I guess it had to happen eventually. I’ve been blessed with nothing short of perfect weather on this trip, but today it decided it wasn’t playing the game. I woke up to a wet, windy, severely overcast day. I had booked a chopper flight over the city, but that was definately off the cards so I had to go down and cancel my booking. Maybe I’ll get up again on Wednesday, maybe.

In the wet, there isn’t really a lot that I could do (nor really wanted to do for that matter). But I had wanted to go check out the Flatiron building that I see in so many TV shows so I went downtown to see what was happening.

Being that it was the perfect day for being indoors, I decided to check out a museum. I’m not really a museum person - personally I don’t like spending hours upon hours indoors when I can be out taking photos of something. That’s not to say museums are not interesting, but they’re just not my cup of tea. There was a museum right up the road from the Flatiron building which was….wait for it… The Museum of Sex. Sounded interesting enough, so I went and had a goosey. Yes it sounds dodgy, but it was actually a very interesting, informative, and enlightening exhibit that I would recommend.

With yet another gorgeous New York day, I decided to hit the harbour and take in a cruise around Manhattan Island. I walked from Times Square down through Hell’s Kitchen to the 42nd St Pier on the East River.

It was chilly, but the weather was fine, the sun was shining, and it was a leisurely 3 hours spent circumventing the island, listening to a very imformative step by step guide as to what we were seeing.

Ellis island… 

The Statue of Liberty…

Downtown Manhattan…

Queensboro Bridge…

See that bridge in the background. Does it look familiar?? It was to me and then the announcer advised that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built based on a larger version of this bridge…

Yankee Stadium…

Once we docked back at the pier I headed straight to The Rockefeller Centre to the Top Of The Rock observation deck. You got perfect views of the Empire State as well as Central Park….

Then I met a very interesting man called Don. He operates a shoe shine stand on 6th Avenue. I’ve travelled the States in the only pair of shoes that matter - my RM Williams boots. I have a new pair I bought last year that I wear to weddings, but I bought my old beat up pair with me on this trip. They are still comfortable as ever. I’ve spent the last 3 weeks in them, and I figured Don was going to have his work cut out for him…

But in no time he had them sparkling….

Now, Don charges only $3 for the shoe shine. It doesn’t seem like much. But Don told me he probably does 100 pairs of shoes a day. You do the math. Even at $3 that’s not a bad living. And most people on average give him $5 or an even more generous tip. And he’s getting paid cash. How much do you think he’s actually declaring to the IRS?? No wonder the guy is smiling…

I picked up the Lonely Planet’s NYC Guide before I left home. It is a pretty awesome book. It’s pull out map is worth it’s weight in gold, but not only that, it has this fantastic section on walking tours. So today, I decided to take it’s tour of Downtown Manhattan & Brooklyn.

I rode the subway down to the very bottom tip of Manhattan, Battery Park. From here I caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty (it was so small it’s not worth posting a photo here). I wandered through the park admiring the nearby buildings. It’s here that they have placed the sphere sculpture that used to sit at the World Trade Centre site which although badly damaged, managed to survive the events of that day.

I then donned my power suit to check out Wall Street and the surrounding areas. Even though I didn’t think I would, I did make my way over to “Ground Zero”. I was suprised to find just how upset it made me. In August 2001 my sisters took a trip to the States. I can vividly remember Constable Plod coming home and raving about the twin towers and how amazing they were. It was only a month later that she came in to wake me up (we lived together at the time), visibly in shock, and could barely utter a word but to motion I come out to the living room. I can also remember riding the bus to work that morning, and the silence as people just looked at eachother in disbelief. Standing there looking at the names of the nearly 3000 people who were killed that day, and just looking at the space the buildings used to occupy made me really really sad. I didn’t take any photos there as I didn’t feel that the place should be a tourist attraction, just a place to go and reflect on a sad day in history that truly did change the world.

From there I went and checked out the South Street Seaport, and wandered through an old part of town that felt a lot like The Rocks in Sydney. From there I headed on up to City Hall to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge. I was quite taken with the view of the bridge looking back onto the New York skyline, so I stopped at Jacques Torres Chocolate to get a killer hot chocolate and went and sat a while at Fulton Landing.

After a massive day on my feet I hopped the subway home and went to bed with some very sore tootsies!!

The Manhattan Bridge next door…

Fulton Landing seems to be the equivalent of our Botanic Gardens. I think there were easily 4 or 5 bridal parties here for photos. I’m telling you, I saw some seriously dodgy work going on there, some of which actually made me cringe. Still, it did remind me how after 3 weekends off I’m itching to get back into the swing of things - even if I would never ever take shots like these….

Just up the street is the famous Grimaldi’s Pizza, and the queue was way down the block…

I caught the red eye last night from Phoenix and at 5.30am this morning arrived in New York. Yet again I obviously fit some kind of profile, because the TSA guy singled me out to get another thorough going over. I think it’s the Australian passport. But anyway.

I organised a car service to pick me up from the airport. I highly recommend it for a couple of reasons, but mostly because compared to a cab it’s tons cheaper (fixed rate) especially when there’s heavy traffic like we had. And it’s much nicer riding in a Lincoln town car than a yellow cab!

