After our LONG and sensory overload day yesterday, I had a hard time falling asleep, so I was very grateful that we slept in on Thursday morning.  Coffee in bed was divine before going downstairs for breakfast.

Even though we surely needed to walk off that breakfast, we decided to try the subway.  Only $3 to ride; best deal in town!

We had a couple of missteps on the subway, but eventually made it to The American Museum of Natural History, on the west side of Central Park.  Talk about more overwhelment!  The huge building  consists of 4 floors of incredible artifacts.  Much too much to see in the limited time we had but we enjoyed what we saw, especially the model of a blue whale.

It was such a gorgeous day (around 64⁰) that we loved strolling back along and into the park to the John Lennon Memorial.

Strolling further along in the park, we decided we should take a carriage ride because the city is trying to shut them down due to a recent accident.  However, we later learned from a local resident that it is REALLY all about money.  There are some local investors who want to buy the land where the stable is located.  Go figure  …

While at the south end of the park, we stood in awe of the most expensive real estate ever sold in the US; the top 4 floors of 220 South Park South, owned by  hedgefund billionaire Ken Griffin (Citadel).  He’s 56 and single, ladies!

I’m starting to feel like a local, successfully navigating back to the St Regis.  Our intention was to go into the Old King Cole bar and try their signature Bloody Mary, which was invented there.  

But fate had a different experience in mind.  We arrived right at 6pm when they do their traditional (and unadvertised) champagne toast to welcome guests for the evening, just like Mrs Astor did every evening back in the day.

As we sipped our bubbles, a man sat down by us and started chatting.  Russ was a rich local who shows up every evening when hes not at his Boynton Beach home.  We had quite an interesting conversation which also led into politics.  We told Russ our intention was to go to the bar and have their famous Bloody Mary, but he advised us that they REALLY were not that good for $30.  So, we decided our private toast and meeting Russ was much more interesting, so we settled on just getting a picture of the Maxwell Parrish artwork above the very small and crowded bar.

Continuing our walk, we returned home by around 9pm and it felt great to shower and lie down.  We did just short of 16,000 steps today.  An easy day compared to yesterday, and am very happy to wrap up another blessed day in The Big Apple.

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