Much was on my agenda again today, partly because I wanted to make good use of my City Pass before I fly home. I remember not fully utilizing my City Pass in San Francisco and I really regretted that. And I don’t want that to happen again. So I was rushing around simply trying to fulfill that.
I thought a nice way to begin the day was to go for a cruise, which was one of the entitlements on my City Pass. Unfortunately, my cruise wasn’t going to start until 4pm! And I only found that out when I was at the pier! So it was a wasted trip getting all the way there, and I had to find my way back into town to kill some time with other activities before sailing off…
I thought I’d go back to the public library, to see if I can get that library card done. Turned out that I was SO lucky that the machine decided to break down on the day I was there to make the card. So I could only take some photos of the interior and exterior. Sobz… Took a little walk around Bryant Park too, since it’s just next to the public library.
Didn’t do too much after… Just walked around, took photos of the architecture. I guess I was just looking forward to the cruise… And when it was time to go for the cruise, I arrived early. 2nd in line! Beat that! Haha! Decided to take the open air seat on the top deck, so that I could get better photos. The cruise was amazing! I mean, getting to see Manhattan Island from a detached perspective was totally novel for me since I have been on the island for quite a number of days and have yet to see a view of it from ‘outside’. The sun was setting too, which gave the island an interesting hue… But I think the best part of the cruise was getting close enough to the Statue of Liberty to take photos of it. I took so many shots I now wonder why I even did! Haha!
After the cruise, I had enough time to go up to the Empire State Building, to the sky observatory to get a bird’s eye view of NYC. And the cool thing was that my City Pass entitled me to an audio tour! Haha! So I got to know a bit more about the history of Manhattan… But not that I remember much of it anyway. The amazing part was that I actually met Tomek (recall UCLA… kayaking in Black Canyon) on the Empire State Building! I knew he was going to be in NYC, but to actually see him there! Cool! It was wonderful! That guy is so funny! We caught up a bit, took a photo before he left with a friend.
The day ended really late, with a simple dinner at the same pizza place that opens for 24h. I had like… half a chicken! Mad!