Suckers for Punishment!

Last Weekend in the USA - The Big Apple

Bruce and Judes had a great time while they were in Montreal, Canada, and managed to make it back in one piece Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday was spent shopping til we dropped and grabbing some last minute bargains.

Thursday we made the trip down to Pittsburgh. We went up the incline and also to the market-y area called the strip. Once again the 'Bikini Man' was spotted (he was spotted when Ian and Brian went to Pittsburgh) - Kristy was very quick on the camera (like a sniper with the camera) and managed to capture him.

Bruce and Judy overlooking Pittsburgh

Nice bra - not sure whats going on there???

Friday morning Bruce, Judes and Kristy packed and prepared for our weekend trip in NYC, while Ryan worked until lunch time. All the accommodation was fully booked in New York for the weekend, unless we were prepared to pay over $700 plus tax for 2 nights, so it was back to our favourite hotel - The Carter! We had been prepping Bruce and Judes for what we might see in the hotel, although we don't think they fully believed us. Kristy showed them a website where other travellers review the hotel (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93421-Reviews-Hotel_Carter-New_York_City_New_York.html - if anyone wants some interesting reading). Once they read the website, they believed every word we were saying.

We were on the road just before 2pm and arrived at about 9pm. We checked in and got our room key. We half expected there to be people in the room when we opened the door! Much to our surprise the room was vacant when we opened the door. The room didn't look too bad this time around (if you didn't look under the bed at the dust and rubbish) - no stains on the sheets or pillows, although there were only 2 pillows and 2 towels for 4 of us. Then, dad went in the bathroom and we heard him groan. We all ran in there to check it out. The bath had blue/green slime all around the tub, and under the soap holder thick black mould running down the tub. Half the tiles were also missing. The shower curtain was covered top to bottom in black mould - it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years. We were all gagging and trying not to vomit.

The picture actually makes the bath look good compared to what it was

We got out of our room as quickly as possible and went strolling through Time Square. It absolutely hammered down rain for about 20 minutes. While we were out, we purchased a bottle of grime remover and sanitising spray. When we eventually worked up the courage to go back to our room, Ryan cleaned the shower with the spray and his thong! We also asked reception for more towels and pillows. He told us he could give us towels, but he ran out of pillows and the room to the pillows was locked anyway - he would try and get them to us later. Well, the pillows never came (SURPRISE!), so we had to use towels as pillows.

Yuk! Cleaning the shower with thong and spray

Saturday morning we caught the subway down to the ferry terminal, which goes past the Statue of Liberty (and over to New Jersey and back). We walked past the Bronze Bull, Wall St, Ground Zero, through Chinatown and on to Little Italy for lunch, which was delicious.

The Statue of Liberty in the background

We caught the subway back to Times Square and Bruce and Judy bought Broadway tickets to see Hairspray, while we bought tickets to Legally Blonde. We went back to the room for a nap, and then freshen up. While Judy was in the shower, there was a loud THUD! She came tearing out of the bathroom in her towel - the tap had fallen off! Then Kristy blew the light globe in the room (with blue sparks coming out of the switch) - we didn't even bother to ask for a new one.

We went shopping through Time Square, then went hunting for a bar. We found one and met up with a guy from Perth and another guy from Germany and had some drinks with them.

Cocktail o'clock

It was then time to see the Broadway performances - apparently Judge Judy was in the Legally Blonde audience. We all really enjoyed our shows. We grabbed a bite to eat, and walked through the streets browsing the shops, before retiring to our super comfy towel pillows.

Sunday was another busy day. We were very happy to be checking out of our hell hole hotel! We walked up Fifth Ave renowned for its expensive brand name shopping and for a look at Rockefeller Centre and through Trump Towers.

At Rockefeller Center

At the Trump bar in Trump Towers

It was then up to Central Park where we took a horse and carriage ride.

We grabbed a coffee (which Judes had fun ordering - the guy couldn't understand her and got cranky then gave us the total wrong order!), then went walking through Central Park through The Mall and over to Strawberry Fields (dedicated to John Lennon - it is located right near the place he was shot).

Bruce and Kristy by the pond in Central Park

Walking through The Mall in Central Park

Tribute to John Lennon @ Strawberry Fields

We caught a cab to Madison Square Gardens (NY entertainment venue), walked over to the Empire State Building and then caught another cab to Union Square for lunch.

NYPD!

We must have walked a 1000 miles over the weekend, well it felt like it anyways! It was then a cab ride back to our car and a 6.5 hour drive home. We finished off the day (and Bruce and Judy's last day with us) with a grill for dinner.