New York City

We've had a trip planned with Keith and Denise since last December. This is our third trip to NYC with them; first in 2002, then in 2005. Both times we saw Paul McCartney at Madison Square Gardens. What memories!

Here's a shot of the skyline on the way in from the airport. There's a huuuuge cemetary in the foreground.

They had rain today and the sky is still a bit overcast but the rest of the week looks clear.

We're in an AirBNB place and here's the view of uptown from the tiny balcony.

And the same view zoomed. The building to the right of the the water tower is the Empire State Building.

And if you lower your view you see this.

We're staying in a part of New York City that's new to us: Tribeca. On the west side of the island east of China town.

There are many fantastic buildings in New York.

This is the new Freedom Tower near where the World Trade Towers once stood.

Here we are in front of one of 911 Memorial

We decided to take a helicopter tour.

Terri got to sit in the front.

Keith and Denise and I had to sit in the back. At least they were facing forward.

A bunch of shots of the city.

A video of the trip.

Here we are with the Brooklyn Bridge in the back ground.

Another really cool building. It looks like it's been twisted.

After the helicopter ride we walked across the bridge. Very crowded.

What a great bridge!

One of the reasons for this trip was a concert at Madison Square Gardens.

Billy Joel.

Not a huge fan of Billy Joel but he put on a fantastic show.

And the place was sold out.

This was the view from our seats.

Even behind the stage was packed and I don't think I've ever seen that before.

And one of the coolest parts of the concert when they let one of the roadies do his version of AC/DC's Highway To Hell. The guy totally nailed it.

Billy Joel picked up a guitar and just played along.

http://www.billyjoelmsg.com/#modules_wrap

This is a YouTube video from the August 2014 concert. Apparently BJ's ex-wife Christie Brinkley was in the first few rows of the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4i5pdz7IPw

Space is so limited in NYC they park their cars differently.

And there's lots of construction going on.

And of course what would a trip to New York be without a visit to Times Square.

We also visited the the Highline Park

Thursday evening we went to a Broadway play..."A Gentleman's Guide to Love and murder".

To get there we took the subway..

Fantastic food!

What elaborate fire escapes they have here.

Friday night we went to a Yankees - Blue Jays game. The Blue Jays got off to a good start but they ulimately blew it.

On the way to the game we stopped at Central Park.

The building below is the Dakota - where John Lennon lived until December 1980 when he was murdered on its doorstep

And this is the Strawberry Fields monument to John Lennon. Lots of old hippies hanging out and knobs playing Beatles tunes on guitars.

The spooky buiding from the move "Ghostbusters".

On the east side of the park.

We had to take the subway the rest of the way to Yankee Stadium..its waayyyy out of town now.

On the way we rode with little M'Butu

Another fantastic NYC building..the Time Warner Building...when we were here in 2005 it was just being built.

What a fantastic ball park. $12.00 draft. $9.50 bottled beer and $5.00 for $1.00 worth of peanuts. I guess they gotta pay for it somehow.

On our last day we went to the 9-11 Museum.

We pass the fantastic Woolworth Building again.

Another building that we could see from our condo is shown below.

Now this is not a pretty building. It has no freakinbg windows at all. We overheard a guy on the street telling someone that its full of computers and telephone equipment.
I think the aliens are in there planning the world takeover.

The 9-11 Museum is a very busy place - you want to go early in the day for sure.

This is a picture in the museum showing what the shoreline looked like early on September 9, 2011. Look at the communication tower on the right building.

The last steel beam to be removed from the towers clean up effort. Apparenty they found the bodies of six fire fighters at the base of this column.

The two mangled steel girder assemblies below are taken from the actual impact points where the planes hit the north and south towers. Can't remember which was which.

One of the fire trucks damaged by falling debris.

A section of the communication tower. Refer back to the picture up above for some scale.

After the museum we have some time to kill before going to the airport so.....

Which as usual turns into ...