2012 Autumn Adventure, Day 2 -- NYC

Day two of our NYC Adventure started by taking the Red Route on the City Sights NY bus through the upper end of Manhattan Island.  We got off at the American Museum of Natural History upon which the movie, "Night at the Museum" was based.  While we waited for the 10:00 AM opening, we walked around Central Park a little bit.
 
Diane
Central Park is a public park at the center of Manhattan in New York City. The park initially opened in 1857, on 843 acres (3.41 km²) of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan. Construction began the same year, continued during the American Civil War, and was completed in 1873.  Central Park was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

We had to be able to say that we went jogging in Central Park!  (Not too far though)

The American Museum of Natural History, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world.  Located in park-like grounds across the street from Central Park, the Museum comprises 25 interconnected buildings that house 46 permanent exhibition halls, research laboratories, and its renowned library.  The collections contain over 32 million specimens, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time.  The Museum has a scientific staff of more than 200, sponsors over 100 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
We spent a couple hours in the museum and decided that it would take a couple weeks to see the whole thing.  It was pretty impressive though.
We heard that if you wanted a really good New York style hot dog, you had to go to Papaya Dog, aka Gray's Papaya.  So we did.  It wasn't much different than the Utah hot dogs we make at home.  We wondered what the big deal was.
We arrived at the Broadway Tickets office at 2:00 PM and the line was already WAY long.  Ticket sales didn't start until 3:00 PM, so we waited.  As it turned out, our part of the line was right next to a really long marble bench, and we couldn't have picked a better place to wait.  I happened to be next to a lady who was from some island in the Caribbean.  She only spoke Spanish, and I enjoyed a great opportunity to practice what I learned as a missionary in Peru way back in 1974.  She was really nice, and we enjoyed observing the many interesting sights there in Time Square together.  We got tickets for Phantom of the Opera.  $80 per ticket was the 40% off price for the best seats available.  
 
A trip to the top of the Empire State Building was included in our three day pass, and we were disappointed that it was such a gray day, and the view wasn't what it could have been.  So the picture above is one borrowed from the internet.  It was a fun ride up, and we could pick out a few landmarks below.

 Here is a picture of the Chrysler Building and the surrounding area from the top of the Empire State Building.

We had seen this musical in Los Angeles several years ago and loved it.  We were sad that this NYC rendition didn't equal our earlier experience. :(   The stage presentation wasn't as impressive -- No rotating, rising up and down sections.  The music wasn't as clear and on pitch as in LA.)  Oh well. . . .
When you're in NY, you've got to see a show or two.  If we'd had more time we would have seen more.
We got back to our hotel room at around midnight.  It had been another full, fun day.