Zoe 
did a lot of stroller cruising through the big 
city, here she is in front of some of the sites. She found Radio City Music Hall, the Prometheus Statue at Rockefeller Center, and that awesome fountain in the middle of Central Park. And what New York trip is complete without a picture under the marquee of the Late Show? 
I just like this picture a lot. Click on the picture and see it all big, its pretty cool.
Rockefeller Center. Boy were they right! We spent an entire evening on top of the Rock, watching the sun set, darkness fall, and the cold set in. Zoe was good. They have the ledge closed off with clear plexiglass, so she felt like a bonafide gargoyle up there, and tried to live up to the title by spitting as often as possible. Enjoy the video up there, which includes the view of Central Park, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building hidden behind the big nasty eyesore building.
spire was placed on the nub. Isn't it beautiful how the sun hits the building. If I were a giant ape I would definitely climb that sucker.
New York's Hard Rock Cafe is ginormous, and is located right there on Times Square. I've found that Times Square is very similar to the Champs Elysses in that all the store fronts are smooshed together, but the insides of the stores are much bigger than expected. The food was as good as usual, and you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting some piece of rock'n'roll history. I always tend to lean towards Beatles stuff when its time to get the camara out...they had all the Beatles albums signed by all four Beatles! Holy cow!
Yep, that's a Ramones guitar
Not played by anyone famous, but a cool guitar
George Harrison's guitar
Beatles concert clothes
Ringo's Drums
Paul's Bass
Yeah, so Times Square is about ninety times cooler than I ever imagined. Its not just a tall building with giant television advertisments on it, rather its a street full of wonders and merriments which transform any out of towner from Mr. Joe Regular to Dick Clark himself. The picture at left shows the view looking South, the picture on the bottom is the view looking North...so there are two tall advertisement towers! Yep. And all the buildings along 7th avenue and Broadway in between the towers are lit up and beautiful, giving the Strip in Vegas a serious run for its money.
to our hotel room and look down at the lights while trying to shovel in the last several hundred bites of our cheesecake. Some day we'll be there for New Year's Eve. Someday.
Disputably, the most famous work in the MOMA is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, though Andy Warhol's Campbells Soup Cans might be in the running. Here's Sara standing in front of it. We've had a print of this up on our wall since we got married and had always wanted to see it. There were about a hundred other paintings there that I could go on and on about, like a bunch of stuff by Georges Seurat, including the one where he paints the frame. And there were all sorts of works by Warhol, Pollock, Matisse, Caulder, Rousseau, Cezanne...you name it, it was there. But a trip to an art museum wouldn't be complete without me posting the painting that hit me the hardest. And here it is:
Yep, its a touch strange and grotesque, but so intriguing. Its called Painting (1946) by Francis Bacon (this is NOT Sir Francis Bacon), and is considered his magnum opus. Apparently he started the paining as a monkey in tall grass, but then decided he wanted to add a bird of prey...then it sorta just turned into a bunch of chunks of animal parts...or at least I think that's what it is. I just couldn't quit looking at it. I'm so glad I married such a cultured girl. She's opened my eyes to the beauty of art, and now I just can't get enough of it. About halfway through the night Sara says, "It sure is refreshing to spend a night in an art museum", and I thought, "Wow, she's right, this feels great". That's the whole point of art. It refreshes the soul.
On our first night in New York City we made our way to the Museum of Modern Art. If you want to see the best of modern art, New York is the place to be. Mostly I just pin these pictures up on the blog to brag about the totally kickin' pieces of art I've seen. Its crazy how much a person's inner self can change just by looking at works of art. I know that sounds real sappy, but its so true. The museum was super busy that night, but we are so glad we went to see it. Unlike the Pompidou Centre in Paris, this place was filled to the brim with the world's most famous works of art, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one. The picture up yonder is Sara in front of one of Monet's water lilly paintings. I think this one is most famous for being long. Down yonder is a picture of me with Picasso's Three Musicians. I'm a big Picasso fan. 
