Part 6 - New York

We arrived in New York late Saturday afternoon and grabbed a cab from the airport to our hotel.  Our hotel, The Novotel, has a great bar that looks down towards Times Square, so our first stop after checking in was the bar.  We had a few drinks here, before heading out to grab some dinner.  Apparently there was some big UFC fight on that night and because I'm such a massive fan of UFC (note the sarcasm) it made perfect sense that the next stop was to find an Irish Pub where we would watch the fight.  Wade clearly got me at a weak moment!  Wade promised me the fight would be on at around 10pm, but 10pm came and went, and so did 11pm and so did 12am - and still no fight!  Finally around 12:15am it happened and as soon as it was over we headed back to our hotel to bed!

After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning, we hit the streets for what we end up being a typical day in NYC - lots of walking!!  We took a walk through Bryant Park and Grand Central Station before grabbing a subway down to Spring Street and Little Italy.  We had part 1 of lunch at Lombardi's Pizza, which is one of the oldest pizzeria's in the US.  After this, we then walked down to Chinatown where we grabbed some dim sum for part 2 of lunch!  We had plans of going to the new One World Observatory next, but it was becoming overcast and there was a chance of a rain/storm, so we decided to hold off on this until the sun was out.  Instead we decided to walk down to Battery Park.

In all the times we have been to New York together, we have never been over to the Statue of Liberty.  I went with mum in 2002, but Wade and I never have.  This is largely because the line was always so long and we couldn't be bothered waiting!  We got there this time though, and for the first time ever - there was no line at all!  We bought our tickets and walked straight onto the boat to head over to Liberty Island.  We wandered around the island for a while, taking in the views looking back at the city and the statue, and then jumped back on the boat - just in time too, as the rain started just as we got back to the city.  We got the subway back to our hotel and had a bit of a break before grabbing dinner.

Another slow start on Monday and because the sun was shining, we decided to head straight down to the World Trade Center site and head up to the new One World Observatory.  The views were amazing - you could see forever, and it was definitely worth the visit.  After this, we took the subway up to 72nd St and wandered into Central Park to check out Strawberry Fields, where there is a tribute to John Lennon.  We sat there for a while, listening to a busker play a couple of Beatles songs, and then it was off to grab some lunch.  We walked a few blocks away to Gray's Papaya - which is a famous hot dog restaurant (it's been shown in lots of movies and tv shows).  The hot dogs were really good - the papaya fruit juice - not so much!  After that we wandered through Central Park and made our way back to our hotel.

For our last night in New York, we went to a roof top bar, 230 Fifth, which had some great views of the city, including the Empire State Building.  After a few drinks we grabbed some dinner and walked back to our hotel through Times Square.

Here are some pictures from our time in New York:

View from Novotel bar

Bryant Park

Grand Central Station

Lunch at Lombardi's

Dim Sum in Chinatown

Statue of Liberty

Views from One World Observatory

Central Park (Strawberry Fields)

Speaks for itself!

More Central Park

230 Fifth rooftop bar

    

Part 5 - Niagara Falls

So it was a super early start today - up at 4.15am - to get to the airport for our flight to Toronto.  We were a bit delayed taking off and the flight was just over 5 hours so with the time difference by the time we arrived in Toronto it was after 4pm.  We then had to go an pick up our rental car and get on the road to Niagara Falls.  By this stage it was Friday afternoon, and peak hour, so the drive out to Niagara Falls which should have taken just over an hour, took over two hours.

We arrived in Niagara Falls about 6.45pm, checked into our hotel, and then wandered down to check out the Falls.  Thankfully given it was summer, and they have daylight savings, the sun doesn't go down until around 8.30pm, so we had plenty of sunlight left.

Having been here once before with mum, I had pre-warned Wade how tacky a place the town of Niagara Falls was.  He soon realised I wasn't lying!  He likened it to Sideshow Alley at the Ekka on crack and was very surprised that there could be such a demand for that many versions of haunted houses in the space of a few blocks!!

Once we got through that section though, we made our way down to where you could view the falls which was much more of a spectacular sight!  Once it gets dark, they light both the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls up in different colours.  Noting we had limited time here, we decided to do the Journey Behind the Falls tonight.  This takes you down to a viewing platform right beside the Canadian Falls where you can see the full force of the falls.  You also get to walk through the tunnels behind the falls, to a couple of viewing portals - it was crazy how loud the falls were from behind here.  Given it was a Friday too, they also had a concert on and fireworks at 10pm, so we hung around to see these and then headed back to the hotel to bed.

We got up nice and early and headed back down to the falls, so we jump on the boat that takes you up close and personal with the falls.  After putting on the required raincoat we got on the boat and off we went.  The boat takes you pretty close to the American Falls, but right in under the Canadian Falls - which is pretty amazing.  Clearly the raincoats don't quite cut it because we both still came off pretty wet!

After the boat trip we wandered back along the pathways to the top of the Canadian Falls and took a few more photos.  After this we headed back to our hotel to check out and drive back to Toronto.  In the end, we had spent less than 24 hours in Niagara Falls - which is basically all you need.  The Falls are amazing - the rest - not so much (but we knew this going in which is exactly why we only planned to stay that long)!

Here are some photos from our time in Niagara

Niagara Falls at night

Some shots from the Journey Behind the Falls

Morning walk to the boat - more Geese - still no ducks!

All ready for our boat ride!

Niagara Falls during the day

An example of the streets surrounding the falls!

Part 4 - Yosemite National Park

We got up early and checked out of our hotel in Mammoth Lakes, as we had a big drive to get through today, taking us through Yosemite National Park and back to San Francisco.

Our route to Yosemite Valley took us over Tioga Pass and our first stop was at Tuolumne Meadows.  We parked the car and walked through the meadows to take in our first views of the National Park.  This was a really beautiful spot and we encountered our first up close experience with wildlife - there was a coyote prowling the meadows looking for food (thankfully not us!) not too far from where we were walking.  There were also a heap of ground squirrel everywhere (they kept popping there heads up out of their hiding spots and looked a bit like mini meerkats), which is what I'm guessing the coyote was looking for!

Our next stops were at Tenaya Lake and then further along at Olmsted Point, which had views back to Tenaya Lake and also into Tenaya Canyon where we got our first glimpse of Half Dome.  From there it was about an hour drive to Yosemite Valley and our first stop at Tunnel View where you can see a great view looking through the valley.  It was then onto Bridalveil Falls where we took a short hike out to see the falls - this late in summer there wasn't much falling but enough to get the idea!  From here we stopped in briefly at the visitors centre and then parked our car at the start of the trail for our hike to Mirror Lake.  The round trip on the trail was about 3kms and it was a pretty easy hike.  Unfortunately when we reached the lake, there wasn't much lake to see!  Again, given it is quite late in the summer, the lake had mostly dried up so we didn't get to see the full impact of the "mirror" part of the lake.  It was still a really nice view and walk though.  By the time we got back to the car, it was getting later in the afternoon, so we made our final stop to take some pictures of El Capitan on the way out and then hit the road for the drive back to San Francisco.

It was a pretty painful drive home, and after experiencing the peak hour traffic on our way into San Francisco the week before, we decided to try and avoid it as much as possible,  So we stopped in at some outlets just outside of the city to take a break and have some dinner, before heading to our hotel near the airport.

Here are some photos from our time in Yosemite:

Tuolumne Meadows

Tenaya Lake

Olmstead Point

Tunnel View

Bridalveil Falls

Hike to Mirror Lake

Yep - that's a duck in the photo (first one I've seen all trip)!

El Capitan