Going East: City Lights From Up High

After dinner, we headed out to what fittingly was our last NY excursion - going up the Empire State Building. 

The subway we took had very cool mosaic work to go with the stop's name. 

And soon, in the dark of night, we arrived (does the Empire State Building at night remind anyone else of "Sleepless in Seattle"?)

I can only imagine that this was much less crowded than during the day (it was around 10pm), though there was still a bit of line as we snaked through the ground floor of the building. 

Now, I am not an elevator person, so I was a bit concerned about this activity. It didn't help that the lines and interior reminded me of the tower of terror. 

But, these elevators are probably the speediest and smoothest rides around; in two short elevator trips up, we were soon viewing the city lights from 81 stories off the ground.

Pictures simply do not do it justice. It was breathtaking to see this city from this height, with all the twinkling lights below. 

If you can tell, it was incredibly windy and cool up there, but we didn't mind (too much). 

We looked for some of the well known landmarks, and weren't disappointed.

Took a quick self portrait to show we were really there.

We took in one last view straight down that was enough to make anyone weak at the knees. I'm actually better with heights than Ed, and this made him a little nervous. For me, having it dark made the height seem less scary.

And, after 30 minutes saying goodbye to this beautiful city, it was time to head back down. 

As we slowly  made our way back to the hotel, amidst the hustle and bustle that still is happening at 11:30 at night, we reflected back on part two of our wonderful vacation, excited for what was still to come. 

We set our alarms for 5am, and quickly and thankfully fell asleep.