Even though the holiday shopping season just ended a month ago, it’s never too early to start shopping for that unique gift. And what could be more unique then a pinata in the shape of a Canadian goose?

Earlier this month was the one-year anniversary of the US Airways Flight 1549 splashdown into the Hudson where all the passengers and crew survived the crash. To celebrate the anniversary, the crew and about half the passengers on the plane gathered for a celebratory dinner. One of the passengers with a sense of humor made three Canadian goose pinatas for the event. One was bashed senseless at the event. The other two were signed by the passengers and crew and are being auctioned off on eBay with the proceeds going towards the Red Cross Haiti relief fund. And if that wasn’t amusing enough, vodka producer Grey Goose is matching the proceeds.

So if you need a goose to decorate your living room, head over to eBay to bid. The auction closes on January 29th at 6pm EST.

In the wake of the Haiti earthquake many organizations have been collecting cash and other donations to help the people in that country. One way that travellers can help out is by donating airline miles or hotel points to organizations like the Red Cross who can then use them to fly people and supplies in.

So if you have a few miles or points to spare, here’s how to send them over to folks who can use them.

Airlines

Alaskan Airlines- Alaskan will match up to 5 million miles for any miles donation.

Continental- No minimum donation amount required.

United- Choose to donate miles in any amount to the Red Cross, Airline Ambassadors or Operation USA. UA will match up to $50,000 of donations through the linked page.

Hotels

Best Western Rewards- Make a donation in blocks of 5,000 points or more.

Choice Privileges- 1,000 points equals a $5 donation to one of several charities.

Hilton Hhonors- 10,000 points equals a $25 donation to the Red Cross.

Marriott- 18,000 points equals a $50 donation to the Red Cross.

Priority Club- Several charities available for blocks of 10,000 points each.

SPG Starpoints- 4,000 points equals a $50 donation to the Red Cross.

Wyndham Rewards- 5,500 points equals a $25 donation with over 100 charities to choose from.

Some airlines are also offering miles in return for a cash donation. American Airlines will give you miles for donations of at least $50, and Spirit Airlines is giving out miles for donations of $5 or more made using the Spirit Mastercard.

Some bloggers like Gary of View from the Wing and Rick over at the Frugal Travel Guy point out that the hotels and airlines aren’t being entirely altrustic by accepting miles for donations. By doing so, they are able to get some of the miles off their books for cheap. Still, with Haiti in such dire straits right now any donation they can get will help the country get back on its feet.

Personally, I’m choosing to help the folks in Haiti by supporting Food for the Hungry. You can make a $10 donation to them by texting “quake” to 85944.

One of my goals this year is to create a mileage-earning strategy that fits my pattern of travel and help me earn enough miles to get some international tickets. Since I’ve somehow given people the delusion that I’m some kind of frequent flyer, I’d love to get at least low-level status on an airline so that I have a shiny card to support their delusion.

However, picking a program to focus on isn’t so simple. I fly out of Orlando, which isn’t a hub for anyone but is a focus city for some low-cost carriers. Nearly all of my travel is for personal trips. Last year, I flew 4 domestic trips and an international one. This year, it looks like I will be doing at least that much flying again and maybe more if I can find some good promotions. While I’m usually flying out of the same city, where I’m going to varies widely and I rarely go to the same spot twice. So I need to choose a program with a lot of partners in it.

Looking at the three major airline alliances, I’m a fan of the Star Alliance. They are the largest of the three and offer the most choices in terms of carriers and destinations. In the US, where I live, there are three Star carriers- Continental, United, and US Airways. I don’t want to keep my miles in United’s program because of their infamous Starnet blocking tactics. Starnet blocking means that United often doesn’t make partner flights available for booking, even if the partner has award space available. I’ve heard stories of people trying to book a flight to Frankfurt via Luftasa or to Bangkok via Thai Airways only to be told that those airlines don’t have any flights available to those cities (come again?). Since I want to fly internationally, this won’t help me at all.

US Airways has a good mileage program with a decent earn/burn ratio and lots of redemption options. However, flying on the airline itself leaves something to be desired. It’s a basic, no-frills airline. It can get you from point A to point B on time and that’s pretty much it. I’ve used US Airways for short hops on the east coast, but for anything longer I try to fly on a different airline.

That leaves me with Continental. Like US Airways, the program makes it easy to redeem miles at a reasonable rate to many different destinations. They also have a decent on-board product that continues to improve. More interesting, if I can achieve elite status with CO, it can be used to get better seating on UA flights as well starting in mid-2010.

