For Day 2 of our Christmas visit to Manhattan we started the day with ice skating at Wollman Rink in Central Park. We decided to go here instead of the rink at the Rockefeller Center because I thought it would be much less crowded and it was about half the price (~$40 rather than $70+ for me and the kids...Nicole didn't want to skate). Anyway, as you can see it was pretty busy and we ended up skating for about 30 minutes before they brought out the Zamboni to scrape the ice. Needless to say we left at this point because we didn't want to sit around for 30 more minutes to wait to get back on. Plus we were all skated out at this point already.
Since we were up at the north end of the 5th Ave shopping and we had an appointment to go to the Top of the Rock at 2pm, we decided to start at the Apple store (check out this panorama view of the store) and work our way down to the Rockefeller Center.
After Apple (which we just cruised through very quickly) we visited the world famous FAO Schwartz store on 5th Ave (which was where the piano scene in the movie "Big" was filmed).
Since we were getting short on time, after FAO Schwartz we headed over to the Rockefeller Center to get lunch and cruise around there a bit before going to the Top of the Rock. The first picture below is the kids in front of the Penny Harvest which was a national educational program designed to teach children about their value as contributors to society. The Penny Harvest Field includes an estimated 100 million pennies — plus a few nickels, dimes and quarters that slipped in by mistake. The second picture is Nicole and the kids in front of the Rockefeller tree (not a very clear picture...sorry).
The first picture is in the elevator going up to the observation deck looking up the elevator shaft through the plexiglass ceiling of the elevator. The rest of the pictures are views from the 70th floor of the Rockefeller Center which include views of St. Peter's Cathedral on 5th Ave.
After we went to the Top of the Rock, we mosied back up 5th Ave to the American Girl Doll store for Rebekkah and Tiffany's for Nicole.
For dinner we went to a quirky looking Greek/Italian restaurant called "Astro." The food was so-so, but the service was atrocious. I think it was probably the worst service that either of us have ever had. Anyway, to make a long story short, when we only tipped him about $1.50 (it should have been about $5 if there was any service at all) the waiter proceeded to chase us about a half a block to tell us that we didn't pay for the service. A heated conversation ensued and then he finally left. It was sort of humorous but also a little spooky at the same time. Needless to say, we do not recommend this restaurant.
Finally, we have a view of Times Square where we were picked up at the conclusion of Day 2.
1 comment:
Hi, my name is Tom Aronis and I’m the owner of the Astro restaurant.
I will like to apologies for the way that you were treated by one member of our staff.
I wish this apology came sooner but I just found the link to your blog, the way you were treated is not acceptable to me, or to the other dedicated members of my staff.
In the Astro web site we have a page where customers can write their complains, and that page is reviewed daily. We at the Astro take the complains of our customers very seriously, and especially I as the owner will not like for another customer to be treated that way by a rogue member of my staff.
Thank you.
Tom Aronis.
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