New York 2006

Yesterday it was the first day of summer. We forgot to get up in the middle of the night and go to Eastriver Park to see the druides welcome the summer solstice at dawn. Well atleast we got a good night sleep :). Anyway it was a beautifull day and we had already decided that today should be the day to go to the Empire state building. Before we could go however Zicar wanted a sandwich so we sat down in the little park before the subway entrance in 73rd street to eat our brunch. Just as we were about to finish a local fucking bird shit all over my shirt. Since we were so close to home and it was really bad. We went back and I changed my shirt. Finally we arrived at the south entrance of the ESB on 33rd street. We were very lucky because there was no line to speak off. There was only a minute before the security check and about 10 minutes before the ticketoffice. After the office the potential line could have been more than an hour just to get on the elevator but there was nobody there so we could walk straight into the elevator. Could thing we didn't pay the extra 40 bucks to skip this line !!!!.
Once on top we had an amazing view. It was a bit hazy but it was could enough to have a could look at Manhattan. Hopefully Zicar will post a view pics on his blog. He was very pleased we bought the camera with the extra big zoom option which was indeed quite impressive has these pictures show you.
After the ESB we had up to the Complete Strategist. A store completely focused on wargames (board and card versions). It has a ton of books about armies and game strategies. And a reasonable collection of Magic cards. And Zicar could not resist to buy a few sets. We continued our trip after having a small sandwich at a local delli walking along fifth avenue towards Bryson Park where there is a beautifull building housing the Public Library. But we want to go east on 42nd street towards the famous Grand Central Station.
Which as you see on the outside is completely packed by these huge skyscrapers but on the inside is a world of space and grandeur. Where some people are obviously more in a hury than others.

Finally we took the the shuttle to Times Square and headed home. Since we were now smack in the middle of rushhour. Zicar could see how packed a subway can be....and it wasn't even a busy day.
We had some take-out chicken with a greek salad for dinner and jammed a bit afterwards. This time I tried to get in there with my sax with took some time to get started cause I haven't really played in about a year. But we managed to spill out some notes in harmony together. That was sure fun even though half the time I was missing the cords and was completely out of key. We kept chatting until about 2 AM. So it is quite understandable that today at 10 AM I am the only one out of bed. It will be a slow starting day. No real plans just enjoy the day as it comes.