New York, New York Day 4

We started out Wednesday with Central Park, which is one of my favorite things about New York.  I can spend hours walking around and not get bored.  It is so beautiful and there are tons of great places to people watch!  

  Mom and Dad in front of the Gapstow Bridge  

Can you see the four turtles on the rock in Turtle Pond? Turtle Pond is near the Castle!! 

Belvedere Castle

Dad and Mom disappeared and then I saw them atop Belvedere Castle!

Whisper into one end and it travels to the other side:  Charles B. Stover Bench 

 Mom and me in front of  Shakespeare Garden 

Bow Bridge

Strawberry Fields

Dad and Mom in front of the Dakota.

Another view of the entrance to the Dakota.

 There was an event going on so much of the area was blocked off (including the beautiful Minton Tiles at Bethesda Arcade), but here are Dad and Mom at the Bethesda Fountain.  You can see a tent for the event behind Dad and Mom.

Dad and me between the  Bethesda Fountain and the   Lake 

I don't know why I love this statue so much, but I do!   It's the 

Hans Christian Andersen Statue.

I have never seen the  Alice in Wonderland statue without tons of people crawling all over it.  I've always wanted a good picture of it with no one on it and I got two: one with just the statue and one with Mom and Me!

A street performer made giant bubbles on the  The Mall and Literary Walk 

 Mom and Dad had had enough of Central Park and wanted some lunch, so we worked our way out of the park.  We decided to head over to Grand Central Station because (1) they wanted to see it and (2) they have a giant food court so I figured it would be an inexpensive and quick lunch.  We decided to walk down 5th Ave.  I sure made Dad walk for his supper all week!!  We did make a few detours along the way!

We stopped into the Plaza Hotel to check out the lobby.  It was beautiful!!

 We finally made it to Grand Central Station!

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the ceiling is covered in the constellations.

We had a nice lunch at Grand Central (it is the nicest food court I've been to) and then decided to head to the Chrysler Building.  You can't take a tour anymore, but can do into the lobby.  Here are some pictures of the lobby!

 After finishing up at the Chrysler Building, it was still early so we headed to the New York Public Library on 5th Ave--I guess it is the Stephen A Schwarz Building.  Now this place is amazing!!

I couldn't get a sharp picture, but I wanted to show the beautiful ceilings!

 After we finished at the library, we people watched in Bryant Park for a while.  We then headed back to the hotel for a little R&R before heading out to Astoria to my old neighborhood for dinner.  I had a great time showing my parents my old stomping grounds, but they were not too happy about how well lit the last 1/2 block of my walk was (I wasn't either, but I tried to play it down like it wasn't a big deal).  We had dinner at Mojave, which is a Southwestern place with yummy food and drinks!  I had to take them to Martha's Country Bakery for desert, which was (as usual) amazing!!

We really fit a TON of stuff into our days in New York City.  I'm tired just typing about everything we did!!