Merry and Bright :: Day 2-3
We began day 2 down in the financial district at the Federal Reserve Bank. You may have heard about it recently in the news after the FBI foiled an attempted plan to blow it up.. If you’re lucky, you can sign-up for a guided tour that shows you around the exhibit and also takes you down to the gold vault. They fill up pretty fast and even at a month out I was only able to get us a self-guided tour but it was still interesting. Inside the exhibit, you learn about the role of the Federal Bank and how our money is created and processed. you also got to try and tell the difference between counterfeit and authentic money. It turns out, everything about how our money is designed is very thought out with counterfeits in mind.
With money on our minds we headed south by the New York Stock Exchange where we found this building called Federal Hall that was pretty neat.
We lucked out and jumped in on one of their tours of the rotunda. It turns out the building dates back to the 1800’s and is the site where George Washington took his oath to be the president at a building previously at the site. Pretty cool!
After getting a lesson on some American history we grabbed a bite of New York pizza to eat (thanks Chris) and headed to our next destination.
Even if you aren’t that interested in the museum, check out the National Museum of the American Indian because the building is beautiful and, bonus, it’s free! Before housing the museum, the building served as the old Customs building.
the museum isn’t too big either so it’s a good place to stop in at and get a little history before your next destination. Here’s a little secret too… they have these swivel round love seats in the music exhibit that are super comfy, plus they play a pretty interesting movie in that theatre.
After the museum we took a quick trip through Battery Park, but decided it was a good plan to head back to the UES and have a low-key evening because a storm was headed in and it’s a little hard to explore when you’re being pelted in the face with hard wind and snow!
By Day 3 the weather calmed down a little so we were back to the streets! We started the day with a trip to Alice’s (necessary) and a walk by Madonna’s apartment (no Madonna sightings though). There was just one other necessary stop before heading downtown.. The puppy store. You see, there is a puppy store near the 77th street station that I just can’t really resist going in when I go there. Looks like I’m not the only one who could resist either though…
Don’t worry, Scooter is still an only child.. and no dogs were transported across the country. I must say it’s a little easier to say no when the price of that puppy in the window is $2,500.
On our way to get tickets for our Movie and TV tour we made a couple short trips. One to Grand Central Terminal to take the typical “where is waldo” photos and then to the New York Public Library, which was decorated very nice for the holidays.
Next up, our TV and Movie Sites Tour by On Location Tours. Something I was really excited about with our Explorer passes were some of the tours included, this being one of them. For this tour we hopped on a comfy coach bus and cruised around the city for 3 hours to learn about different places movies and TV shows have been filmed here. You also learn about all of the shows that took place in NYC, but were pretty much actually filmed on sound stages in LA.
Some of the highlights on the tour for me were seeing the Friends apartment, Ghostbusters headquarters, Men in Black Headquarters as well as different locations from The Devil Wears Prada, I Am Legend, and Batman.
That’s a wrap for days 2 and 3! More to come!