We got a bit of a later start this morning, going out around 9.30am. It was Chris’s birthday, but he’s still not completely 100%, poor mite. Despite spending the last 72 hours with him, I haven’t yet - touch wood - caught whatever he’s got. As long as I can get through the majority of the week healthily, I won’t complain. In the meantime, he’s taking some Tylenol cough/cold syrup at 4 hour intervals.

We headed down Avenue U and had breakfast bagels at a Dunkin’ Donuts we’d passed on the way back last night before catching the Q train. The weather isn’t fantastic at the moment - slightly drizzly and cold enough that I bought a big furry hat on Fifth Avenue. After failing to find the Empire State Building yesterday, we finally tracked it down with the help of the Lonely Planet guide. The queues are a bit of a pain, but we got to the 86th floor and out onto the observatory into snow flurries (!) to admire the view. We could just about see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, which we’ll be visiting later in the week, but the view of the rest of Manhattan was just fine, including landmarks like the Chrysler Building and the Flatiron Building. Unfortunately, it was a bit too cold to stay up there for long.

We headed further down 5th Avenue to get a closer look at the Flatiron Building around 19th Street, then turned around again to walk back north. We’d arranged to stand in front of a webcam for Dad’s benefit at 3pm, and had to be at 5th and 45 by then - 26 blocks, or around 1.5 miles. Easy normally - not so fast in a city the size and population of New York! Cafe 28 offered a welcome break for lunch. The New York Public Library with its gorgeous architecture was great for me, and offered Chris a chance to write a postcard to a friend in California. Just a block away from 45th, Best Buy let us kill some time in the last half hour browsing DVDs and games - although we refrained from blowing our money! We were at the corner right as scheduled, and hung around for 10 minutes or so, letting Dad get the picture he wanted.

Cold from hanging around, we continued north up 5th Avenue, through the expensive and prestigious part of the road, passing by shops like Prada, Gucci, Saks, and Cartier. We went briefly into Saks, and felt woefully inadequate looking at Burberry and La Croix scarves with price tags of $250 upwards. They do have a very pretty Swarovski crystal Christmas star, though (which I felt too hesitant about taking a picture of, lest they looked down their noses at me at such gauche behaviour!). It would have been interesting to go into Cartier, but it seemed like a dress code or status sort of place, and in our furry hats we might have looked a bit out of place! Instead, we went into Gap and I came out with two much more reasonably priced tops.

We made it was far north as 56th Street and the Apple store and FAO Schwarz, and our feet were about ready to give out on us. Dinner and drinks were definitely called for, which meant trudging back to 49th Street and TGI Fridays - much welcomed food and relaxation.

We also stumbled upon Bryant Park on the way back to the subway station at 42nd Street - a pretty little place with an ice rink (which you wouldn’t catch me on, ever) and some markety stalls. Great views of the tops of the skyscrapers at night too.

Tomorrow’s plans - Rockefeller Plaza and Top of the Rock, the Chrysler Building, and Times Square.