Laura and I had a full day open, so we decided to embrace our poverty and play tourist.
CHEAP books: The Strand in Union Square (www.strandbooks.com) claims to have 18 miles of books and I believe them. You could easily spend half a day trolling the four floors of books that are stacked higher than Yao Ming. The Strand was recently featured in "Julie and Julia" and "Gossip Girl". We both walked away with books. I spent a total of $5.
FREE boat ride: The Staten Island Ferry is a 5-mile, 25 minute boat ride from the southern tip of Manhattan to Staten Island (obviously). It was built to transport Staten Islanders to their jobs in Manhattan, for our tourist purposes (and for the bajillion other tourists today) it gave us a great view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan (and provided a breeze in the 95 degree heat- bah!).
CHEAP pizza: Starving and sweating, we grabbed lunch at Pranzo (34 Water Street). For less than $5 I got a coke and a delicious eggplant pizza roll and Laura got two slices that were bigger than her head.
FREE shade: Waaaaay uptown (105th and 5th Ave) is the entrance to the Central Park Conservatory Garden. At six-acres, it is the only formal garden in Central Park. We took our books and a blanket and found some shade..... And I found a nap.
This picture is from the South English-style garden. What you can see is the Burnett Fountain: based on characters from The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett the fountain was designed and constructed in 1936 by Bessie Potter Vonnoh. It is surrounded by a reflecting pool upon which float hundreds of water lilies
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