Beyond just flying, I’m also working on getting miles through credit card promotions and spending, online shopping and other promos and deals that pop up. I’m not trying to turn into Ryan Bingham of “Up in the Air” who said “I don’t spend a nickel on anything that doesn’t earn me miles.” But if I can get miles for things I do everyday anyway, so much the better.

So that’s my strategy this year. Hopefully it’ll get me to where I want to go this year.

I love the beginning of the new year. It’s a chance to step back and assess things and set goals for the next year. In 2009, my goals were mostly financial ones- I wanted to become debt-free and increase my income. I did become debt-free. I didn’t increase my income as much as I had hoped (silly recession) but in any case, I’m in a better financial position then I was last year.

I also had the goal of knocking off at least one item on my bucket list per month. With 12 goals completed, I managed to meet that.

This year will be the year of the earn. My focus will be on earning miles- whether it’s up in the air, on the ground or other creative ways. Several bloggers like Chris Guillebeau have raved about the opportunities that large miles/points balances can do for folks wanting to travel without spending a fortune. Whole forums like Flyertalk are devoted to discussing mileage earning and burning strategies.

So here are my goals for 2010-

1. Fly at least 25,000 miles- Last year, I flew about 21,000 miles. Doing 25,000 this year will be a challenge, but if the trips I’m hoping to take (including at least one overseas trip) work out, then it should be doable. The reason why I picked 25,000 miles specifically is because that’s the number needed by most airlines to achieve elite status with them, which is something I’ve never managed to do before. The real challenge will be to credit all the miles to one airline, since some of time I will be travelling with a group and have to go with whoever they want to fly with. In a later post I’ll outline which airline I’m going with and what I’m going to do to build up miles with them.

2. Earn enough miles to take an international trip in business or first class in 2011- After my trip to Japan last year, I really came to appreciate what life can be like in the front of the plane. Plus there are several cities in southeast Asia like Hong Kong and Singapore that I want to visit in the next couple of years. And with all the opportunities out there to earn miles in other ways besides just flying, it’s an achievable goal since I already have about half the miles needed for a trip.

3. Get out of town at least once a month- Last year in the months that I wasn’t flying anywhere I tried to get out and explore unique attractions around my home state of Florida. It’s been fun exploring what’s in my own backyard and it’s been nice knowing that I don’t always have to fly halfway across the world just to find adventure. Besides, if I can’t learn to appreciate what’s in my own backyard, how can I do it in someone else’s yard?

4. Run a 10k- Last year I ran a 5k, and it was amazing. Sadly I fell off the exercise wagon when the hot Florida summer hit. I’d like to get back into shape again so I’m ready to take on whatever adventures come my way next.

5. Continue working on my bucket list and reassess the list in the fall- I’m going to keep trying to get at least one goal a month. I also want to rethink some of the goals on the list. In October, the list will be two years old. A lot has changed in those two years and I’d like to remove some goals that don’t interest me anymore and add some that do.

So there you have it. As always, I’ll keep blogging about these goals throughout the year and hopefully by this time next year I can say that I’ve achieve them all.

What are your goals for the new year?

Tonight I packed up for my last trip of the year- a road trip to Alabama for a family wedding and reunion. 2009 has been a great travel year for me. From visiting several US cities to sailing in the Caribbean to flying halfway around the world to a new country, it’s been amazing seeing the diversity in cultures and places. I also knocked several items off my bucket list- from running in a 5k to appearing in the crowd at a Today Show taping to flying in first class.

I made it to a lot of places that I wanted to visit like Boston and New York City, but also didn’t make it to cities I hoped to visit this year (my apologies to Chicago, Toronto and Portland). I also ended up in some places I had never planned to visit this year, like Providence, RI; New Orleans, LA; and of all places, Tokyo, Japan.

My travel started in April with a trip to Boston to visit a friend. Then Atlanta in July to visit family. An opportunity to help out a co-worker morphed into a last-minute trip to New Orleans in August. My 5-day September trip to New York City with my mom was the longest trip I took all year. October was the busiest month for me, with back-to-back weekend international trips to Nassau, Bahamas and Tokyo, Japan with friends, followed up with a visit to my alma mater in Gainesville, FL. My travelling slowed down in the winter, but I’m ending the year with a trip to Alabama.

