www.GANCARZ.com

Sue had to get up early to register for her conference, so I was on my own to do a bit of exploring. Here is the front of our hotel, the Sheraton Manhattan, as I ventured out for the morning.

Here is St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Egan. It is the largest decorated gothic-style Catholic Cathedral in the United States. It's a bit funny to see it dwarfed by the surrounding buildings. In Italy, the Cathedrals were usually the largest buildings in the city. I went inside to maybe take a few pictures, but totally spaced that it was Sunday and there would be a mass going on. Ooops.

Across the street from the cathedral is this art deco style Statue of Atlas. It is the largest sculptural work at Rockefeller Center.

The Rockefeller Center Garden Plaza was decorated with palm trees. I thought this picture made for interesting contrast with the art deco tower in the background.

Here is the famous Rink Bar at Rockefeller Center with the Prometheus statue fountain. In the winter, this area is converted into an ice skating rink.

Here is the NBC studio where they shoot the Today Show. Pretty cool, but since it's Sunday, nothing is really going on.

The NBC Rainbow Room, and also home to studios for the Conan O'Brien Show and Saturday Night Live. I passed on the backstage tour figuring I'd get back here with Sue later, it didn't happen.

Grand Central Station, or more correctly, Grand Central Terminal. The building's facade is supposed to be very impressive, however it was wrapped with a construction barrier as it undergoes renovations. The inside is supposed to be equally impressive, but I guess I missed it, because the parts I saw looked like any other subway terminal to me.

This is a picture that I took just for Sue. She has a crush on Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Funny story here. I was walking to the Empire State building when I saw this building down a side street. It looked taller than the one that I thought was the Empire State building, so I thought that I must have been wrong and this one was actually the Empire State building. It looked vaguely familiar and I took a bunch of pictures of it. It wasn't until I got back to the hotel to meet Sue for lunch that I looked at a map and realized that it was the Crysler Building and the one I had originally thought was the Empire State building was right. So, I ended up with a dozen or so pictures of the Crysler Building instead.

Here is a cool picture I stopped to take as I was crossing the road in front of the New York Public Library.

Here is the New York Public Library. The was the library in the opening scene of Ghostbusters when librarian in the basement reported seeing a ghost.

Here is one of the Lion statues guarding the entrance to the building.

Out side the library were little terraces where you could sit quietly and read a book. Pretty cool. I was running late to meet Sue for lunch, so I didn't get a chance to go inside the library.

Just up the street and behind the library is Bryant Park. It is not very large, but it feels quiet and secluded. Apparently, HBO erects a giant movie screen each summer to show classic flims on Monday nights.

Now I am approaching Times Square. Here is a picture of the MTV studio where they shoot TRL.

Here is the restored marquee to the Paramount Building and hotel on Times Square.

Leaving Times Square, I found this billboard to be rather amusing. I wonder if apartment 6F gets paid anything. And what about the other apartments that get completely blocked out? Strange.

Here is a Delorean that drove by my hotel. I wonder how they generate the 1.21 GigaWatts necessary to power the Flux Capacitor?

After lunch, I journeyed up to Central Park. Wow. I had no idea how large it was. I thought I could walk around and take in all the major attractions (like at Boston Commons), but I must have walked around for an hour and only seen 10% of the park.

I decided to head back to the hotel and come back with Sue later on and take a horse carriage ride threw the park. It was a good plan, but again, we ran out of time to do everything.

After Sue got off work, we decided to try and go to the top of the Empire State building. Big mistake. The line stretched out for almost a block. We decided to bag the idea and hit a nearby brewery for some dinner and a couple of frosty, cold ones.

Here is a parting shot of the Empire State building as we head off to Times Square after dinner.

Times Square is very cool at night. With all the signs and lights, it almost has a Las Vegas feel to it.

Here is another picture on the square.

This picture is pretty cool, too. It was taken down a side street off of Times Square, towards the Sunset on the Hudson River.

On the Fourth of July, Sue had to work a half day at her conference, so I had the morning to myself again. So, I headed over to the United Nations on the East River.

After passing through the security tent, I was in the main lobby. One wall contained painted portraits of the former (and current) heads of the U.N.

The lobby also contained many exhibits from member nations. Here was a U.N. flag that flew over the embassy in Iraq during bombings in 2003. It was pretty neat, but to get a behind the scenes tour cost money, and I didn't have allot of time before I had to meet Sue, so I headed back to the hotel.

Sue and I headed to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum after lunch. I had been here once before with the Cub Scouts, but I didn't remember very much of the trip.

Sue was excited to see the Intrepid, too. Here Dad served on the Intrepid when he was in the Navy.

The hanger deck of the ship has been turned into four museum galleries. In one gallery is the original Iwo Jima Memorial statue. It toured the country during WWII to help sell war bonds. Eventually, it became so popular, that a larger, permanent statue was constructed at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

This flag was taken from the body of a Japanese soldier during the battle of Iwo Jima. A U.S. soldier wrote on the flag. It says, "From a dead Jap. Iwo Jima, Feb 23, 1945." I figured Adam would get a kick out of it.

Later in it's life, the Intrepid was also used to retrieve returning astronauts during the space program. Here are replicas of Gemini and Mercury space capsule on display.

Here is Sue trying to call her Dad and tell him that we were standing on the Intrepid. He was pretty excited that we were there. He was a helicopter mechanic and asked us to look for the displays of the ones he worked on.

