6/1: Can I spit off the top?

Lisa and I spent a great deal of time on Tuesday at the Empire State Building. We had driven by it on Sunday when we went on our TV/movie tour, and we were amazed that the line to go to the observation deck went around the block (I believe our tour guide's exact words were, "Ha ha! Suckerrrs!"). On Tuesday, we were relieved the line was nowhere near that long. Of course, there was still a lengthy line that wound through the basement where you buy tickets to go to the top. Down there, while they have you where they want you, they have people loudly inundate you with tour options ("It's a necessity, not an accessory!"), such as the audio "Tony's Cab Tour" of New York. The sales pitch is not that bad, but after a half hour of listening to the same thing pitched over and over, I felt like tearing my remaining hair out.

But the ordeal with lines didn't end with buying tickets. There was the line to get to the elevators, which included a metal detector (this part was more than a little disconcerting; the people manning the security area didn't look old enough to thwart criminals or terrorists; the guy at the Xray machine wasn't paying close attention to the monitor). Once you got off the elevator on the 80th floor, there was another line to another elevator to the 86th floor observatory. We decided to skip that second lift and, ugh, walked the final six floors. Man, nothing else tells you how badly out of shape you are than walking up stairs. It didn't help that the stairway was filled with sweaty, smelly people.

The observatory was everything I expected. The view was amazing, and we walked around to all four sides. My favorite was the view to the south: Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Verazano Bridge, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty. Lisa's favorite was east, to the Chrysler Building. But my enthusiasm was tempered by the fact that views from up high tended to look the same wherever you looked the longer you stood up there. The big crowd didn't help, either. Everybody was jockeying for position, trying to get photos of the same view. We didn't hang out for long. Oh well. We could at least check Empire State Building off the list.