This year I flew 20,731 miles on 14 segments- the most I’ve ever flown in one year, even though it’s only a drop in the bucket compared to any frequent flyer. I got to fly in some plane types that I hadn’t been in before- from a small 4-seat Cessna 172 to a Boeing 777 holding over 250 passengers. I also flew on United for the first time.

On other forms of transit, I traveled by train 3 times, doing round trips from Boston to Providence and Narita to Tokyo, plus a ride on Atlanta’s Marta train to visit family. I also tried out a new cruise line, Carnival, on a sailing to Nassau. Finally, I drove or rode in a car for 2,300 miles to get to New Orleans and Alabama.

So what will 2010 bring? I don’t have any firm plans yet, but there are several possibilities I’m looking into. But wherever I go, I’m looking forward to all the adventures and challenges that life will bring.

In the end, 2009 would not have been such a fantastic year for me if it wasn’t for all the family and friends who helped make the adventures and come along for the fun. Whether it was offering up a couch for me to crash on; getting me on a plane or just coming along for the ride; it would not have been as fun without them.

And thank you, all 3 of my loyal readers, for visiting this blog. It’s because of you that has kept me motivated to keep writing this blog for over a year now.

A seagull perches on the railing of the Sensation while docked in Nassau.

After my September trip to New York City, I took a 3-night cruise in October from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas and back on Carnival. This was my third trip to Nassau and the second time in two years. But every time I’ve gone to Nassau, it’s been by a different cruise line. So it’s given me a chance to see how the different cruise lines stack up against each other on the same route.

Disney- I took Disney on a 4-night cruise from Port Canaveral to Nassau back in 2001. One of the first things I noticed about it was the price- Disney cruises are generally more expensive then the other two cruise lines. The price difference, depending on the size of the cabin, can be upwards of a thousand dollars or more. But for the price, you do get some unique features not found on any other cruise line.

The dining experience is quite different from other cruise lines. Instead of everyone sitting in one large dining room every night, Disney has diners rotating around different themed restaurants each night. The food is fairly typical cruise fair, but many of the dishes were presented in a pretty and creative way.

As for the rooms, Disney continues to improve them through things like adding a video porthole to interior rooms to give a “view” of the outside world.

Of the three cruise lines reviewed here, Disney did have the best customer service. From the waiters who greeted diners by name to the friendly cabin housekeepers to the greetings of other staff members around the ship, it was clear that the guests come first on the ship.

The ship also offered a lot of activities for kids and adults, including special areas devoted to various age groups, although the offerings for the teenage crowd was a bit lacking when I sailed. Then again, it’s been a few years since I’ve been on them so they may have improved their program offerings.

The 4-night cruise did include a stop to their private island, Castaway Cay. The island was beautiful and well-kept. It included fun features like sunken treasures and statues in the snorkeling area; a biking path that goes down an old airstrip; and a fun castaway theme throughout the island.

The ship itself is also well-maintained. I didn’t see worn-out areas and cleaning crews were constantly cleaning various parts of the ship.

The shows, not surprisingly, were top-notch. They had great musical shows that the whole family would enjoy and a nice theater area to see them in.

Overall, Disney has a pretty impressive cruise product, especially if you have a family with younger kids. If you can afford the price, it’s worth a try.

Royal Caribbean-I’ve taken RC on a 3-night cruise last year and a 7-night cruise back in 2006. The pricing of RC cruises is similar to Carnival’s pricing and is definitely cheaper then what Disney offers. RC also offers more cruise options out of more ports since it’s a larger cruise line then Disney is and has more ships.

The food was very good. They offered at least 3 choices for a main dish each night along with various appetizers and dessert choices. One interesting phenomenon happened when I sailed with a large group of nearly a dozen people. The wait staff kept bringing to our table extra dishes that nobody ordered. We had no problems demolishing the extra dishes, especially as we had several hungry 20- and 30-something year-old guys at the table, and it was a great way to sample nearly all the dishes they had to offer that night. I’ve heard this happening with other people who have sailed with RC in the past, so this might be some kind of company policy. In any case, it was a welcome surprise. RC also had some of the best midnight buffets that I’ve seen on a cruise ship.

Depending on the size of the ship, there’s usually one or two alternative fine dining restaurants that passengers can go to instead of the main dining room. There is an additional surcharge, but when I went to one of them, the food was mind-blowing good, not to mention that the views out the windows of various Caribbean islands were quite stunning.

