New York City

We woke up early and left Laura's house for the train station. It was about a 2 hour ride into the city, not too bad. Tim and I played chess on his iPhone. We got off the train at Grand Central Station and it was amazing! So many trains and metros, I don't know how they coordinate it. The station is a very tall and beautiful building.

I don't think there's anything like stepping out into New York City for the first time and looking up at the towering buildings above you, seeing all the people walking by. It was amazing and unforgettable. I was in awe as we walked down the street. It was surreal. We rounded the corner and saw the Empire State Building in the distance. It was strangely dark in the city because so little light can penetrate.

We paid to go to the top of Empire State. This building, apart from being an office building, makes money as an attraction. We had to pass through a metal detector to enter the building and one person stopped Tim and told him he had something in his bag. We couldn't really understand him but eventually realized that he had a multi-tool in there. That's apparently a no no. They said we could pick it up on our way out but we forgot. After winding through the building, we went up the elevator 80 flights and then another elevator for 10 or so flights.

At the top there is an outdoor deck from which you can see the entirety of the city. Again, it was amazing. I overheard one of the guards talking about suicides being a problem and they had installed nets. We looked out over each side of the building to see all sides of New York. I could see the building that they used as the Daily Bugle in the Spiderman movies. The Statue of Liberty was off in the distance. It was also really helpful to get our bearings. When we first entered the city I felt like a rat in a maze. Looking North we could see Central Park and found our next destination, Times Square.

Times Square was really cool. Parts of the street are for walking in and they have seats and tables. Standing in the middle of it I was bombarded by sensory input. Billboards everywhere, flashing lights, etc. The advertising wasn't quite as effective as the injection they gave us at the Coke Factory that triggers the desire to buy a Coke when activated.

We made our way to Rockefeller plaza. I got giddy standing under the 30 Rockefeller sign. I starting singing the 30 Rock theme song. I really like that show and it was awesome to be where it's filmed. The skating rink in front of 30 Rock is a lot smaller than I had imagined. We went into the NBC store and I wanted to get some souvenirs but they were expensive and not that great. We contemplated doing a NBC tour but couldn't figure out where to go and assumed it would cost too much anyway.

Next I found the Nintendo World Store. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check that out, even if Nintendo has been consistently letting me down of late. It was the 25^th anniversary of Nintendo so there were cool displays set up. They had an exclusive Mario shirt if you bought a Mario product and I couldn't resist. I'm so cool.

FAO Schwarts toy store is Ginormous. They had so many toys. It made me think of my Grandpa Dan, or Mooma as the younger generation called him. I don't know if he ever got to go there when he was alive but I hope he did. He would have loved it. I was tempted to buy a ridiculously large toy as a tribute. We saw the piano you can stand on to play from the movie Big. That was pretty cool. They also had a life size Chewebacca statue made out of legos.

The Apple store in New York is even more pretentious than usual. There was a clear cube with a floating Apple logo that you go into and underground to get to the store.

Central Park was massive. I love that there's a giant park right in the middle of the city. There are fields and lakes and some shops. We heard some awful band called Trone playing at an amphitheater. I ate a very delicious pumpkin muffin from a bakery in the middle of the park. If I lived in the city I would definitely spend time in the par...MUST DRINK COKE.