(Tiffany & I outside Fraunces Tavern after lunch!)Ever since Jon and I moved to NYC - we've been talking with our friends Gary & Tiffany about doing a downtown New York tourist day. After two years of talking about it last Saturday we actually did it! We started out with lunch at Fraunces Tavern. This was an establishment frequented by General George Washington himself. He was good friends with the then owner and this building was used for many secret meetings. He gave his farewell address to his officers on the eve of his retirement on December 4, 1783. It's a pretty historic place. We went there for lunch and ate in the Tavern side. It was pretty empty, which I wasn't that surprised by. What did surprise us was the quality of the food. We were expecting an over-priced tourist trap and while it was a little overpriced I have to say that the Turkey Club was amazing!!! I would definitely go back there again - I love being that close to history.
(Jon and I standing where George Washington was inaugurated as the 1st President of the United States.)After that we mosied on down past the Stock Exchange to the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the 1st President of theUnited States. We stood up on the stairs and imagined what it must have been like with the streets lined with people during the birth of our Nation. Pretty powerful stuff!
(A View of Trinity Church from Wall Street.)Then we headed up to Trinity Church. This building used to be the tallest building in New York prior to the building of the skyscrapers. Pretty crazy to think about now! The church on the inside is beautiful but very small. Much smaller than I was expecting. We went in and walked around and then spent some time meandering through the graveyard. Alexander Hamilton and Robert Foulton (inventor of the Steam Ship) are both buried here so we found their tombs and read a few others.
(Jon, myself, Tiffany & Gary with the bull!)We then of course went and got our picture taken with the Bull! He looks pretty angry. The main purpose of our day was that we were going to visit the Skyscraper Museum over in Battery Park. It was only $5 to get in but once inside we understood why. It's pretty small, just one floor, and we were unfortunately disappointed. Don't get me wrong we were glad we went because we would have wondered what it was like, but it didn't live up to our expectations. I thought there would be all these great exhibits on the building of the skyscrapers in NYC during the early 1900's. You know all those old pictures of the guys sitting way up in the sky on those beams seeming to not have a care in the world??? Instead there was none of that and the whole museum is a visiting exhibit. So the exhibit we saw was about Hong Kong and how it compared to New York - which is the Skyscraper capital of the world. We're all glad we went but it's not something we would recommend.
Afer that we walked down to Wagner Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. We went to Gigino a little restaurant right there with outdoor seating and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and bruschetta (delish!) It was a nice way to end the day with great conversation, great friends, great wine, and great views! I think that Jon and I may have to go back there this summer for dinner because the food looked amazing.
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Have you spent time exploring downtown NYC? If so, what's your favorite thing to do downtown?
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