NYC Trip Day 6

Friday was our last full day in New York and it was a freezing 24 degrees all day with very strong wind! We took the subway to Chinatown where they had cute hats and scarfs for sale - good quality and inexpensive (my kinda shopping). Justin had a harder time. They tried really hard to sell him a cheap watch and cheap perfume but some things you just don't skimp on right? We ate lunch at Pecking Duck and it was really good.
Little Italy is right next to Chinatown and they didn't have many stores, mainly restaurants and bakeries.
Soho is a trendy area near here with lots of shopping boutiques. In fact, at many stores there was a line of people waiting just to get into the store! We wanted to go to the Brooklyn Bridge was it was a long walk from here and we were tired of being outside.

We took the subway to the Empire State Building and the lobby was absolutely beautiful.
We went up to the 86th floor observatory where you can step outside and see the views. We purchased the audio tour (highly recommend) and it was so interesting learning how the building was built. It was the tallest building in Manhattan at the time and it took only 13 months to build? Typically one death per floor is expected when constructing a building but only 5 people died during construction. The total height including the lightening rod is 1,454 feet.
Also, with the audio tour you can stand at a certain point and it will tell you about the area and buildings you are looking at.

It was so windy and cold we couldn't stay outside for very long. When we went back inside they were selling tickets to go up to the 102nd floor observatory. We decided to go up there and we were glad we did because guess who we saw up there? Celine Dion! She was touring the building and had two big body guards with her. The bellhop in the elevator said that she had not notified them that she was coming so we didn't want to bother her or gawk at her. However, we saw her again later down in the lobby and we tried to get a picture of her but of course someone would walk in front of the camera so sorry no pics.
View of the financial district and the statue of liberty on the right from the 102nd floor
Then we walked up 5th Avenue back toward our hotel and peeked at some more stores, We stumbled into this massive beautiful building not knowing that it was the New York Public Library until we were leaving. It had old maps of the city which were interesting.

Neat window displays at Lord & TaylorIt was our last night in the city so we decided to pick a nice Italian restaurant to eat at. So we arrived at La Riviera Restoriante and then realized we needed reservations - oops! Well they were kind enough to seat us anyway and what a treat the food was so good!
Then we decided to see at movie in Times Square. A movie ticket was $12.50 - the cheapest entertainment of the week!
It was a really fun trip and we will remember it always! (thanks to the invention of blogging haha!)