The activities offered on-board are definitely aimed more at the active/adventurous crowd. The larger ships offer activities like rock-climbing, ice skating and even surfing. The smaller ships offer lots of classes like dancing, yoga and aerobics classes.

Their evening shows were not quite the elaborate productions that Disney had, but they were still fun to watch. Some of the highlights include the ever-amusing “Love and Marriage” show and a dancing show.

Their private island was not as impressive as Disney’s was. The beach and snorkeling areas were not as nice and the island felt smaller then Castaway Cay was. Still, there were plenty of activities available plus a tasty bbq lunch was offered, so it was not a bad way to spend a few hours.

One of the pluses of RC over the other two lines is their Crown and Anchor club for repeat customers. They offer discounts on future cruises and goodies like a coupon book and a gift like a hat or picture frame in the stateroom when sailing. The benefits get progressively better the more you sail with them. It’s the best-designed program of the three and also the most well-promoted. It certainly offers some good incentives to keep returning to RC.

Carnival- I went on my first Carnival cruise this past October. Price-wise of the three, it has the cheapest rates, and often is the cheapest cruise line of all cruise lines on some routes. Some of its rates are as low as $80 a day in the low season.

The ship, the Sensation, had some rather odd interior decorating going on. One lounge area featured giant hands all over the room. Another lounge dubbed the “Michangelo” room featured a bunch of marble statues, but only one was actually a replica of a Michangelo room. And many of the common areas had dark trippy mirrors and lights that reminded me of a old Vegas casino. The whole decorating scheme was a bit spastic and outdated (although in fairness I was on one of their older ships).

Their shows and activities were also not as impressive as what was offered on the other two ships. Part of the problem had to do with the layout of the theater itself. There’s a lot of poles blocking the view of the stage and it’s easy for other people to block the view. Also, being a smaller ship meant that the stage itself was quite small.

The food was decent and they had some great creative items at dinner. The breakfast/lunch options were pretty average.

The ship itself didn’t offer a whole lot in terms of activities. Mostly it had a golf course, several pools, a slide and some workout areas. Overall, Carnival didn’t impress me all that much.

The verdict- If money is no object and you don’t mind having Mickey Mouse along for the ride, Disney offers a high-quality cruising experience. If you’re the more adventurous type or just want an excuse to do things like ice-skating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Royal Caribbean is the way to go. Carnival is okay for the price, but there are better options out there.

Overall, cruising is not my prefer means of travel since I’m forced to stay with large crowds and many cruise ports have turned into tourist traps. But for an all-inclusive vacation with large groups, a cruise works well since it’s easier for everyone to do something that they’re interested in. To me, cruising is more about who you’re going with then where you’re going to.

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

For the last day of the trip, I didn’t have anything planned in advance. I wanted to keep it open in case there was something we didn’t get to earlier. My mom wanted to visit the state courthouse where on its steps many Law and Order scenes were filmed. So we visited there first. It was nice to see the courthouse, although it looked like every other Roman-designed courthouse. I did spot the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian as we left the area. I didn’t realize the Smithsonian had other institutions located outside of Washington, D.C.
I wanted to visit the United Nations next. Unfortunately, due to a global summit that was happening next week, we couldn’t tour the UN as it was closed to visitors. Hopefully the next time I’m in the area I can tour the place.

United Nations Headquarters, sans the country flags.

Our last stop before heading out of town was visiting the famous metal bull that is the symbol of Wall St. Now, I thought finding a giant metal bull would be pretty easy to spot in NYC. Sure, there’s lots of crazy things to see around the city, but even a large animal cast in brass attracts attention. But it was challenging to find the “Charging Bull” for the simple reason that despite its connection to Wall St., the bull is not actually on Wall St. It’s close, but it’s a few blocks over on the north end of Bowling Green at Broadway and State streets.  We ended up having to get directions from a friendly New Yorker who pointed us in the right direction. We found it, surrounded by a large group of tourists eager to get their picture taken in front of it. The bull is sculpted in great detail, right down to certain, ah, anatomical features.
After getting a few pictures, we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and headed over to Penn Station to catch a train back to Newark Airport. Work on the Airtrain was still going on so it was a bit chaotic getting back to the terminal. The flight back on Continental was on time and uneventful. I did spot the Continental retro jet (a plane painted in CO’s old color scheme) parked at one of the gates in EWR, which was fun to see. I had heard about it but never seen it before.