There were a lot of his works there, including his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and a bunch of his abstract cubist stuff. Wow I could go on about this forever. On to the next post...
So the same day that I told Sara that we were going to New York she metnioned that she's always wanted a picture with the Naked Cowboy on Times Square. Yeah. That's about all I've got to say on this one. I like how he's got a hold of the knot on Zoe's hat.
Early on Sunday morning we made our way to Strawberry Fiels in 
Central Park. We wanted to make sure we made it to the Imagine mosaic before it was covered in people. It was one of the most gorgeous mornings I've ever had, with the birds all chriping and the sun shinging down, and a Jamba juice slipping its way into my insides. In the picture below you can see Sara and Zoe sitting on a bench in front of the Dakota, which is right across the street from Central Park. John 
and Yoko Lennon lived in this apartment building starting in 1973. On December 8th, 1980 John was shot in the back four times as he was entering the building. He was pronounced dead on arrival that night, and the Dakota was soon saurrounded by thousands of mourners, who kept Yoko awake. She asked them all to leave for the night, but come back the next day. Over 100,000 people came back to mourn John's death. Imagine how many people that is! You could fill Miller Park 2.3 times. Yoko contributed one million dollars to Central Park so that a memorial could be built in John's honor. Countries from all over the world donated trees, plants and money 
to make the memorial gorgeous. The city of Naples, Italy contributed the famous "Imagine" mosaic as seen in the video above. Strawberry Fields is a beautiful piece of land, and a very good and solemn place to sit and remember John Lennon. I had always wanted to see the Dakota, New York is such a cool town! Yoko still lives in the Dakota, by the way.
It ends up that New Yorkers are very particular when they talk about their subway. All of our guidebooks told us to never ever use the colors when asking how to get from here to there, or else you'll be considered a tourist (as if the red stroller and the video camera weren't evidence enough). We knew we wanted to take the Brooklyn-bound number one to the Staten Island ferry, but I just had to take the opportunity to ask a New Yorker how to do it. I guess I wanted to make sure he didn't give me any colors, and I really wanted to call a New Yorker "guy" like they do in all the movies. My guy was pretty helpful, especially since he happened to be going the same way we were.
All in all, I'm a NYC subway fan, its harder to navigate than the Paris Metro, but much easier to navigate than the Philadelphia Stink Train. After our three rides on the system, I don't think we've put in enough hours to officially be termed New York metro rats, but, Sara did take a giant step towards becoming a feisty New Yorker. You can't just shove a stroller through the turnstyle, rather, you have to swipe your metro card and then wait for the attendant to open the big door for you. This never ever works because the attendant is always too busy trying to explain to tourists how to get to the Statue of Liberty without using the convenient color coding. On one occasion, Sara swiped her card and got tired of waiting for the attendant so I just went through and opened the door for her and Zoe (oddly enough, these doors are easily opened from the inside). Finally the attendant lady decided to pay attention and came a-runnin', accusing Sara of sneaking through without paying. Sara stood up really tall, which is pretty ferocious coming from her, and boldly explained the situation slowly. When that still didn't work she finally said, "Look lady, I paid". We went off into the train with the attendant lady yelling and screaming at us to come back. What a sad angry subway woman, but oh yeah, my wife's got all sorts of spunk.
Photo credits for the subway monkey picture go to my buddy and co-worker Malcolm, who we drug along with us to the Staten Island ferry. More on all that later!
One of our favorite parts of New York City was Central Park. It really does feel like you're stepping into a whole different world. Zoe met all sorts of new creatures there, including some of the friendliest dogs ever. Central Park dogs are so well-behaved, probably because they're so happy to be out of the flat. She also enjoyed the horse-drawn carriages and would always follow them with her eyes until they were out of sight. 
Just a few weeks ago Sara and Zoe and I accomplished my life time dream of visiting the Big Apple! How could any lover of tall buildings and historical monuments consider him or herself whole without putting a push pin on New York City.
We're so lucky to have had so many opportunities to see our nation's greatest cities, and you're so lucky to have to see all the pictures and read all my endless blah blahing about them. Off we go!
