Island Tour & the Empire State Building

Okay, 2 more NY posts and I can get caught up! (written on Wednesday July 11th but most likely to be published on July 12th) . Here are the expensive macarons that I bought from Bouchon the day before...Don't they look good? So big and so round...(no this is NOT a Sir Mix A Lot song) .

Pain aux raisin. This was okay. I like flaky pastry but I could have done without the raisins. Bert and I split this one. Turns out that Thor liked this also when he and Lotus visited NYC earlier this year. They ran out of the chocolate croissants Thor recommended. We had come too late in the afternoon. : (
Blueberry muffin:
The raspberry macaron. Breakfast of champions.
Part of the demolished blueberry treat:
For our last full day in NYC, we took a 3-hour Circle Line Tour. We took a cab over to Pier 81 and shoved off at 9:30 a.m. According to our tour guide, that clock (located in New Jersey) is the biggest in the world. For every minute that ticks by, the minute hand jumps three feet. It's made by Colgate. I'll also start off by saying that the weather was pretty hazy that day so my photos from the island tour (as well as our subsequent Empire State pix) aren't crisp and clear. Boo.
Ellis Island:
The Statue of Liberty:
TC was so excited to see this because the first graders learned about it and other American symbols last semester. She even knew all these factoids that I never knew and rattled them off proudly.
The boat tour was relaxing, although it was a damn hot day. We were sweating even in the shade. The boat took us right up to the Statue and backed up around it as well.
Brooklyn Bridge:

Upper East Side apartments:
Cafe Bari in SoHo. We just wanted to go somewhere air conditioned for lunch!:
We were seated in the 2nd floor which closed soon after weordered but they didn't kick us out. Their first floor was the main eatery but this was the swankier and loungy area with a bar:

My caprese salad. I wasn't expecting bocconcini (little mozzarella balls). I was expecting the thin slices of mozzarella cheese. Those are marinated olives with balsamic vinaigrette and grape tomatoes with fresh basil. We shared a thin crust margherita pizza. We asked for sausage as an extra topping but didn't expect it to be served "on the side". WTF!
TC's burger (which she ate only half and we finished!):
Duane Reade is like Thrifty or CVS (or like Hawaii's ABC stores). We were there a lot to buy water!
After lunch, we went here:
The beautiful marble work in the Empire State Building's lobby, as seen in the movie, "Elf" where Will Ferrell goes to meet his father, played by James Caan.
We had pre-ordered our tickets online and for the late afternoon. It was DEAD when we got there! No waiting at all! Niiiiiice! (ooh, see the ghost orb?)
The Eastern View:
Forgot which side but I was more intrigued by the graffiti:
View of Macy's on 34th St.
View of the Flatiron Building See the high rise in the bottom middle (condos)? Our hotel was right next to that. That was 31st St.
View of the 102nd floor tower from the 86th floor observatory (closed to tourists since 9/11):

Maybe this is the same pigeon that Ronin took a photo of back in '98! Chrysler Building in the backgroun:

The inside of the elevator at the Empire State building . No, it didn't look like the one in "Elf", which had dozens of buttons and Will Ferrell pushes every button much to the chagrin of a lone passenger. Once you got to the 80th floor, you had to board another elevator which took you to the 86th floor. It takes about 45 seconds to go from ground floor to the 80th. There are also 73 elevators in this building!
Another long ass day. We had a late dinner (Bert did take out) at a local Korean place, Kum Gang San.