And then there was one

So, New York was awesome, second only to London on the list of cool places we've been in the last month or so, and it was a close decision.

Day three in NYC we took the Ellis Island Ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Though our enthusiasm for a boat ride in -10C was low, it turned out to be a great experience. Following that, we checked out Ground Zero, which is mostly just a messy construction site these days. You don't appreciate the enormity of what happened until you see it, though, because it has left a block or so wide crater in the otherwise chock full o'skyscrapers NYC downtown. We ate at a McDonalds which has a piano player, did the Wall St thing and visited the Mecca of bargain designer brand shopping - Century 21. Vanessa now refers to this as 'Heaven' and it's where she wants to go when she dies. Designer brands (Dolce, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, etc at bargain, and I mean BARGAIN prices). Special shout out to the New York subway system, which we found to be the messiest, craziest, scariest public transport system that we've seen on the trip so far (though Steve wants to point out: nobody tried to offer us a baby, like in Rome). That night we checked out the NBA (Knicks vs 76ers, for you fans). Steve was also seen sporting his foam finger.

Day four in NYC we explored the wonders of Central Park and surrounding museums. The place is utterly mammoth, stretching about thirty city blocks and about four avenues. Tried to do the whole iceskating thing, but a combination of price and crowds put us off. We walked pretty much the length of the park, through Strawberry Fields and the final of Cleopatra's Needles (Paris wins, followed by New York, with London bringing up the rear). Outside of the park, we checked out the Natural History museum, which was so-so apart from the dinosaurs. Turns out Steve gets excited by dinosaurs. Also visited the place where Lennon was shot, which is a pretty non-descript apartment block with no placard or anything. Pretty poor for such a famous guy, we were expecting a statue of him...on a horse. Finally, we took a look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), which is a pretty awesome place. Pooped out after walking up and down the park all day, we ate at a restaurant and ran into some girls we did the tour with in Europe. 8 million people and we run into them...

Day five was a pretty light one. We took the Roosevelt Island Sky Tram to Roosevelt Island (no... really?) which was pretty disappointing in the end. We also did a whole heap more shopping in Soho (trendy to the extreme), Bloomingdale, Macy's and all that. Ness was last seen mumbling to herself somewhere in a sales rack. In the night we had dinner at a restaurant where the girls all wore bikinis, which Steve claims he found completely innocently... Ness was skeptical. It was also the place where we left the largest tip in NYC (coincidence?). We also went to see Chicago on Broadway, which was pretty good, though the theatre was surprisingly small. We also ran into the same girls again, and began to think they were stalking us.

Day six we checked out the Intrepid Sea and Air Museum (or Nerd Paradise, as Ness called it under her breath). It's an old aircraft carrier with a pretty amazing history, berthed alongside a nuclear sub and a British Airways Concorde. Spent a couple of hours there oohing and aahing about how crappy the guys who served on the ship had it, then grabbed some lunch down near the Empire State Building. After lunch we did the observation deck, and it didn't disappoint. Great sunny day (though still below zero) and the views are phenomenal. Otherwise, you guessed it, more shopping before the ice hockey at night, Rangers vs Mighty Ducks. Ness wouldn't let Steve complete his foam finger collection, all he got was a lousy t-shirt. The hockey itself was great fun, and slightly scary. In total, we saw 6 goals (and the crowd do a big song after each, think 'Lets Get Loud' for the Bombers fans out there) and 3 fights.

For all the fun in New York, nothing prepared us for the airport. Short version:
- Arrive plenty of time before flight, do stupidly paranoid US security checks, including shoes.
- Have our flight delayed, twice, before being told its cancelled and rebooking another airline.
- Wait at baggage for our bags, minutes before the new flight is set to go, only to be told by the baggage guys "Oh, wait, your original flight was reinstated"
- Complete mad rush (yes, WE ran) to the terminal, including another go through security where Ness nearly got arrested, to arrive just as they're closing the doors. After some pleading, they let us on. We even got dirty looks from our co-passengers - go team!

On a happier note, hotel in Washington is VERY nice. VERY nice. After the airport dramas we ate and crashed, having arrived six or so hours after we were supposed to.

Today we did the express tour of Washington, cramming two days worth of stuff we wanted to do into one, but we got it done. We visited the Capitol building, walked down The Mall to the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, The Korean War Monument, Arlington Cemetary, The Smithsonian Museum of American History and The White House. This was all amongst the cleaning and clearing of the inaugauration port-a-loos, gangways and barricades. (Steve nearly got run over by a few forklifts). We also found ourselves smack bang in the middle of the world's largest pro-life demonstration, a collection of religious folks and teenage girls wearing UGG boots. Ugg boots are big here, we forgot to point that out.

Steve is now flying solo to Chicago tomorrow (He's excited about the peace and quiet, or so Ness thinks), while Ness is flying home just about ready for school (Haha - Steve). So now, we are off to the buffet dinner and the hotel bar for some celebrating with the Obama-philes and the Pro-Life demonstrators who are in town. Woo!

Steve is now flying solo to Chicago tomorrow (He's excited about the peace and quiet, or so Ness thinks), while Ness is flying home just about ready for school (Haha - Steve).