"Top of the Rock"

After visiting the Museum of Modern Art we walked down the street a few blocks to the Rockefeller Center. I was so used to seeing pictures of it at Christmas time I almost didn't recognize it. 

 The area with all the umbrellas is where they usually have ice skating in the winter. I didn't even know where the big Christmas tree usually sits. We came here so we could go up to the observation deck at the top of the Rockefeller Center (aka "Top of the Rock" as it is known). We bought City Passes so we could do several traditional tourist sites. We had tickets for this as well as the Empire State building. We chose to do this first since it was close. The view was great and it was a beautiful day!

 Nice view of Central Park

 The Empire State building. I loved this lookout place because you could see the Empire State building. So I think I enjoyed the view a little better at the Top of the Rock. However, one of the really awesome things about visiting the Empire State building (which we did visit on one of our last days) was their audio tour. At all different spots around the lookout at the Empire State Building we listened to some of the history and neat tid bits about each area of the city. The narration was great and felt so personal. It really gave us a greater appreciation of the city and how it came to be. Both sites are great, yet my one recommendation would be to do the Empire first (to listen to the history and it gives a pretty detailed description of the layout of NYC which helps you when trying to get around) and then do the Top of the Rock if you wanted to see both.

This was still in day 1...and we still weren't finished for the day!