A bite of The Big Apple: stops along 5th Avenue in New York City

Switching back again to our trip to New York City (picking up from 2 posts ago), this is a little glimpse primarily of our second day in the city, and is centered around mid-town Manhattan on 5th Avenue from the Flatiron Building walking north on 5th Avenue toward Central Park.  My wife took these photos, being a far better photographer than I can ever hope to be.

These next few photos are of the world-famous and historical Flatiron Building, which was named because its "footprint" and top-down shape is triangular in much the same shape as an antique cast-iron clothes iron (flatiron) from the late 1800's, which was placed on top of a cooking stove/oven to heat up.  It was one of the very first skyscrapers in the world (completed in 1902) and was an engineering marvel due to its steel girdered skeleton and its innovative use of electrically operated elevators.  It's also a really cool-looking building to this day, with Neo-Classical/Beaux Arts styling.   

Decorative work on the Flatiron Building - cool faces

Chowing down at the Flatiron Building

Modern entrance to the Flatiron Building - too bad they didn't keep the original

5th Avenue Building clock (from 1909), with Flatiron Building in background

People chillin' in front of the Flatiron Building

Empire State Building taken from Flatiron Building

This next part is for the fashionistas - I know that a number of my blogger friends are fashion bloggers, so this post and my older post about my winter parka will be about as close as I (as a dad) can come to writing about fashion.  Our daughter wanted to buy an over-the-shoulder purse, so we tried looking for some in stores, but couldn't quite find what she wanted.  My wife gave her a budget of $25, and our daughter had to stay under budget.  

Well, finally, her luck turned for the better.  Ultimately, on one of the streets intersecting 5th Ave., we found sidewalk vendors selling "Coach" bags...  and I put Coach in quotation marks because of course you know what kind of bags the sidewalk vendors sell!   They were colorful (lots of pink and complete with fake lizard skin), seemed to be made with decent quality, and had nice little pockets and zippered compartments and such.  The vendor wanted $30 for one, but our daughter did a little haggling and got the price down to $25.  Sold... a win-win situation.

Crossing back over to the east side of 5th Avenue and heading north, we came across a bunch of high-end fashion stores - Coach, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, Gucci, etc., etc., etc.  We didn't actually even go inside of any of them, but they had some really cool "eye candy" glass artwork that my wife thought would make some neat photos to post on my blog, just for fun.   Here are a few of those shots:

Take that, Louis Vuitton - my bag is WAY cheaper!

Gucci had a little insect problem.  Actually, these are pretty glass dragonflies.

Louis Vuitton's clever and beautiful octopus tentacles glass sculpture.

Beautiful but kinda disturbing... eyeball-centered glass sculpture flowers look like something from an episode of the original Star Trek.  Set your phasers on stun, Mr. Spock!

I guess Tiffany's is too high-brow, stately, and stolid to put any scary eyeball flowers or tentacles in the front window.

Whatever you do, just don't make eye contact with these hypnotic, psychedelic flowers.

We walked a little farther north toward Central Park, and checked out the famous FAO Schwartz toy store.   We spent some time looking around the store at some toys and trying on astronaut and jester hats and such, but I think the majority of our time in the store was spent in the "FAO Schweetz" section - the candy land which had candy in jars from all over the world.  You can scoop candy out of the jars and pick and choose whatever you want, then pay for it by weight (it isn't cheap).  Interestingly, there were many tourists in the store who didn't quite get the concept that these were not free samples (or perhaps were just taking advantage of the fact that the store was packed full of people), so there were numerous folks from various corners of the world helping themselves to "free samples" that were not meant to be free... oh well.   One of the famous attractions there is the "Big" piano, which was featured in the 1988 movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks.  It's a real functioning piano, and you can hop and dance on its keys.

FAO Schweetz candy inside the famous FAO Schwartz toy store

FAO Schweetz lollipop

Balcony at FAO Schwartz

Like a kid in a candy store

The "Big" piano at FAO Schwartz

Toy soldier doorman at FAO Schwartz.  I think this guy served under Wellington at Waterloo.

Edible Legos (??) at FAO Schweetz 

The guy with the backpack in the center of the photo looks guilty, doesn't he?

Mmmmm -- healthy food choices!

