bit we found we were only a block away from the Empire State building. It was really tall, and so close!

We couldn't see it from our hotel window, or from the street in front of our hotel. The buildings around us were too tall and blocked our view.

One block over from our hotel:

Our hotel was also across the street from the Macys store. Not just any Macy's store. this is THE Macy's store of all Macy's stores.

This particular Macy's is special to me for a few reasons. My mom worked for Macy's as a cosmetics buyer for much of my childhood. She used to travel to this Macy's A LOT when I was a kid. The corporate offices are in this store.

Also, we were on 34th street. The same exact 34th street that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade goes down. I love that parade and I watch it every year. I also love the old version of the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" and I watch that every year too. I thought it was so cool to be there, even if nothing was going on.

Looking down the parade route on 34th street. Macy's is on the right. The store is so huge, it takes up an entire city block.

R.H. Macy never saw this particular store on 34th street. He started the first Macy's store in 1850 in Massachusetts and expanded to New York in 1858 at Sixth ave and 14th street. He died in 1877.

This Macy's was built in 1902 and has had many owners including Isador Straus, who died on the Titanic in 1912. His brother Nathan Strauss continued ownership after that, and now it is owned by a giant corporation called American National Holding Company (they also own Bloomingdales)

Here are some pics I found on the web of the 34th street Macys.
This was in 1907 There are horses and buggies, and women in long skirts!

(web image)

You can see the cut-out in the corner of the building in the picture above. The company that owns that building would not sell their building to Macy's for a reasonable price, so Macy's built their giant building around it.

(web image)

This is pretty much what it looked like when we were there, with the giant shopping bag sign.

(web image)

Lisa and I walked down to the main entrance on 34th street

It was really nice inside, and very crowded.

We were looking for something for Lisa to take back to our Mom. We thought she might want something that said "Macy's New York".

They still have 2 old wooden escalators in the store, and they still work!!

After our trip to Macy's, we went back to the hotel for a few minutes.
Later we went up to the rooftop of our hotel, and we could see the Empire state building from there.
It was really pretty at night:

We also had a really good view of the Macy's from the rooftop of our hotel:

We were heading to Times Square for dinner and some shopping.

We passed police on horses. Why are they on horses? I don't quite understand.

What do they do if they have to chase someone? I can't imagine those horses running down those busy streets or sidewalks. Hmmmm...........I should have asked them when I was standing there.

A few more blocks and we were in Times Square. I've I've been here during the day but never at night.

It was neat to be here (I found myself thinking that a lot on this trip).

The huge signs, the lights, the people, the smells coming from the restaurants and food carts we walked past...........

It was a very cool experience to be in Times Square at night.

We went in a few stores like Disney, the M&M store and the Hershey's store. We did buy a lot of chocolate!

We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Before they seated us, they wanted to take our picture, and the lady handed us guitars with no strings.
We took the pic but we really weren't being serious about it. My guitar is upside down!

Later when they brought the picture to our table, we liked it and ended up buying it!