Final thoughts

Overall, the trip was a great success. I’ve been wanting to see New York for many years, so I’m glad I finally made it there. The city was everything I imagined it would be. From the ease of getting around on the subway to the diversity of different neighborhoods and restaurants to the hustle and bustle of being in one of the world’s largest cities, I enjoyed every aspect of it.

Even though I spent five days there, I barely explored all the city has to offer. If I get a chance to go again, I would love to get out of Manhattan and explore some of the surrounding boroughs. I’d also go visit more museums and walk through the north end of Central Park. New York City has no shortage of things to do, so I suspect I’ll be making many more trips there in the future.

A display of candies in the Soda Shop

For Day 4, 0ur last full day in New York City, I wanted to visit Central Park and my mom wanted to see another museum. We had breakfast in a cafe next to our hotel called the Soda Shop. The cafe is filled with pictures of old candy ads and sells all kinds of harder to find candies along with serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We hopped on the subway and got off near the FAO Scharwz store. We passed by the Apple store and I couldn’t resist taking a look. I love how Apple maintains the same look for its stores in each city and still find a way to make each one unique. In the case of the NYC store, the entrance to the store is on the ground level. That’s the only thing on the ground level. The rest of the store is located underground, so you have to enter the glass cube structure at the ground level and go down stairs or an elevator to get to the store. It’s certainly an eye-catching way to design a storefront. The rest of the store is your typical Apple store, complete with a long Genius bar.

Next to the Apple store is the famous toy store, FAO Schwarz. Known for unusual items like a piano so large you can play it by standing on it (as featured in the movie Big), the store is worth a walk through.

A display of Muppets in the FAO Schwarz store

One of the highlights of the store for me was the giant stuffed dragon on the second floor. The dragon has been my favorite animal since the sixth grade and my apartment is full of them. So seeing a giant dragon almost from the moment I entered the store delighted me. Alas, it didn’t have a price tag on it. I probably couldn’t have fit it in my apartment anyway.

Other fun things to look at included a nice electric train setup, the Muppet workshop where you can design your own muppet, looking at several large Lego creations, and of course dancing on the large quarter-million dollar piano.

As we were leaving the store, I noticed several people dressed up in renaissance fair type outfits. At first, I thought they were store employees wearing costumes. But once I saw a large group standing around outside, it was clear they were tourist. I never did find out why they were dressed up, but it seemed so typically New York that they didn’t attract much of any attention from other people walking by.

The FAO Schwarz store is catty-corner to Central Park, so the park was the next logical stop. My mom really wanted to find the carousel that’s located in the middle of the park. I was happy just walking through the park. We were there on a Saturday and lots of people were out relaxing, walking their dogs and just enjoying the lovely NYC weather. Even with all the other people, the sheer size of the park meant that it never felt crowded. The size of the park also means they have all kinds of attractions like a zoo, two skating rinks, an outdoor theater and a conservatory garden. In many ways it reminded me of Vancouver’s Stanley Park in both size and attractions.

A fountain in Central Park

As we walked over to the carousel, I heard the sounds of a band playing. After going around a hill, we found some kind of world peace concert going on, complete with a gentleman singing one of his favorite Brazilian songs. On the ground were large sheets of paper with line drawings of people on them that passerbys were coloring in. In a nearby lake, canoers were out paddling and a yoga class stretched out on the lakeside plaza. It just felt like a perfect morning in the park to me.

Eventually we found the Central Park carosel. Since I had already let my inner 5-year-old out to play at the toy store, it was easy to let her out again by buying 2 tickets to take a ride on the carousel. It had been several years since I had been on a merry-go-round and I had forgotten how fun they could be. Sure, I was just going in circles, but it was fun to listen to the music and wave to all the kids having a birthday party as I spun around.

After the ride, my mom and I were ready to head over to the American Musuem of Natural History. The museum is located right across the street from Central Park at 79th street. We picked this museum because it’s one of New York’s more famous museums and because of its location. I’ve been to a couple of other natural history museums, including the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; so I was curious to see how this one would measure up.

The museum is divided into five floors, with each floor being devoted to a topic, such as fossils, mammals, culture and outer space. The museum was a bit complicated to navigate at times as it wasn’t always clear how to get from one floor to the next. While I took the stairs most of the times, the elevators were quite crowded since several elevators were for “staff use only”.

A brontosaurus skeleton in the lobby of the AMNH.