Our daughter in action on the "Big" piano

FAO Schweetz lollipops

Jester hat and Junior Ranger badge from Statue of Liberty

The 'Big" piano keys light up when you tap on them

Interior of huge FAO Schwartz toy store

The "Big" piano from the eponymous 1988 Tom Hanks movie

Balcony view of large stuffed zoo animals at FAO Schwartz

Hopping on the "Big" piano

I heard this stuff is good for an upset stomach.

Dancing to play a tune

Lighting up the keys

The next place we stopped was Trump Tower, built in 1983 by real estate mogul Donald Trump.   He's not one of my favorite persons, but thought we'd stop by and check it out nonetheless.  The building was OK, a fancy and quite beautiful modern building, but without the architectural character, charm, and interest that I find in the older more historical buildings such as the Art Deco masterpieces like the Empire State  Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center.  I saw a display in the middle, though, that I thought would be pretty interesting to my blog friends Robby and Wrey from fasHi0nm0T0, bloggers from my home-away-from-home and land of my lovely wife, the Philippines.  Their blog http://fashionmoto.blogspot.com/  fuses fashion and motorcycles, so the display that we saw in the lobby of Trump Plaza brought them immediately to mind, and I asked my wife to snap some shots of it for the blog.  It is a custom (basically handcrafted) built motorcycle made for Donald Trump by  Orange County Choppers under the directorship of Paul Teutel, Sr., who is quite famous worldwide for building such machines.  BTW, Robby's family also runs a custom motorcycle business in the Philippines specializing in choppers! 

Check out how low the seat is on this thing!   It's really cool, but it's not quite my type (if I were to get a chopper, I'd go more for something like the chopper Peter Fonda rode in "Easy Rider").

Orange County Choppers Trump Motorcycle

Donald Trump's bike from Orange County Chopper/Paul Teutel, Sr.

You can see a poster of Paul Teutel, Sr. above/behind the headlight

Clock outside Trump Tower.  I wonder if this is where Paul Teutel, Sr. and OCC got their color scheme for the Trump chopper?

American Girl Place, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall

Following up on my last post (our arrival in New York City during our vacation),  from the Empire State Building we started off our late afternoon, and we proceeded on foot north ("downtown") on 5th Avenue to the corner of 5th and 49th Street to American Girl Place.   "American Girl" is a popular series of historical fiction story books for little girls, with certain key characters representing a little girl from a defined era of a couple of years of American history.  For instance, the character Molly is from World War II era, Kit (the blonde-haired doll shown in the display in the photo below) is from the Great Depression, Felicity is from the American Revolutionary War period, etc.  A major part of the American Girl enterprise is that they sell dolls representing all the characters of their story books.  Not only that, but friends and pets of each character, clothing, and numerous other accessories... about anything you can think of! They have now even produced some excellent Hollywood-caliber movies based on their historical fiction characters. The characters are also pretty ethnically/racially diverse, which is nice, capturing a major element of the USA being the "great melting pot" and our pride that our populace is made up of immigrants from many nations.     

American Girl Place in NYC is a huge 3-story store dedicated to (selling) all things American Girl, and is a huge tourist attraction - at least for folks with little girls - and truly a sight to see. While my wife and daughter really loved it and were overwhelmed, I can honestly say it was pretty interesting and overwhelming even for the dads!  They have exclusive items that can only be purchased at this particular store in NYC, an onsite hair salon for the dolls to have their hair styled, even a place where the dolls can get their ears pierced!   For our daughter's 9th birthday, which was upcoming in a couple of weeks after we had our vacation, we treated her to a celebration dinner at American Girl Cafe (on the third floor), which must be reserved pretty far ahead.  The idea behind the dinner is that the little girl  can bring along one of her dolls up to the dinner table, and the doll is placed on a special chair that clamps to the table (you can see in the photo below) and even served a "pretend" tea and snacks.  Our daughter brought her doll, Kanani, who is a Hawaiian-American character -- although no one in our family is Hawaiian-American, the doll has some resemblance to our daughter, who is Filipino-American. I was expecting that the dinner itself would be nothing to write home about, but my wife and I were really quite surprised and impressed by the gourmet quality and selection of the food served to the adults (I can't remember but I think our main course was tilapia baked with a coating of roasted cashews) and the level of service.  

