nyc - "a three hour tour . . ."

FREE BOAT RIDE, ANYONE??!

after a long day in the city, lauryn and i hopped on the Long Island Rail Road (me, with a huge slice of pizza i bought at the station . . . nothing like THAT at midnight on the train with a soda!!  droooooool .) and were relaxing. the family across the isle from us caught our eye . . . there were probably 7-8 people total, teenagers to aunts, uncles, parents.  it was a family from Holland and they were having the BEST time. we were entertained and laughing just being near them! finally, we started talking to them and really enjoyed our conversation, ending with taking some pictures (with their camera, i believe . . . i think my phone was dead, i was so bummed).

all of this to say, they remembered they had some spare tickets they didn't use from their sightseeing package - - for a Midtown Harbor Cruise!  lauryn and i were pumped and most definitely took them up on their extras. here is what we got to do (for FREE, people!!!)

NY Harbor Midtown Cruise (through City Sights NY)

the cruise took us around with views of--

-Empire State Building

-Statue of Liberty

-Ellis Island

-Governors Island

-Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg Bridge

-great views of the NY skyline

-South Street Seaport

-etc . . .

We decided to do the evening cruise (started at twilight and was dark pretty soon into it).

The pros of that were that it was way less crowded (the boat the unloaded when we arrived in the afternoon was PACKED like sardines. i almost turned around and left, but lauryn convinced me otherwise!!), it was SO nice to see the city at night, with all the lights, and it was a super relaxing way to end the day.

The cons-- having to leave the piers when it was dark/late (post cruise....before was totally fine) didn't particularly feel like the safest thing we've done in the city. that area of town is just abandoned this time of night and you end up isolated. we hoofed it b/c it was so dark and not many people were around.  we felt much better the closer to the center of town we got-- it becomes almost like daytime because of the amount of people/community around, not to mention all of the lights.  So, i would either recommend a daytime cruise (for safety) or the evening one and just getting a cab 'inland' until you see loads of people again. Then you'll be good to go!

More pictures from the actual cruise to follow . . .