Back to the Shack!

It was 90+ degrees plus humidity on our last day in NYC! See the beads of sweat? So gross!!! You would literally be outside for less than a minute and immediately start pouring sweat! In this lovely weather condition, we walked to the Flatiron Building (a couple of blocks from our hotel) and returned to our new favorite burger joint.

It's too damn hot!
Hostas (I think):
Silver tree sculptures at Madison Square Park. Forgot the artist.
Lamp post base:
One of the urns near the fountain by the Shake Shack:

The other silver tree sculpture. This was the site of the transgender protests earlier that week:
While Bert and TC hung out at the playground at the park's opposite end, I staked out my place in line. There was a group of interns from Arizona in front of me (there were 3 pictured below). The place had yet to open at 11 am. It was 10:45. There were places to sit in the shade unlike earlier this week. While I was waiting in line, the workers were eating their lunch early.
This time, I got myself a Shack Burger instead of the plain one. Got TC her cheesburger and my husband a Double Shack.
My food. Just look at that glistening fat beckoning you...
Just needs ketchup:
I liked the park's landscaping:


It was a hazy day:

Lilies:
We didn't get a chance to visit THIS museum!
The Cherub in our hotel lobby. The former site of Life Magazine's offices:
Taking the taxi out to JFK...I'm not a fan of lamb, but next time we're there, Bert will try street cart food:
Another food cart vendor:
Goodbye NYC!
We passed a storm cloud on the way home. Very little turbulence. It was a long ass flight further made worse by the shitty in flight flick, "Wild Hogs". Somebody poke my eyes out please! Thankfully, I either read my magazines or slept through most of it. Even though it was silent (I was smart enough not to buy a headset to subject myself to that subhuman abomination), the sight of this trash was irritating. We made it back to SD safe and sound despite a delay of about an hour or so. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:30; we left at almost 7 pm. The captain advised the travelers that storms usually occur in the late afternoon and the runways were backed up because of incoming flights and delays from other planes trying to get into JFK because of the weather. At least it wasn't like that Jet Blue fiasco where travelers sat in a plane for 11 hours!

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.