Hello everyone. So we have finally got around to updating our blog even though we are now in Hawaii, we just haven't had time to sit down as we've been so busy. So here's a few words about our time in New York............. We arrived in New York Safely after being pampered by British airways for 6 hours. The ride to our hotel was a little bumpy, being our first encounter with New York driving. We were eventually dropped at our hotel, which was generally very nice. However the view from our room was a beautiful brick wall literally one inch from the window, this made it very difficult when deciding what to wear. So we relied on New York one for the local weather. Luckily the weather has been fabulous for our whole New York stay, apart from a brief torrential downpour whilst in Times square of all places. Our first night in New York was short due to the flight and settling into the hotel, but after ringing home to a worried family (sorry guys) which we were supposed to have done earlier, we grabbed dinner at our first weigh your food buffet and made it up to the top of the empire state building for sunset and night time views of New York. Unfortunately my camera skills at this stage were still a bit sketchy and I struggled to get a wonderful photo of the view (my skills should improve over time, thanks dad for the input there!), but there were a few decipherable ones as you can see from the pics. Over the next few days we were on our feet for an average of 12 hours a day, rushing around visiting all the landmarks and tourist sights, with Paul sampling each hot dog and ice cream stand on every block. On our first day we explored Macy's but managed to locate the exit before our whole trip money was spent. We then took our first subway to the statue of liberty and queued for a few hours, but it was worth it to finally see her in the flesh (or stone). We then continued on to Eliss Island, and viewed the registry room, famous for the immigrants entering New York, desperate for a cup of tea and the possibility of a cake, we followed the signs round to the 'cafeteria' but alas we were confronted with more burger bars. So we took in the New York views whilst waiting for the boat. Once returning to the city we walked around to the huge empty space of where the world trade centre would have stood. We donated 20.00 dollars whilst looking around the memorial, which includes various object found in the debris such as a window from one of the planes and a firemans uniform, it was really very emotional. After that we ran around to St. Paul's cathedral (took lots of pictures especially for Mike), which we think is the church used in spiderman, and then onto wall street. That night we had planned to eat in an all vegetarian restaurant recommended in the guidebook, but unfortunately it was fully booked (sorry Janet) so we had Chinese instead. The next day was our last full day so we rushed around like mad, we walked the Brooklyn bridge and took some fab pics. Then caught the subway to the natural history museum, where they have some awesome dinosaur bones and a space theatre where the ceiling is covered in stars and planets, it was just beautiful. After that we walked around central park taking pictures of everything, including the famous bridge and fountain with the pigeons (Paul recreating 'Home Alone' at this point). Again we rushed off and saw Grand central station, new york library beautiful building recognisable from the day after tomorrow, then on to Rockefeller and last but not lease times square where even the police station is lit up with neon lights. We made it back to our hotel room for 01:00 and collapsed into bed feeling proud we had seen as much as we could. Our New York stay was wonderful, our only regret was that we could not stay longer. There were many things we did not do, and places we didn't see, such as China town, Little Italy, Broadway for a show...the list goes on. Luckily there were only a few disaster's, Izzy left her mobile in a changing room, and didn't realise until she was back at the hotel, Paul had to sprint 6 blocks to find it which luckily he did. We only got lost once on the subway (no comments Bryony and Dave). Goodbye NY and onto Toronto..........