My host had gotten up several times during the previous night and thrown up; he thought it was some food poisoning from his McDonald's dinner, but he went to work that morning anyway. My cotraveller and I slept in late and, just as we were preparing to leave, our host returned from work, too sick to continue. He recommended a shoe store near the 72d St. subway station (my feet >still< hurt immensely). We put our host in bed as he assured us that he'd be ok and insisted that we go ahead and have fun.
We took the subway to the shoe store and I tried on some nice running shoes. Ahhhhh! I bought them. This would turn out to be one of the smartest things I did on the trip.
With a renewed bounce in my step, we walked to a nearby chain deli and had lunch. Then onto the subway again and all the way downtown. We were looking for the New York Stock Exchange and found it quite easily. It had a cute little visitor area with displays and a slide presentation. We headed to the viewing area of the trading floor. Trading was slow, but it looked impressive.
All kinds of scraps of paper on the floor. Hundreds of computer monitors hanging from the ceiling, quoting the latest prices and transactions. We learned all about how a broker does his business on the floor. The displays and slide show were a lot of hype about the American Capitalist way. Rah!
After a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop (I would find that in NYC we would often do something that I never consider doing in the suburban environment where I live: Stop into a coffee shop for a coffee or a coke only), we headed toward the Staten Island Ferry, as it was nearby. The ferry ride only costs a quarter and we got a wonderful view of Manhattan, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and all the other surrounding sights. I pointed out the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to my cotraveller and told him that it was one of the longest (if not still >the< longest) bridges in the world. He said, "It doesn't look >that< long," and was generally belligerent and disbelieving. "Look," I said, "I read that the towers (it's a suspension bridge) are slightly askew to correct for the curvature of the earth. It's that big!" "It doesn't look >that< long." Harumph. I took him to the other end of the ferry and pointed out the World Trade Center and said, "They don't look like the second-tallest buildings in the world; they don't look >that< tall." I think he got the point.
There was a TV crew (probably from Des Moines or somewhere) on the back of the ferry, taping pictures of Manhattan. A tourist dropped a subway token beyond a barrier on the edge of the ferry and left it there. A local kid saw it later and snuck under the barrier and picked it up. Funny how the value of something changes depending on the person. I wondered if the Staten Island Ferry ever made a trip without a tourist on board.
When we arrived back on Manhattan, we decided to go look at the World Trade Center. We took the subway from its terminal near the SIF and arrived in a huge underground shopping mall, which was situated under the Center. We wandered around, trying to find street level, which we finally did. We looked up at the monolithic towers and entered one. It seemed deserted. We found the ticket counter for the observation deck and were pleased to find no line (as there had been at the Empire State Building) for the elevator. We took a large and fast elevator to the observation deck. When we got out the wind just howled from the enclosed top floor, down the elevator shaft. An interesting phenomenon in such a large building.
The view from the observation deck was stupendous. The entire top floor was surrounded with floor-to-ceiling glass, giving it a very airy feeling. Right in front of the windows were small benches set at about floor level. You could sit on the benches and stick your nose against the glass and look straight down. Even though the glass was secure, I noticed that my cotraveller and I couldn't look down from that great height without holding on to the railing. I looked down without holding on a couple of times, just to prove my bravery and my faith in the technology and know-how of Man (those windows wouldn't fall out, would they?). A girl was sitting on one of the benches with a pile of postcards and some of those pens that write with silver and gold ink. She was drawing on the picture postcards and making the Manhattan scenes look hip and other-worldly. We watched her for a little bit and chatted with her. I liked what she was doing to the cards.
We took the escalator to the roof for an even more open-air feeling. You couldn't get near the edge (electrified fences prevented that), but the view and feel were magnificent. It was fun to look down on flying airplanes and helicopters. I wanted to buy some souvenirs at the gift shop, but we were low on cash. We did have a beer (we had a beer on top of the ESB, too), though.
We took the elevator to the ground level and arrived in the abandoned lobby again at about 4:58. At 5 o'clock--BING!--the lobbies were no longer deserted.
The WTC towers spewed their occupants forth. There were hundreds, thousands of people rushing to get to their preferred mode of commuting. We went down to the shopping mall again and there were rivers of human beings flowing toward the train station (LIRR, I think) at the lower levels. It was incredible. We tried to cross one of the rivers and found it really was like trying to cross a river: you ended up further downstream.
We made our way to the subway station and hurried onto a >very< crowded train. I thought we were packed in as tight as possible, but, just as the doors closed, one more man crashed in, squeezing us even tighter. It was incredible.
We took the train up to Madison Square Garden where we attempted to purchase tickets for the hockey game (NYRangers vs Calgary Flames) that was to happen the next night. The box office only had single seats available, so we resigned tourselves to not seeing a hockey game.
I wanted to go to Macy's again, just to kill time and look around, so we did a little exploring. We found Macy's pet department (!!!) where you could by a dog or cat or cute little doggy accessories. I especially liked the doggy life jacket (in case Rover falls off the yacht, no?) and the rhinestone-studded collars. I couldn't find one big enough for a person's neck, though.
We were going outside to go to Gimbel's (I figured I'd check out the competitors of "Miracle On 34th Street") and, in front of Macy's, which was all lit up with television lights in preparation for the Thanksgiving Day Parade, were the Rockettes, rehearsing for the parade! We watched them for a while as they danced to the canned music. They were in their street clothes, so they look rather unremarkable; the only remarkable thing being that they all were the same height!
We went to Gimbel's which wasn't nearly as crowded as Macy's, but I bought a Xmas tree ornament for a California friend and my cotraveller bought a "Masters of the Universe" figure: Stinkor, evil master of odors (which I have accused him of being--he can be rather flatulent at times).
We got on the subway again and went to the Village to look for dinner. We meandered around and finally came across "The Manhattan Chili Co." Hey! Food like in California! We went in.
The place was very chic, with pink and aqua formica and cacti. We had a few drinks and I ordered their hottest chili, which was incredibly mild. I found on the whole trip that what New Yorkers consider "hot" is indeed "mild," at least to my palette. Fortunately, there were extremely large bottles of Tobasco on the tables and we doused our chili with it.
The check was amazingly high for a couple of bowls of chili, but we had had a number of drinks. We wandered around, wondering where the subway station and were quite proud of ourselves when we found it (we were slightly inebriated). We descended and caught the train.
We rode the train quite contentedly until we noticed that we were at the World Trade Center station which was in the exact opposite direction which we wanted to go! Oh no! We got off at the next station and, as there wasn't any underpass to the other platform, we had to surface to the >deserted< streets of the financial district (it was late and spooky). We descended and caught the >same< subway train back uptown (we were only 1 or 2 stops from the terminal where it had turned around). Oops.
We got home late. Our host was feeling better, but, as he had taken the entire day off to be ill, he had to work the next day which was originally planned to be his day off with us. I was a little disappointed, but understood his situation.
My feet felt much better after a day in their new shoes. In fact, they wouldn't bother me again.