Empire State Building, Madame Tussaud's, and Oprah Ruins Our Trip

This morning we did something a little different. While Alan looked after Malachi and I looked after Sophie, Juli and Heidi went to the Virgin megastore in Times Square (musicals and musical soundtracks were on special) and then to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Alan said that wax figures creep him out so he didn't want to go. Heidi said that the wax museum was great and Juli enjoyed herself also with some karaoke.

As for Sophie and I, we chilled for a bit before checking out the Quicksilver and Toys R Us stores in Times Square. Once again Toys R Us was a giant tourist trap. They take your photo about 3 times in it and prints are only $13 each. Sophie wanted to ride the ferris wheel that's in there and when I saw it was $4 I agreed. Only problem was the lady said I had to ride with her so therefore $8. Sigh. Well she had a good time anyway and really enjoyed meeting Geoffrey the giraffe at Toys R Us. She couldn't wait to tell her mom all about it.

We went back to the hotel to wait for Heidi and Juli to return. We played with a nerf gun that I bought at Toys R Us, we invented several games for it, then watched Scooby Doo. When Heidi and Juli returned they took the kids to Central Park. Heidi took several photos of the place where John Lennon was shot at the Dakota as well as the Strawberry Fields in Central Park.

Alan and I walked to Madison Square Gardens to go on a tour. At least, that was the plan until we got there and realized that motherfreakin' Oprah Winfrey was filming her show there today. The place was a madhouse and tours were not offered. Disappointed, we headed for some authentic New York pizza at a place called Tony's. It was delicious thin-crust stuff. We got inside at the perfect time as a downpour started as we were ordering our slices. After the rain stopped we decided to walk to the Empire State building which was relatively close.

On the way we stopped at a comic book store to check it out. They had a TON of comics including an adult section in the back.

The Empire State building was under renovation, just like almost every other attraction/landmark/building in New York. Outside the building they warned us it was cloudy and that visibility was less than a mile (about 5 blocks) and that there were NO refunds. Alan and I had to run a gauntlet of confusing velvet ropes in order to get to the 86th floor:

• take an escalator to the 2nd floor (under renovation)
  
• walk through a maze of velvet ropes to buy tickets. There were people handing us brochures for various other offers (audio tour, sky tour)
• walk through another velvet rope maze from the place you buy tickets to the area where people with tickets go
• ride the elevator to the 80th floor
• navigate another velvet-rope maze with a "personalized photo" offer in it
• ride another elevator to the 86th floor observation deck
• navigate one more velvet-rope maze to get outside onto the actual deck

The view from the deck was spectacular. It's hard to appreciate how big New York really is until you get up there and all you can see is buildings and people and a large hum is what you hear from below. It was really cool. Alan and I checked our cell phones and we couldn't get a signal - we were too high up I guess. The observation deck edges are protected by a large fence. All over the observation deck are signs indicating that climbing or throwing things is unlawful and dangerous. They say that the Empire State Building was built in 20 months. It's hard to imagine working on it. I got sick looking down from there.

After that we headed down, doing a reverse velvet-rope maze all the way. Then we walked back to the hotel and phoned to see where Heidi and Juli were. We all decided to rest a bit before heading out for supper.

We took the subway to Strand Bookstore, a giant new/used bookstore in the East Village, E. 12 street and Broadway. It boasts "18 Miles of Books." I should add there is a lot more than 18 miles in there. I had difficulty negotiating since there were quite a few books on the floor in the aisles between shelves, as well as on the shelves themselves. The shelves go quite high also and stepladders are placed randomly throughout. All in all great, inexpensive selection and a great store but difficult to navigate with a 2 year old on your back. We found a Clifford movie for Sophie, some parenting books, and I found a movie called "Ninja Squad" which I hope will be good. I'm a ninja fan but kind of on the fence about squads. We'll see I guess.

After leaving Strand we decided Indian was the way to go for dinner and headed to E. 6 Street between 1st and 2nd avenues where we found Haveli. Dinner was delicious and reasonably priced. Sophie and I explored the restaurant as she was tired and restless. She liked the silver peacock and the wooden elephant that were in there. There was an incident in the restroom (Daddy's fault) with the end result that Sophie's pants were unwearable. I dressed her in my Oilers t-shirt, which reached to her ankles. She had to be careful not to trip on it or flash anyone.

At last after a long day it was time to take the subway home. Heidi and I bought our passes from the automated machine. The machine next to it was unavailable because a drunk guy was leaning on it and refused to move. The station platform was extremely hot and uncomfortable. After talking to one of the subway workers we switched platforms and got on a different train to wait. We had to wait for a while but at least the a/c in the car was working. By this time we were all soaked. The heat is bad enough but New York is pretty humid too. After a short ride we were back at the hotel. Sophie decided it would be best to sleep in the Oilers t-shirt. She's a pretty die-hard Oilers fan.