33,116 steps

Today was a doozy! We ended up logging 33,116 steps walking around town today which is over 16 miles!  We also logged 136 floors which might be true between subway stairs and such, our legs we're sore!

We started the day quite rainy and foggy, but knew that the weather report was for it to clear out by night.  We decided to use our city pass for the Empire State Building which included a day time and night time entrance so we were banking on the fact that we might be able to see that night and decided to go see what it would be like to be in a cloud.  It was so foggy that you could not see anything, which made it feel like you were not that high.  We were also basically the only ones there, so we did not have to wait in lines and had a long time to take pictures, unless you are Mike and cannot stand the cold.  He decided to view from inside the building.  

 

The little dial said turn to clear vision... didn't work for me!

We had the elevator to ourselves on the way down, so we were jumping to see if we could feel the effects of going down a super-fast elevator.

Next stop was the New York City Public Library which was super neat to walk through, even if most of the famous reading rooms were inaccessible due to repairs while we were there.  We did get to see the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals which looked so dearly loved, just how they should be!

After a fortuitous lunch at Lombardi's Pizzeria (just randomly stopped at a pizza place to find all these pictures of famous people on the wall), we went to the Washington Arch (which was being updated) and on the way there we walked a bit with Janel Moloney (Donnatella of the West Wing cast) as she was taking her little kid to go get a hair cut.  He apparently didn't want to take a cab and was laying down in the street not wanting to walk anymore.  We told her we understand as we have kids the same age.  Kind of fun!

After the arch, we headed over to the MET which is HUMONGOUS!  You could spend days there, but in true Mike style, we whipped through that thing in 4 hours, not stopping for long but were able to see everything.  Mike especially liked these suits of armor.
 

We still had time left in the day, so we headed back down to the Brooklyn Bridge because it had stopped raining.  We walked all the way across to Brooklyn to make sure we made it to every Borough.

After walking back to the lower east side, we headed over to Little Italy and ate delicious Italian food at Pellegrino's which was awesome!  I had the secret Lasagna not on the menu and it was so good.

After dinner, we walked through little Italy and China town, which almost feels like you are in a different country.  We headed back to the Brooklyn Bridge area to see the courthouse and city hall.  We (Rachel) also reenacted part of Newsies near the statues of Pulitzer and Hurst. "Do they got us? NO!"

After a video chat with the kids back at the Hotel, we headed back over to the Empire State building to see the city in its glowing glory.  It was a bit windy, as in you saw clouds swoop past you in seconds.  A bit more crowded, but still didn't really have to wait in what looks like Disneyland-type lines.  

Whew, that was a fun filled but long day!