New York: Third Weekend: Saturday

Took the subway downtown and came out at Wall St. Since it's the weekend, downtown was pretty quiet. Huge financial institutions lined the street, exactly as I had seen in Die Hard with a Vengeance. :-)



I went to the New York City Police Museum, which showed uniforms, medals, weapons, and so on.



Since I was close to the water, I took a walk. You can see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, but since I've been there before (when I was young), I didn't go again.

At some point, I started walking away from the water and came across a church cemetary. What was neat was seeing pumpkins left over from Hallowe'en. The combination of pumpkins and the head stones just seemed cool.



Next, I got to Ground Zero (World Trade Center site). Now, it's pretty much a big hole in the ground. At one corner, folks got their pictures taken with some members of the police force. A little further down at the fire hall, visitors eagerly took pictures of anything related to the FDNY (fire department).

It was a cold and windy day, so I warmed up in the walkways of the financial center buildings. From there, I found myself by Hudson River again, so proceeded to walk uptown. Along the way, I came across the Irish Hunger Memorial. It interested me because it was an elevated garden platform in the middle of this urban jungle... and it totally reminded me of this level in Halo 2 called Terminal. Man, I miss playing Halo 2.



Back in midtown, I walked by Nintendo World at Rockefeller Center and was surprised to see a huge line-up outside the store. It turns out they're lining up to enter the store to try out the upcoming Nintendo Wii system. It looked like you could try out some baseball game where you use the controller as your bat. As much of a video game fan I am, I didn't line up (hard to believe, isn't it?!?).



Late afternoon, I hooked up with Dan, an ex-colleague of mine, to see an NBA game at Madison Square Garden -- NY Knicks played the Indiana Pacers. The basketball game itself was so-so (Knicks lost), but the game was interspersed with a lot of interesting side-shows like kid talent displays, city kids, cheerleaders, etc... Plus, we got a free hat out of it!



On my way back to the hotel, I decided to check out where Dave & Buster's is located in Times Square. Right next door to it is a McDonald's, whose lights rivaled those of the one found on the strip in Las Vegas (I think?). Also, across the street was a line-up of people going to see Al Green! That'd be a good show... I know Al Green from watching Ally McBeal way back when.