New York City vacation: part two

Central Park

Central Park

We walked to the former World Trade Center site to see the new construction and visit St. Paul's Chapel, Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use, on Saturday morning.

We then hopped on the Gray Line bus and made our way north through several neighbourhoods before getting off at Central Park. We ambled leisurely through the southern part of the park,  browsed a street fair and picked up some gifts at the M&M store before the Sister Act matinee at the Broadway Theatre. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but was entertained by this one -- and mom loved it, which is what really counts.

Post-show drinks were in order, so we went to the Heartland Chop House Brewery for a flight of seven five-ounce glasses of their house-brewed beer. None of them were exceptional.

We had a look through Grand Central Station before deciding upon dinner at an excellent Brazilian restaurant called Ipanema, where I enjoyed churrasco mist -- a combination of grilled beef, chicken, pork and Portuguese sausage and mom had a steak.

New York City has lots to look at during the day, but it can be just as enthralling by night with all of its bright lights. The two-hour Gray Line night tour took us south from midtown, across to Brooklyn and back again. We fought our way through the throngs around Times Square and elected to keep on walking down Broadway back to our hotel. We took a number of breaks so mom could rest her feet, but we completed the more than 50-block journey in three hours.

That was enough for mom, but I set out again for more late night drinks and made stops at The Magician, National Underground and Home Sweet Home.