Some of the exhibits were quite interesting. I enjoyed the space exhibits the most, as it included features like finding out how much you would weigh on various planets, films on various space research programs, and a history of the universe walk where each foot on the ground represented several million years of history.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the museum was really showing its age. In the environments floor, most of the exhibits consisted of various dioramas of animals in their native environments. I would have liked to see more informational films about the animals or have some kind of interactive exhibits. Looking at dozens of statues of animals doesn’t excite me at all, even if the sheer size of them like the humpback whale one is impressive.

The floor devoted to world cultures was even worse. Not only was it diorama nirvana, but many of the displays looked yellow and faded. On one display about Islam, a tag indicated that a item had been removed from the display- in 1995! The museum still hadn’t replaced it with anything 14 years later. I understand that keeping displays fresh takes time and money, but the AMNH could really do a better job in this area, especially since it’s suppose to be one of the premiere natural history museums in the country.

The fossils floor was a bit better. They had more fossils in their exhibit then I’ve seen anywhere else. They had everything from a tiny shrew skeleton to a giant brontosaurus and everything in-between. One of the coolest displays was a boneyard- a pile of skeletons from a dried-up lakebed. It was so neat to see so many types of skeletons jumbled together in one spot.

Overall, the museum is not a bad spot to go to if you need to fill a few hours, but there are better museums out there.

After our AMNH visit, we headed back to our hotel to get ready to see another Broadway play- Wicked. I had first heard the Wicked soundtrack when I was in college and later read the book that the musical is based on. But until now I had not seen the musical anywhere. So of course I was excited about finally seeing the musical whose soundtrack I’d come to love.

So after enjoying a lovely dinner at the Cosmopolitan Cafe, we hopped on the subway and went down to the famous Great White Way.

The stage of Wicked before the start of the show.

The musical was magnificent. It had just the right balance of humor, drama and musical numbers. The costumes dazzle, the stage shines, the actors entertain. It is everything I imagined a Broadway play to be and so much more. It was definitely the highest point among many high points of the trip.

The only downside to such a fantastic, populer show is that it sells out every night. Wicked tickets are usually not available through the discount channels like TKTS or Playbill. Tickets for Wicked generally start around $100 for seats towards the back.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel to get one last night’s worth of sleep in New York City. The next day would be our last in the Big Apple.

Subway art in the Broadway station.

Day 3 began dark and early with my alarm going off at 4:45am. Yes, 4:45am. The sun wasn’t even up yet. But I had a good reason. Ever since I started watching the NBC’s Today Show regularly, I’ve wanted to go to the show and be a part of the crowd in Rockerfeller Plaza. So with sign in hand, I headed out to the plaza.

Getting there took a bit longer then I expected. I knew the subway system would be running on a different schedule at that early hour, but construction caused additional changes like having a downtown train run on the uptown tracks. It was a bit confusing at first, but I eventually got to where I needed to go.

As I walked around the corner to the plaza, I didn’t see anyone at first. Just the portable railings and camera equipment that was being set up for the show. But then I spotted a small group of people standing around with signs. Ah-ha, the start of the line. So I walked over and joined them as the fifth person in line just after 5:30am. A gentleman let everyone know that there was free coffee and bagels available from his co-workers in a food truck parked next to the line. Apparently all the local morning shows pay for catering for all the fans that showed up.

As we waited, the gentleman talked to the crowd, asking questions like where everyone was from (most folks that show up are tourists) and offering up all kinds of information about New York. One thing he shared about was how 9/11 changed street security. For example, trash cans are now banned from public streets. Street vendors are not allowed to sell two hot drinks to the same customer because they could be used as a weapon. Plus, the police enforce all these regulations via street cams that the man himself saw. Truly absurd.

The line really began to build up around 6am. Lenny, a regular who always appears on the Today Show, showed up at 6:20am, skipped the line and walked to his spot by the rails. The rest of the crowd was allowed to join him at 6:45am, 15 minutes before the show started.

Meredith greets the crowd.

 

Unfortunately that morning most of the anchors were out of town. Matt and Al were in Dallas to cover the opening of the new stadium while Ann was in Iraq. So that left Meredith to hold down the fort at Studio 1A. Since she was in the studio most of the time and the show was using a lot of wide shots from Dallas, the crowd wasn’t shown much that morning. But even without a camera to wave at, it was a lot of fun to hang out and talk with people and just take in the happy energy of the crowd.

