New York, New York - May/June 2016 - Day 4 - One World Observatory & Brooklyn

**Erial** · 11 Apr 17, 08:41 PM

New York, New York
Tuesday 31st May
Day 4 - One World Observatory & Brooklyn

Previous: Statue of Liberty

I’m not sure if we were totally exhausted or starting to adjust our body clocks but today was a much more reasonable start time and we didn’t have breakfast until 9:30am. We found a fabulous deli called the Majestic Delicatessen Café just one block up from where we were staying. It wasn’t the cheapest with it being so close to Time Square but it was just perfect for us. They will hot breakfast bagels which kept me, Jeff and Abi happy and they did pots of fruit and bananas and milk to keep Izzy happy (as you can tell, she is the healthy eater in the family!).

Today we had tickets to visit the One World Observatory. Our entry time on our tickets was 11am which gave us plenty of time to get there. However we again decided to catch the subway as we didn’t want to get stuck on the Downtown Loop for the third day in a row!

The subway brought us out in the brand new subway station with a very spectacular concourse.

We weren’t 100% sure where we were going and ended up walking through a building site to get to the One World Observatory. I got told off by security for taking the following photo!

When you arrive at One World Trade Centre it is so impressive it really does look like it reaches to the sky!

We’d be concerned about massive queues even though we had tickets but it seemed we caught it on a very quiet day. Even though we were too early for our time slot we just walked straight in.

I’d been quite apprehensive about doing the One World Observatory. I suffer from Vertigo and normally going up 2 floors in Primark can be enough to send me into a dizzy mess. I do take medication for it but it’s to combat the sickness feeling rather than to stop the dizziness in the first place. So before we came away I went to see my doctor to see if there was anything stronger I could take as the last time we’d been to New York the lifts had killed me. He’d prescribed me some super drugs and this was the first time I was getting to test them out!

They worked an absolute treat! I suffered no dizziness at all! The One World Observatory was an absolutely amazing experience and one I can not recommend enough for anyone visiting New York. The views are stunning (helped by the glorious weather), the special effects are amazing and the poignancy of the entire experience just made it a fabulous, moving and memorable experience.

We spent ages up there and took absolutely tonnes of photos - I could bore you for ages with them!

Eventually we decided it was time to move on.

We visited Ground Zero which was a very humbling experience. The last time we’d been here was in 2003 and the whole area was still very much destroyed. The surrounding buildings had netting around them to stop them crumbling further; Ground Zero was just a massive hole with railings still with people’s photos on them. The site now is very much unrecognisable to what it had been then, but it still had a quiet stillness to it. I took just one photo, to take any more felt wrong. We spent some time talking to our girls more about the events of 9/11. We’d discussed it a bit back home but obviously been there raised more questions.

Continued below...

**Erial** · 11 Apr 17, 09:04 PM

From here we decided to go to Starbucks for a drink and snacks to lighten the mood a little.

Today was the last day of our hop on hop off bus ticket and as we felt too hot to do much walking we decided to do the Brooklyn Loop as we’d never done Brooklyn before.

I have to say none of us really enjoyed this. I think it was a combination of factors really. There are some pretty sights in Brooklyn but we were too exhausted to get off and look around in any details and we were all very hot and bothered. In fact we spent most of the tour sat downstairs as it was simply too hot to be sat on the top particularly as the roads were very busy and we spent a lot of time sat in traffic with no shelter from the sun (we did have suncream today though). In fact Abi actually slept for most of the tour!

In hindsight we should have just got off and caught a tube back to Manahatten and our apartment as we had two grumpy kids by the time we'd finished the Brooklyn loop.

Eventually we made it back to our apartment by late afternoon. We had a couple of hours chilling and having showers to cool down and freshen up before we headed out for dinner.

Tonight was my sister’s recommendation. Her and her wife, Kerry, had been to New York in November and told us we had to try the Dallas BBQ restaurant on West 42nd Street as they had the most amazing cocktails! I didn’t need much more recommendation than that!

We actually really enjoyed it here. It wasn’t fine dining by any stretch on the imagination but the service was fast and efficient particularly given the size of the place. In fact it very much reminded us a Disney style restaurant with its efficiency and size.

Ruth had been true to her word and the cocktails were indeed fabulous – and huge! They even cam with test tubes of vodka for that extra kick!

On the way back we stopped at the Disney Store and Sephora on Times Square to do a spot of shopping seeing as hadn’t actually done any today! Izzy and I were quite excited to pick up the Find Dory Tsum Tsums as we hadn’t seen them out in the UK yet.

We decided not to stay out too late as the sky went very dark and sure enough shortly after getting back to our apartment the heavens opened! Times Square was absolutely heaving and so even though our apartment was only 1 subway stop away we decided to catch it as it was easier than fighting our way through the centre of Times Square.

Tomorrow: Coney Island

Thanks for reading.
Claire
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SarahJayne · 13 Apr 17, 11:01 PM

Ah, one world! My absolute favourite place in the whole of NYC - I love that building!

Another great day - you all looked very hot! And Jeff looks like he may have caught the sun

Also, are you posting these from Scotland?!?!

disney owl · 16 Apr 17, 11:05 PM

great photos

Bubble123 · 17 Apr 17, 10:32 AM

Great Photos..

Looks awesome, I can't wait to go back!

Going to have a look at the Dallas BBQ restaurant now!

**Erial** · 29 May 17, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by SarahJayne

Ah, one world! My absolute favourite place in the whole of NYC - I love that building!

Another great day - you all looked very hot! And Jeff looks like he may have caught the sun

Also, are you posting these from Scotland?!?!

Jeff always goes quite pink! Lol! Yes, I was posting from Scotland. Took my laptop with me as it was all written and just needed uploading. Hoping to get the rest done this weekend.

Originally Posted by disney owl

great photos

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Bubble123

Great Photos..

Looks awesome, I can't wait to go back!

Going to have a look at the Dallas BBQ restaurant now!

Thanks for reading!

Claire
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Rac20 · 9 Jul 17, 08:04 AM

Loving your trip report! Your youngest little girl is just like my DS8. In Orlando last year he came home with an armful of stuffed teddies to fit on to his already overflowing bed! He also loves his fruit. My eldest, not so much!

**Erial** · 25 Jul 17, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Rac20

Loving your trip report! Your youngest little girl is just like my DS8. In Orlando last year he came home with an armful of stuffed teddies to fit on to his already overflowing bed! He also loves his fruit. My eldest, not so much!

Lol! Yep, it sounds like your two are just like mine! We're off to Florida again in 2 weeks, I dread to think how many soft toys will be coming home with us!

Claire
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