I really enjoy our short New York trips. One time we visited NYC at Christmas Time. The other time we spent time in Chinatown and Little Italy. This time we were there for a Broadway show and the Statue of Liberty Crown tour.
The car ride to New York was relatively quick with no traffic and fun because of the great company of a couple of our friends. It is always exciting to see the Lincoln tunnel, because right after getting through it, you arrive in the heart of Manhattan. According to Wikipedia, The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) set of three tunnels under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan, New York City, in the United States.
Every time I enjoy driving surrounded by the numerous NYC skyscrapers. They all are so different.
On the way to the hotel, we decided to drive a little in Central Park. My post about our visit to Central Park in the winter is here. Central Park looks beautiful in the summer and there is plenty to do. Next time, I want to rent a bike and take the Central Park TV & Movie Sites Tour. The park looks completely different in the summer. There were so many people walking and biking. We realized quickly that it was too crowded for driving there, so our ride was pretty short. There are a few pictures from our car window.
Then, we headed to Times Square to check in at the hotel and continued taking the pictures from the car.
A panoramic sunroof was very handy in this city.
New York traffic is crazy in general and especially at this time, but we finally arrived at our hotel – Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
This hotel has a pretty cool elevator system. You push the button and it shows you the letter of the elevator to take.
We had tickets to Penn and Teller this night who were performing at the theater in this hotel. The rest of our free time tonight we planned to spend in my favorite place – Times Square, which we could see from our hotel window.
Always crowded but fun Times Square.
Here are our hotel room windows somewhere on 15th floor as seen from Times Square.
We found the sparkling New Year’s Eve Ball that millions of eyes from all over the world are focused on each year. It looks so small from the distance, but according to the Ball Fun Facts, the Ball is a geodesic sphere, 12 feet in diameter, and weighs 11,875 pounds. The Ball is covered with a total of 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles that vary in size, and range in length from 4 ¾ inches to 5 ¾ inches per side, The Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.
It is a crime being in New York and not experiencing the taste of true New York pizza. A nice server from a Times Square Irish Pub recommended the Ray’s Pizza place and we headed there. It was the best pizza that I’ve had so far. The place is really simple, but the pizza was great!
Here we are on our way to the Marquis Theater on the third floor of the hotel. We didn’t have to go far. 🙂
This theater is absolutely beautiful inside and has good seating and great visibility. We were seated in The Balcony – first row right in the center – the seats were perfect. The show was very entertaining with some amazing “Tricks”. It lasted about 2 Hours, with a 20 minute Intermission.
The show was interesting and conveniently located in the same hotel we were staying. We all enjoyed it – a real Broadway show on Broadway. The best parts of all the shows is the interaction with the crowd. Some of the crowd members that they had pulled on stage were all brave and made the show more interesting.
The night we went, Penn also made an “African Spotted Pygmy Elephant” (actually a cow with a prosthetic trunk) disappear from inside a huge box that was up on risers, so that you could see completely under it.
Some people stayed after the show for autographs and pictures.
After the show we went back to Times Square. There were interesting comments on the wall of our hotel about the show we just saw.
We walked by the Victory Kiss Statue in Times Square. A 26-foot statue replicating the Famous Life magazine photograph of a nurse being passionately kissed by a sailor at the end of the World War II, that was erected to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of the war.
And a cute live statue.
And some “weird” people. Times Square lives its own life, especially at night. 🙂
