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June 17, 2006 - Saturday, 11:00 p.m.

It�s already Sunday night. My weekend has gone by quickly. I�ve one more day and then back to the grind of work and life.

My flight left out of Denver at 7 am on Friday. The flight was uneventful. I nearly read an entire book on the flight. It was a novel about Pern. I enjoyed it. I arrived in Philadelphia about 12:40 pm local time. Charlotte�s flight was an hour behind me and I sat near baggage claim and waited for her flight to arrive. We got our car and headed for Princeton. It�s very green here. It reminds me of what I�d imagine the south might look like and Charlotte said it reminded her of Atlanta. We exited the highway early and snaked our way into Princeton. It was a nice little town. An amazing campus, filled with old buildings, lots of old houses with huge yards. We found the hotel and checked in. Our room was nice. Shortly after we arrived we headed back into Princeton to get a bite to eat. There was a Thai restaurant on the main drag and we sat and ate dinner. I took a few pictures, but it was dark, and due to the fact that I took them with the natural lighting, most of them were fuzzy.

Princeton

Saturday morning we were up early and out of the hotel on a shuttle by 7 am. We caught the train into New York City and arrived about 8:30 am at Penn Station. We shifted to a subway train and went to Time Square. We walked down the streets. It was amazing to be standing in New York City. We wandered into a couple shops and eventually stopped at had breakfast at a restaurant/deli on Broadway. We got eggs, sausage and toast for about $3!!

Times Square

Broadway

After that we continued to walk down Broadway, and headed towards the Empire State building. We arrived there by about 9:30 am, and bought tickets to go up to the observation area on the 86th floor. We were lucky and the wait wasn�t long. We stood in line for a while and once in the elevator, it took us up to the 80th floor. It was an amazingly fast elevator. The numbers changed 10 floors at a time!! Amazing. We got off the elevator on the 80th floor and then caught another elevator up the last 6 flights. By 10:30 am we were at the top of the Empire State Building, checking out the view. I took a number of pictures. You could see all of Manhattan and beyond Central Park the other direction. Central Park was amazing. It is an absolutely HUGE piece of undeveloped land in the middle of EVERYthing.

From the Top of the Empire Building towards Central Park

Looking towards the East Village, Little Italy & Chinatown

Manhattan

Gardens Atop the Buildings

Once down from the Empire State Building we took the subway to About 80th on the Westside of the Park. At least that was what we tried to do. We ended up on an Express train and wasn�t able to get off the train until about 120th. We got back on another train and went back to 81st Street near the Museum of Natural History. We entered Central Park in front of the Museum and walked south through the park to �Strawberry Fields� where there is a monument to John Lennon.

Central Park

Strawberry Fields, Central Park

We walked a long ways through the park, actually all the way down to �Tavern on the Green� It was nearly 1 pm when we walked out of Central Park. We caught the Subway again and intended to head down to the site of the Twin Towers. Again we got on an express train and ended up in the Bronx. We got of the train at the York station and tried to head to back to the Twin Towers. We went back on the train and tried again on another train, only to end up on our way to the Bronx yet again.

Central Park
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