Sunday, June 7, 2009

#105 Empire State Building and meeting Howard, 6-4-09

We are finally getting smart! Laurie’s hotel has an Acura service that will drive us to any place in Manhattan, free if we request the service early enough. So today, Laurie requested the service for driving us to the Empire State Building. Yeah!

But first, we went to visit Howard, Rick and Mary at their video editing studio. I wish I had taken some pictures, because it was so cool. There was a semi-circle black leather couch around a round upholstered coffee table in the video editing room. The room is dark except for multiple video monitors. Howard and Rick showed us the video that Laurie was in. It really turned out great, made me a Starwood customer! Rick showed us how they edit the footage, and Howard explained what they look for to put into the video.

We left them to get back to their work and we walked down the street to do our Empire State Building Tour.

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The building is a National Historical Landmark. This building was envisioned by the architect in 1928 and completed in 1931. This was done at a cost of $41 million dollars right at the beginning of the Great Depression.

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This is on the floor of the lobby.

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I loved the decorations on the ceilings. Looks like space ships.

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The stairwells are surrounded by art deco railings. Beautiful.

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Art Deco lighting in the hallways and stair ways.

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This is taken inside the elevator. In the lights are silhouettes of the Empire State Building. You can’t see them in the big lights, but if you look at the reflections on the marble wall of the elevator you can see them. Pretty neat.

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We are on the 86th floor. The Building is visited by nearly 4 million people each year.

Every inch of the observation deck is covered with people.

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Looking up to the point on the very top of the Empire State Building. It is 1,250 feet tall.

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Looking down from the Empire State Building. You can see the Macy’s building taking up the entire block, except for the one hold out corner building where the Macy’s shopping bag is located.

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The Hudson River separates Manhattan from New Jersey. We did take a water taxi across this river one morning. The brick buildings that all look alike are the housing that was built for the returning GI’s after WWII.

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The tall black building is One Penn Plaza rising above the Madison Square Garden.

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Another view of the Flat Iron Building.

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The Met Life building in the center, with the angled roof of the Citicorp building. Up to the left is the Hudson River where the American Airline Pilot safely landed the airplane after the jet engines had been disabled by a flock of birds.

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As we leave the Empire State Building we take a few pictures in the lobby. Laurie with her kids, Rachel and Collin.

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Good by Empire State Building!

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