New York

We've had a great time the last few days seeing plenty of the sights around New York but also enjoying relaxing at our B&B which has been the best find on the trip. I found it on a travel website and I can't believe how lucky we were. It is half the price of a New York hotel but has plenty of room, a full kitchen and is incredibly conveniently located. For anyone coming to New York I couldn't recomend Jack and Judys B&B on the upper westside more highly.
Last Wednesday was a bad day weather wise with heavy rain all day but we braved the elements and had a trip to Mid Town for the girls to check out shops and stay inside as much as we could. Tammy and I enjoyed some of the insanely large bookshops and the girls thought that the Toys R Us complete with interior ferris wheel couldn't be beaten.
Thursday was bitterly cold but sparklingly clear so we took the oppurtunity to do the ferry trip to Liberty island. The lines and security were worse than any airport or other attraction that we had been to on the entire trip. It was a nice view back towards Manhatten though even if the wind was coming straight from the arctic.
We walked back up through downtown past the world trade centre site which with its displays and murals around the perimiter is still quite an emotional place to visit even if it is now just another building site.
On Friday we went ice skating in central park. When we first got there it was relativly uncrowded and a lot of fun. By the time we left a couple of school groups had turned up and the place was bedlam. One of the school groups was from a deaf school and it was fascinating to see how deaf school teachers cope with a big group of deaf teenagers. Tammy and I felt particularly sorry for the teachers because deaf teenagers are of course just like teenagers with hearing but for the teachers instead of four people yelling at once "hey miss" to get their attention they had four kids tapping them on the shoulder. Kind of hard to ignore!
Today we had a trip up to the top of the Rockerfeller Centre which on a cristal clear day like today resulted in some fantastic views. I'm a sucker for views from high up and could have stayed up for hours. The girls however were non plussed and keener on lunch (ally and rhiannon) and coffee (tammy). The roles were reversed however at the next stop when the girls spent an inordinate amount ot time looking around Spandex World.
More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/NewYork.