Our second day in NewYork with our friend Scott was ear-marked for shopping, but having been to the top of the second tallest building (well, second tallest that has an observation deck) the previous night we thought we’d do the Empire State Building 
as well. I think we did it totally the right way round too because we went to the Top of the Rock by night which allowed us to see the midtown skyline at night (including the Empire State Building itself illuminated) Â and do the Empire State Building during the day so we could actually see for miles. They say you can see for 80 miles on a clear day, which it nearly was.
The Empire State Building has two observation decks; one on the 86th floor and one on the 102nd. We went to the 86th first which is very big and also outside which allowed me to take some nice photos. Then we went in our 3rd elevator to get right to the top on the 102nd, which is a great thing to say you’ve done but actually not nearly as good for sightseeing as the lower one.
The view from the top really is incredible. We’ve been to the top of tall buildings in several cities, including Chicago and Seattle, but none of them have quite the number of famous landmarks visible from one place. We saw the Financial District, The Chrysler Building, The Rockerfeller Center (with binoculars you can see the people standing on the observation deck we were on yesterday the previous night) , Madison Square Garden , Central Park , Yankee Stadium , Times Square … I could go on… and the photo below of the tall skyscraper being built is the new World Trade Center going up.
After the Empire State Building we went shopping on 5th Avenue. The highlight for me was FAO Schwarz , the largest toy shop in New York and the oldest in America, famous for its massive piano used in the Tom Hanks film ‘Big’, which we had to have a go on. It’s also got a fairly large Lego department and a muppet workshop where you can design and build your own muppet!
The highlight for Jen was going to Tiffany’s . As far as Jewellery shops go it’s pretty impressive covering 5 floors and Jen has always wanted one of their little blue boxes. We finished with a really nice Dinner near Central Park and I couldn’t help taking a photo of Scott’s 3 mini cheeseburgers (all with different cheese apparently).