Day 6 of our New York Pass was an absolutely horrific day to try and get out and socialise and see the city. Torrential rain had hit the city overnight and didn't ease up for most of the day so a lot of the activities we had planned (like ice skating) were out of the question. Luckily our amazing friends Kass and Kyle gave us the idea to go to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum which is a giant aircraft carrier that has been re-purposed into a museum.
So after braving the torrential rain through the city, we made our way to the aircraft carrier which is moored on the banks of the Hudson River hoping for a few hours of shelter from the rain. Unfortunately for us, we realised that a portion of the museum included a flight deck upstairs which was obviously open to the weather as well as a large uncovered area between the ship and the submarine. Nevertheless we headed straight inside to warm up and begin the first part of our tour.
The museum itself was extremely interesting and worthy of the money we would have paid to get in if we weren't entering on the pass. We had the chance to explore the ship and see where all the sailors would have slept and lived for their month long tours. The collection of planes up on the flight deck was extremely impressive, even for someone like myself or Jess who are not that interested in planes. For someone who is an aerophile I'm sure it would be nirvana.
There was also a nice theatre on board which played a short 15 minute film about the history of the Intrepid and which areas of the world and what conflicts it had served in. The lower level of the ship also included a collection of cockpits and other fun things to sit in and take photos pretending you were a pilot.
Once we had exhausted our interest on the Intrepid itself, we headed over to check out the submarine. Unfortunately only Jess and I were able to do this as the submarine was too small to take a pram or a small child on. The submarine was exceedingly interesting but also incredibly tiny. Both of us struggled many times not to bump our heads whilst walking around and definitely would have needed some extra flexibility to fit in the bunks that the crew used to use for sleeping. All in all it was a great find and we would highly recommend it to anyone who has an afternoon free in New York.
Next up on the list for day 7 was ice skating at Bryant Park before heading over to Madison Square Garden to do a tour of the famous entertainment centre. Bryant Park is one of our favourite places in New York City and is truly magical at Christmas time as it has an ice skating rink set up, a massive Christmas tree and a collection of Christmas markets spreading the holiday cheer.
Once we arrived at Bryant Park and put on our rented skates, it was time to hit the ice. Jess and I knew going in that we would be horrible after our experiences ice skating in Vancouver the previous winter. However we assumed that Gerard would be on the same level considering he comes from Cairns and there is barely ice at the petrol station there let alone at a rink. So as we hit the ice with Jess looking like a baby elephant that just left the womb and myself not much better, we were surprised to see Gerard flying around the ice like he had just got a contract to play for the New York Rangers. Upon consultation with Caroline we found out that her lovely husband is quite good on a pair of roller blades in Australia and this is why he is also a jet at ice skating.
We stayed on the ice for about an hour with both Jess and I growing in confidence as time went on. Thankfully for us, we were far from the worst and neither of us landed face first or fell back neck first on the ice (which unfortunately many others could not say). We then retired to the markets for lunch to replace all the energy we burned attempting not to fall over on the ice.
The afternoon was then spent doing a tour of Madison Square Garden, the massive world famous entertainment venue home to the New York Rangers, New York Knicks and now Billy Joel as well. The tour guide took us through the many levels of the stadium telling us all about the history of the stadium as well as about the teams that are residents there. A highlight was getting to explore the corporate suites where the truly wealthy watch the game, getting to go courtside and doing a virtual tour of the stadium through VR goggles which showed us a Rangers game, a Knicks game and allowed us to go on stage with Billy Joel.
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