First full day in New York City! Checked out of our hotel and moved to a different one about 15 blocks away, this one seems much nicer. (The card on the door here says "do not disturb"... at the other hotel it said "dont do it.") Anyway, after getting settled in, we went to Starbucks across the street from the Empire State Building (from now on referred to as the ESB) for breakfast. It wasnt raining yet, so we decided to go up the ESB.

An hour and a half later, after a line which gave me Disney World flashbacks (go in, looks good... turn the corner, awww....), we finally made it to the 86th floor observation deck. By this time, it was cloudy and starting to rain. The view was great, we could see all of Manhattan and into New Jersey, out to the Atlantic and all over New York City.

By this time, it was getting late, so we stopped into Grand Central Station (GCS) for lunch. They had a pretty decent food court with some really good New York pizza. GCS is a really, really huge building above ground, and it stretches for blocks underground too, not a place I'd want to be lost in.

Visited the United Nations building in the afternoon. It was really weird to see so many different people and hear so many languages at the same time. We had a good tour of the Security Council chamber, the General Assembly, and several of the other large meeting rooms. They had just finished shooting part of a big movie ("The Interpreter," if that means anything to you) inside the building, and as we walked outside we were directed to go around because they were preparing a helecopter stunt scene. We went around the block to see if we could see it, but it didn't look like anything was happening anytime soon.

Stopped by Rockefeller Center, home of NBC studios, but the studio tours were sold out through Wednesday, so it looks like thats not going to happen. Oh well. We saw a bunch of places we've seen on TV, like the "Today" show set you can see from the street. Headed back to the hotel on the subway, pretty easy with a MetroCard.

Went out for dinner at a pizza place a few blocks down Park Avenue. We didnt get tickets early for any of the Broadway shows, so it looks like we're out of luck for the evening. Just heard on the news that the high temperature for today was before dawn, and its very cold and windy outside, it's supposed to be 35 degrees with 35 mph winds and a possibility of snow showers tomorrow. Fun fun!

That's about it for today, tomorrow I'll visit NYU, then I'll probably go see Wall Street and go on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. By the way, along with internet access, I DO have AIM access, so if you see me online, feel free to talk! I'll probably be on in the evenings around 10 when I have a connection, so for all of you back in Pacific Time, that would be 7:00-ish.