Once on the east side of the park, I started walking down 5th Avenue. I was tempted to walk through the zoo, but didn’t really feel like paying admission. Perhaps another time. Continuing down, I found the Plaza Hotel, where Mariah Carey was apparently shooting a music video, and a crowd of people was standing around trying to catch a glimpse of her. How terribly exciting. I kept going, and made it down to Saks Fifth Avenue and the Rockefeller Center. Saw the space where the skating rink goes, and stared up at the giant tower.

I continued over to the United Nations. I meant to go on a tour, but the next one was almost 2 hours later, and by that point I was kind of tired and dehydrated, so I did what little exploring I could do on my own, and headed back to my friends to relax for a little ’til she was done with work.

When she returned, we decided to take the Staten Island Ferry to get a closer view of the Statue of Liberty and to grab some Italian. In front of the ferry terminal there was a little breakdancing performance.

Once the performance was over, we did get onto the ferry, and I got my first close(r)-up look at the statue:

We enjoyed our dinner (and garlic bread!) at the local vegan-friendly, gluten-free friendly, corn-free friendly, option-friendly Italian place, grabbed the ferry back and called it a night. Good times.

That evening we headed out on the subway to Brooklyn to walk over the bridge and the night skyline. While trying to find the stairs up to the bridge, we ran across someone filming a music video. It was a bizarre affair, with a cameraman holding the camera and walking all around and doing random close-ups and things. We had to wait for the singing/grinding to end before we could climb up to the bridge. The bridge (and view) was beautiful, though, and I caught my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

We meandered our way back uptown, and eventually ran into the Times Sq. area. Maybe it was just that it was a Friday night, but it was way too much for me. Too many people, too many ads – so overstimulating I just wanted out. Finally, we made it through and ended up back at the apartment. We went and got a vegan pizza from a nearby place. Tasty, but I think I still need to try a NY slice of plain ol’ cheese pizza.