Post by Chicago Jake on May 2, 2006 1:29:57 GMT -6
Every time that I visit the Pampered Princess in New York (which I do as often as I possibly can), she asks me what I'd like to see. I generally say that I'm happy just to be with her, which is of course true.
But this past weekend, I figured it was time to do some touristy stuff. So I recommended that we visit the world-famous Empire State Building. After all, it is almost as tall as the Sears Tower in Chicago, and commands a view over a much larger and older city, so it is certainly worth a visit. Also, I had recently seen Peter Jackson's "King Kong" for the second time, and was in the mood to relive some of that great imagery.
The building is impressive enough even from the outside:
I'd never been there before, but Hazel has, and noted that security procedures have been beefed up considerably (which makes perfect sense!). After a quick ride up one flight on an escalator, we snaked through a long windy line to get to a security station. Here we are seen waiting on the long line, which took about half an hour:
In the course of this line, her backpack was x-rayed, and we had to walk through a metal detector. Nobody seemed to mind, as the potential for mischief was great, and we were happy to see that safety precautions were being followed.
The area where we waited in this long line was nicely decorated, at least. The ESB management seems to honor their art-deco tradition, and this logo is used extensively:
I might add that the very day before our visit, some PINHEAD tried to parachute off the top of the building! He had made it through this security web by wearing a "fat suit" that hid his parachute and video camera! I'm glad that we weren't there on that particular day, as I'm sure all access was shut down tighter than a nun's uvula.
Anyway, after security, we bought tickets ($16 a head) and waited on a line for an elevator to go up to the 80th floor. On that floor, we had the privilege of snaking through ANOTHER line where they tried to sell us a photo of ourselves in front of a painted image of the ESB, and rent us an audio tour guide, before we got to wait on YET ANOTHER LINE for an elevator to the 86th floor, where the observation deck actually resided.
(by the way, there was also an option, another $14 I believe, to go all the way to the 102nd floor, but I figured the view couldn't be that much better to be worth the extra bucks.)
So we finally made it to the 86th floor. This floor was pure Observation Deck. There was an inside area, which was populated with souvenier stands selling ESB keychains, ESB photo books, ESB earrings, ESB martini glasses, etc. Nice stuff, but somehow we resisted the temptation to buy anything.
The real attraction was the outside observation area. This completely surrounded the building, affording views North, West, South, and East, with nothing but God's clean air between you and the view of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. As the air was particularly clear this day, we had awesome views in all directions.
I took a lot of photos, and I'll try to annotate them correctly, but I may get a few wrong. I believe this one was facing north towards Central Park:
This next one is facing south, and you can see the fencing and the coin-operated telescope machine. You can also barely make out the Statue of Liberty in the center of the picture:
This next one is also facing south, maybe a bit south-west, and has a slightly better view of Lady Liberty on her island. You can also see the giant tower across the river in New Jersey. I don't know what it is called. Maybe someone can help me out with an ID.
Another south facing view, showing more of the dense urban vegetation between the ESB and the southern tip of Manhattan. The Flat-Iron Building (designed by Chicago's very own Daniel Burnham) is in the middle of the photo:
Another southerly view, with a big bridge. The Verezano Bridge, perhaps? I need some help here.....
Another southerly view, showing the fence that the pinhead would-be sky-diver was hand-cuffed to the day before:
Finally, Hazel indulged me by posing for dozens of self-portraits (with the camera held aloft at arm's length) until I had a decent one showing us and a nice background. After this, we descended to ground level and sought out a seaport bar for martinis and margaritas and to continue our day of enjoying all that New York has to offer.
That's it for this trip! Stay tuned for more fun and frivolity from Jake and Hazel!
But this past weekend, I figured it was time to do some touristy stuff. So I recommended that we visit the world-famous Empire State Building. After all, it is almost as tall as the Sears Tower in Chicago, and commands a view over a much larger and older city, so it is certainly worth a visit. Also, I had recently seen Peter Jackson's "King Kong" for the second time, and was in the mood to relive some of that great imagery.
The building is impressive enough even from the outside:
I'd never been there before, but Hazel has, and noted that security procedures have been beefed up considerably (which makes perfect sense!). After a quick ride up one flight on an escalator, we snaked through a long windy line to get to a security station. Here we are seen waiting on the long line, which took about half an hour:
In the course of this line, her backpack was x-rayed, and we had to walk through a metal detector. Nobody seemed to mind, as the potential for mischief was great, and we were happy to see that safety precautions were being followed.
The area where we waited in this long line was nicely decorated, at least. The ESB management seems to honor their art-deco tradition, and this logo is used extensively:
I might add that the very day before our visit, some PINHEAD tried to parachute off the top of the building! He had made it through this security web by wearing a "fat suit" that hid his parachute and video camera! I'm glad that we weren't there on that particular day, as I'm sure all access was shut down tighter than a nun's uvula.
Anyway, after security, we bought tickets ($16 a head) and waited on a line for an elevator to go up to the 80th floor. On that floor, we had the privilege of snaking through ANOTHER line where they tried to sell us a photo of ourselves in front of a painted image of the ESB, and rent us an audio tour guide, before we got to wait on YET ANOTHER LINE for an elevator to the 86th floor, where the observation deck actually resided.
(by the way, there was also an option, another $14 I believe, to go all the way to the 102nd floor, but I figured the view couldn't be that much better to be worth the extra bucks.)
So we finally made it to the 86th floor. This floor was pure Observation Deck. There was an inside area, which was populated with souvenier stands selling ESB keychains, ESB photo books, ESB earrings, ESB martini glasses, etc. Nice stuff, but somehow we resisted the temptation to buy anything.
The real attraction was the outside observation area. This completely surrounded the building, affording views North, West, South, and East, with nothing but God's clean air between you and the view of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. As the air was particularly clear this day, we had awesome views in all directions.
I took a lot of photos, and I'll try to annotate them correctly, but I may get a few wrong. I believe this one was facing north towards Central Park:
This next one is facing south, and you can see the fencing and the coin-operated telescope machine. You can also barely make out the Statue of Liberty in the center of the picture:
This next one is also facing south, maybe a bit south-west, and has a slightly better view of Lady Liberty on her island. You can also see the giant tower across the river in New Jersey. I don't know what it is called. Maybe someone can help me out with an ID.
Another south facing view, showing more of the dense urban vegetation between the ESB and the southern tip of Manhattan. The Flat-Iron Building (designed by Chicago's very own Daniel Burnham) is in the middle of the photo:
Another southerly view, with a big bridge. The Verezano Bridge, perhaps? I need some help here.....
Another southerly view, showing the fence that the pinhead would-be sky-diver was hand-cuffed to the day before:
Finally, Hazel indulged me by posing for dozens of self-portraits (with the camera held aloft at arm's length) until I had a decent one showing us and a nice background. After this, we descended to ground level and sought out a seaport bar for martinis and margaritas and to continue our day of enjoying all that New York has to offer.
That's it for this trip! Stay tuned for more fun and frivolity from Jake and Hazel!