American Girl Place, 5th Avenue and 49th St., NYC

American Girl Place doll hair salon

Hair Salon at American Girl Place

Dining room at American Girl Place, New York City

Dinner at American Girl Cafe, New York City

Family dinner with 'Kanani' at American Girl Cafe

Kanani's table-clamping chair at American Girl Cafe

Doll hairstylist at American Girl Place, Manhattan

"Meet Kit (1934) -  a resourceful girl facing the Great Depression with spirit and determination"

Our daughter with Kanani, a Hawaiian-American character

Just a very tiny portion of all the accessories at American Girl Place

Lots of American Girl dolls -- and a Filipino-American Girl!!!

After we ate our dinner and made a couple little purchases (accessories) at  American Girl Place, we proceeded northward on foot a short distance to Rockefeller Center.  Rockefeller Center is a historical landmark and a huge complex of commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 square meters) between 48th and 51st Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues in mid-town Manhattan.  Like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center is a masterpiece of the Art Deco style of the late 1920's and early 1930's, and was built by John D. Rockefeller for the unheard of sum of $250 million starting in 1930, which would be worth at least $4 billion U.S. today (not even accounting for the labor, materials, and craftsmanship which could never be replicated today).  It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times, and ironically, during the darkest years of the Great Depression. We stopped to take a rest there, took photographs of the tallest building in Rockefeller Center, the G.E. Building (formerly known as the RCA Building), and the famous statue "Promethesus Bringing Fire to Mankind", then we looked around a bit inside of some of the buildings.  The G.E. building is well known for housing the headquarters of NBC and the New York facilities of NBC Studios, and the comedy show "Saturday Night Live" and the morning show "The Today Show" have their studios inside the building.  The architecture and craftsmanship of Rockefeller Center is really amazing, for instance the "Wisdom and Knowledge" frieze shown below... we were all profoundly impressed and in awe at both the artistry and the monumental scale of this place. 

Family photo at Rockefeller Center Plaza

Base of the General Electric (G.E.) Building and Prometheus Statue, Rockefeller Center

Famous G.E. Building (formerly RCA building) and awesome statue, Rockefeller Center

"Prometheus Bringing Fire to Mankind" statue, Rockefeller Center, NYC

Awesome Art Deco Prometheus statue, Rockefeller Center

Base of G.E. Building and Prometheus, Rockefeller Center

"Wisdom and Knowledge" Art Deco frieze from G.E. Building, Rockefeller Center

"Prometheus Bringing Fire to Mankind"

Memorial to John D. Rockefeller, we are sitting facing the Prometheus statue and fountains at the base of the G.E. building

Admiring the G.E. Building in awe - contemplating the beauty of Rockefeller Plaza

   
Next, we walked a few blocks away to take in the sounds and sights of the famous Times Square, and all of its magical lights (and more recently, gigantic LCD screens) just before sundown.  An exciting place with all the lights, and tourist/family friendly.  It didn't used to be that way -- just a few years back, Times Square was pretty "sleazy" with a lot of adults-only businesses.  Mayor Bloomberg (present mayor) in particular cleaned up a lot of that and turned Times Square into a much more family-friendly and tourist-friendly place.   At this point in time the crowd was busy but fairly light... definitely a place you want to have a tight grip on your child/children. 

Family photo at Times Square, NYC

The lights and LCD screens of Times Square - looking towards where the New Year's ball drops

Hershey's chocolate store, Times Square

Sundown, Times Square

Sundown, Times Square, and all the lights and huge LCD screens

Broadway show advertisements in lights, Times Square

Bleacher seats at Times Square; Broadway shows advertising on huge screens in background

Bleacher seating at Times Square

Hershey's chocolate store on corner of W. 48th Street, Times Square

Enormous LCD screen with live shot of the crowd at Times Square

Taxis going past Times Square

Enjoying the sights and sounds of Times Square

 Finally, before returning to our hotel for the night, we walked past the renowned and historic Radio City Music Hall, another Art Deco crown jewel of New York, got some snacks, and took some photos of the exterior, which has gorgeous old-style neon lights pretty much the same as it was in the 1930's.  Actually, Radio City Music Hall is still part of Rockefeller Center.   Next time we're in Manhattan, we all want to go inside and see its Art Deco architectural splendor, as well as see a show of the Rockettes.  

Including my last post was about it for our first day in Manhattan... we covered a lot of territory in only one, and it was an exciting day.   My next post will cover at least part of what we did on day 2 in NYC...  TO BE CONTINUED!! 

Radio City Music Hall at night

Radio City Music Hall