I was dropped off at my hotel, checked in, and went and had a quick two hour kip. From there it was out into the big bad streets of New York to see what I could find. First of all, it’s freezing cold here right now. When I say freezing, it probably didn’t get over 5 degrees. For me, that’s cold. New York was everything I imagined it would be. Gorgeous  buildings, bustling streets, steam rising from the street.

Straight away I set about navigating the subway system. I know there’s these big red buses driving around for tourists to hop on/hop off, but this is New York, and I want to do it like the locals. I was so suprised at how easy it was. All the lines are colour coded with letters/numbers, so you just figure out which colour line you need, whether you’re going uptown or downtown, and you’re all set.

I used this new found skill to navigate me to the happiest place on earth….

…B&H Photo & Video. This place is the mothership. Walking into it was overwhelming to say the least. It’s just out of this world. The system they have set up is just amazing. There’s only one of each product on the shelf, and not even everything is on show. You tell the salesman the item you want, they enter it into the computer, and within a few moments some guy walks up to him with a crate and the item/s in it. He then sends that crate off on a conveyor belt and it disappears. You go downstairs and pay, and then go to pickup and there’s your stuff, already bagged and ready to go. 

After leaving B&H in a bit of a daze, I got my first glimpse of the Empire State Building… 

I then headed back to Times Square to check out the action…

The world famous “Naked Cowboy”…

And then off around town…

These next few are for Courtney…

Any Seinfeld fans recognise this?…

I headed on over to check out the Empire State Building…

Visibility wasn’t the best, but the view was still amazing…

Now it was absolutely FREEZING up there. The wind just cut straight through you. I sat around (mostly inside in the warmth!) and waited for dusk to catch some twinkling lights…

And then some nighttime shots…

From there I headed down to Grenwich Villiage to Washington Square Park only to find it fenced off, and this the only decent shot I could get…

The apartment block across the road that was Will Smith’s house in I Am Legend…

Yet another Seinfeld reference…

Finally back to see Times Square in the night time…

Of all the shopping bags I got today, this is the BEST one…

I am well aware there’s a Tiffany’s store in Brisbane. Call me a snob, but if I’m going own jewellry from Tiffany & Co, I want it to be from the 5th Avenue store in New York!!!…

Cause I’m leavin’ today!!! It’s my last day with Mum & Poo on the trail as I’m flying to New York tonight! We finally made it to Pheonix, Arizona yesterday, and are so exhausted from the last week on the road. So today we totally vegged out and did nothing.

This afternoon we went to meet some new friends that my Mum met on a camping forum. Jim & Diane live here in Phoenix, and share a love for caravaning and camping like my folks. We spent the afternoon and evening getting to know eachother, and Diane whipped up an absolutely amazing home cooked meal, which was so welcomed with some of the roadside “delights” we’ve been having for the last week!

We grabbed a quick group shot just before they had to drop me at the airport…

…such a fine sight to see!!! I am definately my father’s daughter. Before we left home Poo had mentioned that if we had time we could go stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. As soon as he said it, I was in. It’s exactly the sort of thing that tickles my fancy.

I think there’d be few people who wouldn’t know the significance of that said corner, and I don’t think you need to be an Eagles fan to appreciate it. That one line has put the town of Winslow on the map, which is probably a good thing because it doesn’t have much else going for it!! Seriously, otherwise the town is a dump, but on this one corner the town have erected a small park in the song’s honour, complete with statue and decorated mural. During the time we were there, at least a half dozen carloads arrived to have their picture taken.

Here was our effort…

They’ve even got a flat-bed Ford parked by the curb…

A big thanks goes out to my friend Doug for indulging me with some text message lyric banter, even at 4am in the morning QLD time!

As we drove out of Winslow, a thought occured to me. I turned to Poo and said “I wonder where the city of Nutbush is?”. He looked interested. But I think that’s for an entirely different trip!

Take it easy!

It was then south to where we would spend the night, Williams Arizona. Williams is located on the old Route 66, and we found a very 1950’s style cafe. The decor in the place was very cool,  it was like stepping into a time warp.

I got this shot for a very special little boy I know at home!!…

As usual with this country, the meal was huge…

Mum & Poo sipping soda together…

…for two reasons…

1. Cheese in a can… 

and 2. 500ml cans of Red Bull, and King Size Drumsticks!

I rest my case.

From Monument Valley we took off bound for the Grand Canyon. We’d already had a birds eye view from our chopper trip last week, but we still wanted to stand on the edge and admire the view.

We were pretty much in awe, until we saw another sight that made us weak at the knees…

For the photogs amongst us, yes, he is shooting with a digital Hasselblad. We felt very inferior and made an excuse to leave the area immediately!

We had such a huge day today that I’m going to break it up into a few different parts.

After spending the last two nights in Cortez, we got up early and got the hell out of town. First stop was the Four Corners monument. This is where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona intersect, and it’s the only place in the United States where four state borders meet.

This is me occupying four states…

Then it was on to Monument Valley…

The car got just a little bit dusty…

Mum snagged this shot of me. Since we left Vegas I’ve been shooting pretty much exclusively with my new 16-35mm lens, which I absolutely LOVE. I’ve got a few other new lenses I’m dying to bust out, but there’s just something about the wide angle goodness that I can’t leave alone…

Next stop….. The Grand Canyon!