Our last day here and we booked a walking tour with Streetwise New York ($200 for 3 hours). Instead of driving into the city, we decided to use public transportation. We drove to Hoboken, New Jersey and took the PATH train ($2.50/person one way) to 14th Street in Manhattan. The trip was only about eleven minutes, much quicker than driving. We walked a few blocks to meet up with our guide Dan at the Chelsea Market. The market was the former home of the National Biscuit Company. The Oreo cookie was invented here. The market is now home to many restaurants and shops.
The three of us spent the next three and a half hours checking out many areas of New York City. We walked through The High Line, the Meat Packing District, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. We covered alot of ground and Dan was a wealth of knowledge. One of the more interesting places that Dan took us to was Music Inn World Instrustments in Greenwich Village. It’s a tiny store that is crammed with all different types of instruments. The best part of the store is Jeff Slatnick who has been at the store for over forty years, and never left the 60’s. Bob Dylan used to buy his records at this store. Dan also showed us the smallest townhouse in New York City (75 1/2 Bedford St) at nine and a half feet wide, which was for sale for $4.3 million in 2011. We also saw the outside of the apartment building used in the TV show Friends. At the end of our tour, Dan was kind enough to show us how to use the subway and we made our way north to the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
While we were on the walking tour, I called the “Late Show with David Letterman” ticket line to see about getting on the stand by list. I should have called at 11am when the phone line opened but I forgot and once I finally called, it was 11:45am and we were numbers 47 and 48. We got to the theatre after a very quick subway ride and we were told to wait on the corner and at 3:30pm we would find out our fate. While waiting on the corner, I walked down to the stage door and saw the animals from the Columbus Zoo that were going to be the guests with Jack Hanna on tonight’s show. At 3:30pm, a person from the show came out and we made the first cut. All this meant was that we might get into the show. We were then directed to another line in front of the theatre. Now the only way that we could get in is if somebody does not show up. In the end, we were three people away from getting into the show. So close … maybe next time.
We walked over to Rockefeller Centre and went up to the observation deck called Top of The Rock. It was a quick elevator ride to the 67th floor. What an amazing panaromic view of New York City. On this floor and the 69th floor, you are looking through glass panels. I kept sticking the camera between the panels to get the pictures. But on the 70th floor, it is open air. Unbelievable. We hung out there until it was just starting to get dark, and the lights of the city were starting to twinkle.
By this time, we were pretty tired from all of the walking so we did not want to venture too far for dinner. We had dinner at Tri-Tip Grill in Rockefeller Centre. It was actually a good steak dinner for a mall. We didn’t have to walk too far to catch the subway and PATH back to Hoboken. What a great last day in NYC.
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