We’ve now been in New York City for over a week, and we’ve been moving at the pace of New Yorkers. Our New York Pass has really come in handy. For ten days we have access to over 80 attractions and, of course, we’re maximizing this thing. We began the week with two days on the Big Bus, which took us on a loop of Uptown, Downtown, and Brooklyn, as well as a night tour of the city. While we enjoyed the views, we decided that we would avoid cars and buses (and thus, New York City traffic) from now on and stick to the subway and our feet as our transportation of choice.

The Big Bus dropped us off near the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, as well as the 9/11 Tribute Center.

Freedom Tower

Both sites presented the story of this tragic day, and we took it all in. At the Tribute Center, founded by the September 11th Families Association, we heard a live, first hand account of the day from a survivor. There’s really nothing more impactful than hearing the stories of those who were present that horrific day. We were certainly moved.

Our second day on the pass we explored the history of the city at the Museum of the City of New York and then took in all that is Rockefeller Center. Our backstage, all access tour of Radio City Music Hall introduced us to the famed theater and a cute blonde Rockette named Erin. We hope to be able to pick her out of the line when we see the Christmas Spectacular in late November. We also got a great tour of Rockefeller Center itself, learning about the history of the complex and its incredible, and sometimes controversial, artwork.

In the following days we used our pass to ride bikes in Central Park, attend a gospel service in Harlem, and take walking tours of Chelsea, the HighLine, the Meatpacking District, and Greenwich Village.

Biking in Central Park

We also went on a cool architecture tour of midtown that helped us understand the details of this area’s historic buildings including the Daily News (where Superman worked), the Chrysler Building, and Grand Central Terminal. We also did a harbor cruise.

We finished the first half of our pass with a tour of Madison Square Garden, the Museum of Sex, and a nighttime visit to the Top of the Rock, the viewing deck at the top of Rockefeller Center. And we still have four more days of our pass to go!

Last night as we were atop Rockefeller Center we could see a mass of emergency vehicles just a few blocks to the south. As we learned just a few hours later when we turned on the news, there was an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood, which we had toured just a day before. We’ve heard there were no fatalities but 29 people were injured. Another explosive device was found just few blocks away. We are now intimately aware of the risks of living in a large city like New York. We promise to be careful.

In the next week we have tours scheduled for SoHo, Chinatown, and Little Italy, as well as Wall Street. We’ll take in Little Italy’s San Gennaro Festival, do a Fashion Windows walking tour, and a New York City food tour. On Thursday, September 22 we have priority tickets to be in the studio audience of Good Morning America. We are scheduled to be part of the 8:00 a.m. hour, so please watch our national television debut!!

As always, thanks for reading!

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