Thursday 1st January 2004

We went back to Times Square via Grand Central to see what we hadn't seen on New Years Eve - the "ball". Well, we didn't see the ball, but we saw where it had been and realised we hadn't missed much. It was certainly more about the atmosphere.

Whilst there we saw some more American Culture - the Naked Cowboy. Unfortunately he wasn't completely naked, but we imagine that we didn't miss much given it was so so cold :-) (sorry, that was rated R in the USA and PG for all Australian readers). He sung a funny song ("I'm the naked cowboy" etc) and loved having people pose with him and have his photo taken (and he didn't want any money). We took a look in the ToysRUs, which was a huge store complete with a ferris wheel inside. It even had a full sized Barbie house, two stories high. We also visited the Hershey's store, which had huge copies of its famous chocolates outside.

We spent a couple of hours looking around the Museum of the Native American, one of the Smithsonian Institutions Museums. There was a fabulous exhibition of baskets, which we really admire - they are distinct in their design and construction, and are so well made that they are waterproof. We saw everything from tiny baskets the size of a thumb, to large platters and bowls. There were also nets for fishing, baskets for carrying children.

We then returned to the Rockerfeller Center to see the huge Christmas Tree and Ice Skating Rink, and all the other Christmas decorations. We looked around Macy's, the Largest Shop in the World, and at their Christmas display in the shop windows. We also bought 25 donut holes (about the size of golf balls) from Dunkin' Donuts for $2.99 - a bargain, as they lasted for a couple of meals.