On Board Tour

Last night, after a ward temple sealing assignment, we went out to eat with a few friends. (Which was soo much fun! We really needed to have a fun night after all that has been going on around here. Thanks friends!!) One of them asked what was my favorite part of NYC? That got me thinking...tough question. This tour was most likely my favorite. We have done tours in big cities before. They were the hop-on-hop-off kind. This one was 5 hours long and when we would get off the bus the tour guide would take us to a spot and tell us more information. It was great! Our guide was great. His name was Jonathon and a native New Yorker. I think he was from Brooklyn, no accent (darn :( ). He was rather short. So when we would get off the bus he would walk with his duck umbrella up so we could follow along. When none of us were around, he looked quite silly. I'm sure he gets many strange looks.
We didn't do the tour until later in the week, so there were many spots we had already seen. But we had no idea how cool this spot was. We are in Central Park at a spot called "Strawberry Fields". Through the trees is the "Dakota" building where John Lennon, his wife and son lived. Also, the place where he was shot. His wife, Yoko, put a memorial for John in that pave area where people are sitting. I believe that Yoko still lives in the same building. How cool is that, the memorial and her home are so close together.

This is the memorial for John Lennon, IMAGINE. Many people were taking pictures with it, and items are still being left.

This is the Saks department store. No we didn't go shopping. We didn't even go in. A surprise, I know.

Empire State Building. We didn't go to the top. We have been on many tall building over the past couple of years so we didn't feel the need.

Flatiron building. Been in many shows and movies.

I don't remember if this arch had a special name. The most recent movie I remember seeing this in is "August Rush". Great movie!

If you look really hard you can see three bridges in this picture. From front to back (bmw), Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge.

We didn't realize until the tour began that part of the tour was a ferry ride to Staten Island. So cool!

These two were soo tired of me taking pictures they wanted to make me mad. Well, I guess I got the last laugh. HA!

This is the Trinity Church in the movie "National Treasure". A family favorite.

We went to Wall Street and this is the New York Stock Exchange. Did you know that Wall Street only has foot traffic? We didn't.

George Washington's inauguration was in NYC. I'm sure I learned about this when I was learning about American History in school. Then I didn't care so much. Now it's kinda cool.

We also visited the sight of the Twin Towers. I'll share more about that later. We went to a museum about ground zero.

We learned all kinds of interesting facts during our tour. I learned why plays are called "On Broadway" or "Off Broadway". First, did you know they aren't on Broadway Street at all? Most if not all are in theaters on other streets. What makes a play "On Broadway" is the size of the venue they are playing in. "On Broadway" is over 499 seats. "Off Broadway" is less than 499 but more than 99. There was so much more trivia shared than I can remember. I guess these were the most memorable facts to me.