New York and Washington DC

Well it's official - we LOVE New York!! We arrived at our hotel in the heart of Times Square late in the afternoon (after a long flight and an interesting experience trying to get a shuttle into the city!). We checked into our room, which was on the 25th floor (and really nice) and hit the streets straight away. Times Square was awesome and in the first few blocks we could have gone nuts shopping for just about everything (but we held back)! We had some dinner at Planet Hollywood and headed back to our hotel to try and get some sleep (at that stage we had been awake for nearly 22 hours). Next morning we got up and straight into it. We caught the subway down to the site of the World Trade Centre. They are in the process of building the new towers so it was a big construction site. From here we headed down toward Battery Park. We weren't really sure where we were going so just decided to head along the waterfront. We turned the corner and amazingly ran into Trav's brother Stewart - very small world!! We had a few drinks together at a bar looking out toward the statue of liberty. It was so nice running into someone we knew after having been away for so long! After this we caught the Staten Island ferry to get a closer view of the Statue of Liberty. Next it was back on the subway uptown to the Top of the Rock (the observation deck on top of the Rockefeller Centre). It was a really nice day (was the hottest day on record since the 60's and got over 30) so the view was awesome and you could see forever! After this we headed up Fifth Avenue, past all the expensive shops and went for a wander through central park. We could hardly walk any further by now so got some dinner and headed back to our hotel room. Next day was an early start as we headed back to Rockefeller Plaza to see where they tape the Today Show. If anyone was awake and watching at about 5am back home you may have seen us!!! We then went on a tour of the NBC studios which was pretty cool (saw the studios where they tape Saturday Night Live and the new Jimmy Kimmel late night show). Afterwards we caught the subway to lower Manhatton to Union Square where we wandered around the shops there. Then back up to midtown to Macy's which was just crazy and then back to the hotel for a rest cos our feet were so sore again! Tonight we wandered through Times Square again, did some shopping and had a really nice dinner at ESPN Zone! Next morning was pretty quiet. We went on a tour of Radio City Music Hall around lunch time, did a bit more shopping and then headed for the airport for our flight to Washington DC.

By the time we arrived at our hotel it was nearly 11pm. Our room here is really nice, with two huge beds covered in pillows! This morning we slept in and headed out about 10am. We walked to Union Station and caught the metro closer to the White House. We wandered around and took some pics from both sides. We then walked and saw all the major monuments - Washinton monument, Lincoln memorial, various war memorials, FDR memorial, Jefferson memorial and Capitol Hill. While at the Jefferson memorial the President's chopper flew overhead - not sure if he was in it though! We are now back at the hotel having a drink and resting our feet! Tomorrow we are off to Disney World!!