Top of the Rock in NYC

Two weeks ago my sister came to visit and I totally took advantage of her niceness. She watched all 5 of my kids, and all 5 of her kids, and let Mr. Hotness and I run away to NYC for a whole night. We went with a long list of things we were going to do because we didn't have kids with us. My ideal date was to go to dinner in Chinatown and then ice skating in Wollman Park.

Sadly, it was so freaking cold I could barely breath and was getting back aches from shivering so badly. My cute little Pacific Northwest black jacket and scarf ensemble just wasn't made for the frigid, icy, dry winters of NYC. And I was even wearing thermal underwear and two jackets. Instead we went to a cute little Italian restaurant and then blissfully enjoyed a peaceful sleep (in a very chic but very small NYC hotel room) without Cheeks hogging up the bed. Kidless sleeping is sooooo nice. After sleeping in as long as we could we decided to try and see at least one thing before catching the train back home.

We went to Rockefeller Plaza and went to the Top of the Rock. At first Mr. H. and I were sceptic. We'd been to the top of the Space Needle several times and always felt it was really expensive with little payback. Honestly, if you ever go to Seattle just go to the Russell Investment Center and go to the 17th floor Roof Garden. It is lovely, a fantastic view, has a little cafe inside, and is FREE.

But I digress. Top of the Rock ended up being well worth the money and was a fantastic experience. The creation of Rockefeller Plaza is actually a great piece of American history and there is a lovely little museum experience that you walk through before going all the way up. The short version of the story is that John D Rockefeller Jr. was all set with a group of heavy investors to build Rockefeller Plaza when the Great Depression hit. All the investors backed out and he was left with a decision to give up or go it alone. His view on life was to always move forward so he decided to take a huge gamble and go ahead and build the enormous plaza on his own. Because of this he was able to keep and create over 75,ooo jobs across the country during the Depression, and that included a large group of, what would have otherwise been starving, artists. Isn't that cool?

Here is the Empire State building. Mr. Hotness had fun looking through his binoculars at the people standing on it's rooftop. He even tried waving at them to see if anyone would wave back.

Here is Mr. Hotness trying to bring home a souvenir. Sorry, babe, you're going to have to buy one in the gift shop, just like everyone else.

Here is an aerial view of St Patrick's Cathedral. Some day soon I'm going to go for a full tour of this place. I wonder if they take you up to the roof. Maybe I can "accidentally" go through a wrong door and get there myself?

Here is a view of the lovely Fred French Building on 5th Avenue. I think this building perfectly illustrates the class and beauty of the early 1900's. I want a replica of that top frieze to hang in my living room.

At the Top of the Rock there is this fun interactive music and light room that could sense your movements and had lights follow you around the room. Every time a new person came in the room the whole place would light up like this.

Mr. Hot and I had fun tricking the computer by hugging close enough to make it think we were one person. Then as soon as we let go of each other it thought a new person had entered and would go all crazy.

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There is so much to see in NYC and I just don't even know where to begin. Do any of you have any suggestions? (besides Chinatown and the Statue of Liberty, because they are definitely on my list)