The phone broke in and out, but we think her Dad said he worked on an M-3 helicopter. We weren't able to find it. Here is a AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter, though.

And here is a AV-8C Harrier jet. The flight deck of the Intrepid had about 20 different fighters and helicopter on display.

This is an A-12 Blackbird supersonic spy plane. Designed to replace the U-2, the A-12 flew higher and four times as fast to outrun enemy defenses and gather intelligence.

I wonder what this does, and just how many times someone flew an A-12 with out removing this cap, necessitating the large red flag.

Maybe this was Phil's brother?

Also on display near the Intrepid was one of the retired Concorde Air liners. You could go inside of it, but it was so hot that neither Sue or I felt the need to tour the cramped space.

Next stop was the Intrepid's Navigation Bridge. It made a nice spot to take one last shot of the flight deck.

Here is Sue climbing up to the bridge. She wondered whether her Dad ever climbed these very steps.

This is the flight briefing room. It reminded me a lot of Top Gun.

After touring the Intrepid, we hopped a subway downtown to visit Ground Zero. One of the security guards opened the gates briefly so that we could take pictures.

As you can imagine, it is still a very sad and somber place. On the right, you can still see the make shift memorial cross erected by workers clearing the site.

Here you can see the only new construction on the site: A rebuilt subway line and station built to restore public transportation to the site. It's a little sad that more hasn't been done with the site to rebuild or memorialize the victims of 9/11.

This is St. Paul's Chapel, located directly across the street from the World Trade Center site. Mahattan's oldest public building, it was miraculously undamaged during the collapse of the towers. It housed the eight-month volunteer relief effort after the terrorist attacks.

South of the World Trade Center site is Battery Park, with a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. This it the closest we got to the statue during our visit, as we needed to head back uptown to get our places for the fireworks display.

The fireworks were very nice, but the area neat the East river filled up so fast that we ended up taking spots pretty far away from the barges. I missed the closeness you feel during the Boston fireworks.

Also, the only way to here the music that the fireworks were coordinated with was to bring your own radio. Wish I knew that before leaving Boston. Still, it was a nice end to a very fun and patriotic Fourth of July holiday.

On Tuesday, I had the entire day to myself. So, I headed off to the Empire State Building to pre-purchase tickets to the top that Sue and I could use later that night. On my way there, I remembered that the Today Show should be shooting, so I made a little detour. The crowd was pretty small by the time I got there, but we made it on t.v. when they went to one of their breaks. How cool is that?

After waiting in line for 45 minutes to get tickets to the Empire State building, I decided to head to the American Museum of Natural History. The place is huge, and after the Smithsonian, it may be the best museum I've been to.

The animal exhibits were nice, if you are not put off by taxidermy. What I couldn't believe was how well the pictures came out. They look like oil paintings. Here are two huge Grizzly Bears.

And here are a couple of Moose. I took this picture because Sue's Grandmother loves Moose.

A Mountain Lion. Supposedly, they are making a return to New England, but truth to those rumors have been debated.

White Tailed Deer. Now I took this picture because there are a few hunters in my family, and white-tailed deer are primarily what they hunt.

I don't remember what these were called, but they are not elk, and they used to roam New York state and western New England. How would you like to come across one of these when you were hunting. They are like deer on steroids.

These are your basic Black Rhinos. I guess I never realized how long their horns could get.

Another picture for my brother. He love Kimono Dragons. He once had a hair brained idea that he could raise one as a pet.

Petrified wood. Nothing special, really. I just thought the picture came out really well.

This exhibit hall was dedicated to Pacific North West Native American tribes. Very impressive.

I'm not sure exactly why, but this wood carving really appealed to me. I was very simple, especially when compared to all the other totem carvings on exhibit.

Here is an up close wooden totem carving.

This is Lucy, one of the earliest known Hominid species. She lived roughly 3.2 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia.

This is a colossal stone head of Olmec origin. The Olmecs are an ancient Central American culture that predate the Mayans and Aztecs. These stone heads have several African features, giving rise to the theory that African civilizations colonized the Americas.

This is an Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone. The original object is a 12', massive stone slab, carved in the middle of the 15th century.

In the exhibit for African peoples, I came across this mask. How would you like to be walking along and have some guy wearing this mask and carrying this axe come after you?

In the exhibit for South American peoples was this display of authentic shrunken heads. Pretty cool.

Also on display was this pottery. It was actually used to brew a form of beer.

Finally, there was this replica of a stone statue from Easter Island. I would love to visit Easter Island some day. I also love the way the museum lights the exhibits. The pictures come out terrific.

The fourth and top floor of the museum housed the dinosaur exhibits. This is Stegosaurus. He was one of my favorites as a kid.

Here are a pair of Duck-billed dinosaurs.

This is Triceratops, Sue's favorite dinosaur. Growing up, I remember learning that Triceratops horns were used for defense. It was interesting to learn that new theories suggest the horns were used in mating rituals and to attract mates, much like deer antlers.

Here is a Woolly Mammoth skeleton.

And a Pterodactyl.

And finally, the grand daddy of them all, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

After the museum, I met up with Sue and we headed for the Empire State building. Here is the main lobby. After waiting in line for tickets earlier in the day, we still had to wait another hour and a half to ride up to the top. I'm glad we went, because I'll never have to go again.

By the time we reached the top, a storm had come in, so it was cold, rainy and the visibility was poor. I was able to get this picture of the streets below.

Here is another shot of the New York skyline. You can see the low clouds. It was still nice to be able say we did it, though.