CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

Today was action-packed! We were up and out the door to get bagels from the Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company, who reputedly have the best bagels in New York City. While I can’t exactly speak to that, I can say that they are enormous, and positively loaded with the cream cheese spread of your preference. Plus, they were quite busy with regular and call-ahead orders at 8:30 in the morning, surely a good sign. I got an everything bagel, toasted, with garlic and herb cream cheese to go. With a Starbucks coffee in hand, we trundled down to Central Park via subway, then found a lovely rock formation to sit on and soak up the sun with our breakfast.

After bagels and coffee, we rented bikes to tour Central Park on. One was a CitiBike (decent system, but only lets you rent a single bike at a time and prices start for half an hour) and the other was from Bike Rent NYC (purchased an hour-long bike rental and were able to deal with a salesperson). CitiBikes aren’t equipped with a normal gear system (they hearken more to bikes at gyms) and so it was a fair bit harder to get the hang of on the steady incline hills throughout the park. Still, we spent an enjoyable forty minutes on the long loop through the entire park, with beautiful scenery all around.

Once our bikes were returned, we made our way to the subway station and caught a train heading toward the Financial District. Our highlights here include:

• The World Trade Centre and Ground Zero. The Ground Zero memorials are solemn reminders of the 9/11 attacks. The names of those lost are written around each of the memorials where the towers once stood, those working in the building, those who responded to the attacks, and those who were on the planes that crashed into each.
• Trinity Church. Where are my National Treasure fans at? Under this church (you know, supposedly) is where the treasure of Disney fame is buried. While we couldn’t get under to find out for ourselves, the elevated nature of the church does lead one to wonder just what is under there, because it seems entirely plausible that a treasure could be hidden beneath the city. Aside from inside the church itself (which is simply beautiful, and worth a look inside for that alone), we walked through the cemetery on either side of the church and found multiple gravesites of historical significance, including one Alexander Hamilton.
• The New York Stock Exchange building. No neon numbers to stare at; the building is far more composed than all that flash. Still, a cool thing to see considering we were right in the heart of the Financial District, walking along Wall Street with other movers and shakers.
• The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Yes, I saw the facade of Men In Black fame. And yes, I half expected Will Smith to come walking out the doors in a black suit. Sadly, he remained inside the building.

This leads us to Battery Park, where we stood in line to purchase tickets for the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Circle Line Cruises. We waited for no more than half an hour to purchase tickets, and indeed I believe it took even less time than that to make our way from the beginning of the line to the window. In any case, it was certainly quite painless to just buy in line, although if you have the means to purchase tickets online, that’s always an option. We bought just general admission, which allows entrance to the Statue of Liberty Park, Ellis Island and its museum, and return to the city of New York (note that you can also depart from and return to New Jersey). We didn’t purchase pedestal access for the Statue of Liberty, though it was only thirty cents extra. In any case, we were really pleased with the views we did get – as we were approaching the Statue of Liberty, on the island itself, and the views of NYC harbour as we departed and from the island itself.

We decided to get off the boat at Ellis Island, and spent about five minutes in the museum, just enough time to wander quickly through the first floor of exhibits. It seems like it would be worth spending more time if that’s your interest. On fresh legs at an earlier time of day, we likely would have spent more time ourselves. But as we were both getting tired and were ready to head back into the city for dinner, we ran back to the dock to catch the ferry ten minutes after we had departed it and headed back to New York City.

Back in our room after a subway ride from the bottom of the island, we freshened up and readied for dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. This was bar-none one of my favourite experiences so far. We walked in to music and singing and it pretty much didn’t let up the entire time we were there, except for hourly birthdays and a tip call. All servers at the diner are Broadway hopefuls, working at the diner and working on their craft so that they can make their way into acting on Broadway. We were treated to performances of songs from Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera (which was so wonderful since we’re going to see it tomorrow!), and Grease, to name a few.

The entire atmosphere in the diner is so friendly and the food is just as excellent as the show. Options range from stick-to-ribs home cooking to typical diner fare like burgers and mac and cheese. And the milkshakes are worth writing home about! Though certainly one of the pricier places to eat out, nothing can beat the diner’s dinner-and-a-show for bang for your buck.

Exhausted but buzzing, we headed back to our room and took the rest of the evening easy (aside from a quick trip to Duane Reade for snacks and drinks). So it’s goodnight again from the city that never sleeps, because it might not need it, but I sure do!