We awoke for our final day in New York. By this stage in our trip we had both agreed that we liked New York and that the trip was a total success (minus airline/airport experiences).
Having rewritten our carefully planned itinerary (although it remained useful for directions) we headed into Manhattan for the final time. We had planned on seeing the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) but had decided that we would not be able to spend enough time there to make the trip worthwhile. We also decided not to do a helicopter tour due to cost and time constraints.
We took the 34th and 6th Avenue and headed to Victoria’s Secret where Toni purchased some items, and I sat and tried to look inconspicuous. It had been a location on the agenda since before we left Canada, so I was obliged to take her through. It was a large two storey store, and I think Toni liked shopping there.
Bryant Park / Macy’s
After shopping, we ate breakfast, which we enjoyed a little off Broadway near Macy’s, the world’s largest department store which was located around 34th street. After breakfast we decided to head south east to locate the famed Flatiron building. It’s the building you’ve doubtless seen in countless TV shows and movies; it’s the building which looks impossibly narrow and runs between Broadway and 6th Avenue.
Toni and the famed Flatiron building
Having thoroughly enjoyed Central Park on our previous walk through, we decided to spend more time there. We headed up to 57th street and entered the park from the south. From there we walked around and into the Wollman Ice Skating rink.
We paid for admission and laced up. Then we spent the next 45 minutes skating around one of the world’s famous rinks. With the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop it was almost like a dream.
Rob at Wollman Ice Skating Rink in Central Park
The weather was fairly lousy (it started to rain mid-skate) so we took off and headed for the Central Park zoo. The zoo is part of a series of allied zoos in the greater New York area. This zoo was quite good and the admission price was fair and reasonable.
Primarily, the zoo’s major features were seals, polar bears and penguins. The other animal exhibits included sea otters, a variety of wetland birds, puffins, monkeys, foxes and a tropical rainforest enclave with tropical animals.
Toni at the Central Park Zoo
The polar bears were quite cute, and we got some excellent photographs of the male bear. The penguins were also very interesting – the smaller (younger) ones were swimming and playing in the tank.
The rainforest section fogged up my camera lens, and as a result many of my photos did not come out correctly. We met one of the zookeepers who was very friendly and gave us a good deal of information.
A Polar Bear at Central Park Zoo / Our view of Queens from our hotel
We headed for the subway after about an hour as our time in New York was at a close. We slowly made our way back to Flushing, Queens to our hotel where we packed and checked out.
A small wait for the hotel shuttle culminated in an uneventful trip to LaGuardia where we went through the usual motions of checking in bags (after an extended delay) and started to mentally prepare for our return flights.
..and that was New York in December… 2004.