​Before heading for home we had one last item on the itinerary – the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall!  The coach left the hotel at 10 o’clock for the short ride over – only needed the bus in order to have all our luggage aboard, as it’s only about 5 blocks to the hall.  The show was good and the hall is absolutely amazing – was particularly intrigued by how they could project video uniformly over the entire ceiling as part of the show…

From the theater it was on to the airport – we had to bypass the lunch plans due to the heavy traffic in the city.  Mom and most of the tour group had a 4:30 flight, but Jerry and I along with the remainder of the group had a 6:10 flight.  Made it home around 10 in the evening after taking a cab to Jerry’s to pick up my car.

All in all, I had a wonderful time.  All of the entertainment was great and the sight-seeing tour was nice despite the less than perfect weather.  Will need to return sometime to see the completed 9/11 memorial and perhaps take in some museums.  Not that there were any issues with it, but I’m still not sure how I feel about traveling with such a large group, aside from the fact that everything is planned by somebody else;-)

​Sunday morning was another free part of the itinerary.  After breakfast I decided I would take a walk up into Central Park.  The south end of the park is about ten blocks from our hotel.  I headed up that direction, stopping in Columbus Circle before entering the park where they were just opening up the Christmas market.  Despite yesterday’s snowfall, there were still a few people walking or running through the park.  There are so many little hidden areas of the park that you could easily spend days exploring them all.  It was just nice to get away from the crowds so I took my time and enjoyed it.  I made my way up and around the north side of the Jacqueline Onassis reservoir before heading back southwards along 5th Avenue.  This was nearly a fifty block walk and despite the temperature hovering around 30 degrees I had dressed warm enough that it was very pleasant.

I decided I had enough time to head over to Grand Central Terminal before meeting everyone else back at the hotel.  When I reached the south end of the park at 57th street along 5th, the transition was like night and day.  It was now a little after 11 am and sidewalks were filled with people – very jarring after the calm in the park.  I popped into Grand Central for a couple of photos and then headed back towards the hotel.

Rockefeller Center

Grand Central Terminal

Columbus Circle

Skyline

Rock Formations

Bridge in the Park

Pond in the park

Ducks & Geese

Skyline from the Reservoir

Skyline from the Reservoir

Dedication

Arsenal

William T. Sherman

We grabbed a pizza at another little Italian place down the street from the hotel.  A classic New York style pizza-pie – fantastic!  Not the place the bus driver told us about yesterday but that’s was OK.

After lunch it was on to see a matinée showing of the musical Once.  I really enjoyed this one too!  It’s a little different from most – the cast was actually on stage playing while the crowd arrives.  They even have a bar on stage, which is one of the set locations, where you can get beverages before and during intermission.  Then as everyone is seated, the show simply starts – you’re not quite sure if it’s the show or more prelude but I think it works well.

From the theater it was back to the hotel to catch the coach down to the World Yacht Cruise.  This was a dinner cruise that took us from Pier 81 on the west side of Manhattan down around the tip of the island, back up the East River under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.  Then back down the river across the harbor pas Ellis Island and around the Statue of Liberty before heading back to shore.  The food was great as were the views.  Only bad thing was that the pictures didn’t turn out great – it’s very hard to get night shots from a moving platform.  That being said, here are a few:

Night on the river

Night on the river

One World Trade Center

Night on the river

Night on the river