My getting up early finally paid off after 8am when Meredith came out to do some standups. At first, she stood exactly in front of me so I couldn’t be seen. But then on a different shot she moved over slightly and I appeared briefly for a few seconds. During the commercial breaks, Meredith took the time to shake hands, sign autographs and pose for pictures with people in the crowd.

Around 9am, the show pretty much stayed inside of the studio for the rest of the morning so the crowd slowly dwindle. I wandered around Rockerfeller and explored the various shops in the area while waiting for my mom to meet me there since she valued sleep more then I did.

The Empire State Building.

Once we met up, we went to the Top of the Rock, which is an observation deck located at the top of the Rockerfeller Center. It’s the second-highest deck in the city behind the Empire State Building. But unlike the Empire State Building, there’s no long lines at the Rock to wait in and you can see the Empire State Building from the top. The views up there are of course spectacular. I didn’t appreciate just how big New York City is until I saw it from up there.

Besides the view, the Top of the Rock had a few exhibits like a theater showing short videos about the history of NBC, the Rockettes and how the building came to be. There was also a rather fun “light room” featuring colored lights that would follow people around the room.

After the Rock, we headed over to the pier since we had a ticket for a 75-min Circle Line Cruises boat tour that went around the Statue of Liberty. It was a freebie included when I had booked my flights through Expedia. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the tickets closely enough. Turns out they were a voucher that had to be redeemed at an office that was nowhere near the pier. Oops. Since there were only two tours available that day, we decided that we would take the Staten Island ferry later in the day instead. So we headed over to the Carnegie Deli for lunch.

The deli is famous for its monsterous-sized sandwiches and cheesecakes and for visits by various celebrities. I had a pastrami sandwich for lunch- and had enough left over for dinner that night. After eating all that we could, we headed back to the hotel to store the leftovers and then went to the Staten Island Ferry.

The ferry runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The frequency that it runs at varies from 20 minutes to one hour depending on the time of day, and the trip takes about a half-hour from one port to the other. The ferry has seating for several hundred people- most of it in the inside. But it also has some nice observation decks running along the outside that worked well for statue-spotting. I was able to get some nice pictures of the statue and the city skyline. Considering the price (free!) and not having to deal with the hassles of security screening, this was definitely the way to go to get a view of the statue. The one downside of the ferry is that it’s quite windy up on the top deck, but that’s probably why the deck is labeled as the “hurricane deck”.

The Statue of Liberty.

It would have been nice to get closer and have a chat with Lady Liberty. But from what I’ve heard from others, getting up close and personal with the statue also involves getting up close and personal with lots of security screening agents in a process that’s even worse then what the TSA has come up with for airports. If I did go through that hassle, I would want to be able to go all the way up to the crown that reopened earlier this year. Tickets for the crown though were sold out on every date two months ahead of time.

After a leisurely hour-long ride on the ferry, we walked around the Battery Park area where the ferry leaves from. The area has a lot of street performers and artists hawking their wares along with a park area and an old fort.

Ground Zero is just a few blocks north of Battery Park. The area is mostly one large construction site. There really isn’t much to see- and that’s the point. The area for now is much more about what isn’t there then what is. Due to the construction fence surrounding the site, it’s hard to see anything beyond tall construction equipment.

Memorials are scattered around the area. The fire station that was the first to respond has plaques honoring each firefighter lost from the station that day. Around the corner, people placed flowers and other mementos to honor fallen police officers. A temporary museum is set up across the street, but it was closed at the time I was there.

Ground Zero.

I wish I had seen the area before 9/11. Seeing the towers would have been impressive and given me some perspective about how much the city has changed as the result of the attacks. At least the rebuilding process has started, even if it’s going very slowly.

After visiting Ground Zero, my mom and I headed back to the hotel to eat our deli leftovers for dinner. After such an early start to the day, I was ready to call it a night. We had one more full day in New York ahead of us.

 

KLM is running a promotion right now where you can get two free luggage tags featuring a picture of your choice through their website. All you have to do is upload a photo or choose one of theirs and provide some personal information. The process also get you entered into a contest for a free trip. There isn’t a deadline posted for this, so I’m guessing they will offer these tags until supplies run out. So if you want some, don’t wait.

I just ordered mine using a photo from my recent Japan trip and I’m looking forward to getting them in three weeks. Even if you already have luggage tags, these could serve as a nice gift for a traveller in your life.

Go here to order your tags.