Lizzie and Scott

Today we were awake at 4:00 am for a HUGE day of sightseeing and walking!

Our day started with a walk to Rockefeller Plaza in subzero temperatures in order to have our own semi-private tree lighting! Having skipped the official Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting that was attended by THOUSANDS of people, we opted for an early morning to watch the lights come on at 5:00 am (the lights are turned off at midnight every night). There were perhaps 100 people at the plaza to watch this sight.

The tree is absolutely beautiful, and the small crowd gave me a chance to get some lovely photos with my camera, instead of taking mediocre photos with the phone!
During this period, I repositioned myself to get a couple of the shots your see above. To get them, I had to use a tripod to allow me to take a long exposure photo due to the low light in the area at this time of morning. As I went to set up, a woman pushed in front of me and began taking photos of a bride and groom with the tree in the background. This went on for close to 10 minutes but I (and about 6 other people) waited patiently for them to finish. I guess I just wanted to make sure the married couple got that one special photo to remember their happy day.

When the photographer and the couple moved away, I set my camera up to take a photo but before I could the bride and groom returned to their spot in front of me and the photographer stepped back to where I was. I told her to go ahead, but when she reached for my camera to move it I firmly told her not to touch it. She then repeatedly asked me how long IO was going to be and I told her "As long as it takes to get the shot" - that wasn't good enough and she kept pressing "Five seconds? 30 seconds?"

I started to get shitty and told her "You're a professional photographer, you know what it means to get that one special shot". Whilst I was doing this, a woman who was waiting behind me patted me on the shoulder. It was clear that everyone had had enough of this woman and she moved away allowing everyone else to get their photos.

Lizzie told me later that the couple weren't married, but that it was a magazine shoot! Had I known that, the encounter would have been slightly different from my end!

Directly behind us was Saks Fifth Avenue. Normally this store puts on a huge light/LASER show, but this year they've dialled things right back as business hasn't been good. Hopefully they find their feet and return to the displays of past years.
Once I had captured the photos that I wanted, Lizzie and I jumped on the subway and headed south. Our mission was to walk out the Brooklyn Bridge and catch the sunrise!

I have to say, watching the sunlight glowing off the skyscrapers in Manhattan from the top of the bridge was amazing! This little town they call New York is such a beautiful place!

From the Brooklyn Bridge, we could see the sun rising behind the Manhattan Bridge - what an iconic sight!
We walked all the way over Brooklyn Bridge and in to DUMBO where we had a bite of breakfast. Then it was back to Manhattan by walking across the Manhattan Bridge!
We caught the subway back to Macy's, and checked out their holiday market where I discovered hot apple cider with whipped cream on top! I was just like a liquid apple pie!!!
We made our way home for lunch and a rest before returning back in to the city and heading to the Empire State Building to visit their observation deck on the 86th floor. Unfortunately, we discovered that access was by reservation only (that'll teach us for not researching)!

So we bought ourselves a CityPASS and reserved a time slot for tomorrow!

CityPASS is great value. You can purchase access to either three or five major attractions and can save up to 46% of the cost of visiting these places individually.

After our big day out, we decided we had had enough exercise for the day, and we walked home to crash on the couch!

All up, we tramped 17 km's across the city today, and boy are my dogs barking!!! I'm walkin' here!