Simon is a very smart kid who likes to be funny. One of his jokes is to call various buildings by the wrong name. For instance he would insist that the Empire State Building was called the Citi building. Since this is factually untrue, and I do want to make sure he knows the right names we made a deal. If he could learn the right names of all the buildings (Empire State, Chrysler, Citi, Freedom Tower) that we can see from our balcony we would visit the top of the Empire State Building. That took about 24 hours – or let’s be honest, 10 minutes – and he earned the trip. We cashed in on Labor Day.
Now if you’ve ever visited there is a looooong wait. However, 8am on a holiday weekday you can breeze right through. Rob and I had never been to the 102 floor so we paid for the upgrade, and kids 5 and under are free, so winning. Simon was a bit disappointed we couldn’t take the stairs all the way up, but then the elevator showed a movie of the building being built on the ceiling so all was well. Then the elevator to the 102 floor is an original manually operated Otis elevator, so that was also fun for both boys.
It was a perfect day for it. The sky was clear and it wasn’t to cold or windy. We took our time looking around. And saw something REALLY exciting. Can you see it?
The red circle. That’s our apartment building! I’m not super surprised since we have a straight view of the Empire State Building, it makes sense that there is a view of our building too. But still, pretty cool we were able to pick it out.
How long is the elevator ride to the 102 floor? I can’t imagine!
It’s pretty fast. The first elevator from floor 2 – 80 is under a minute according to the website (I had to look it up) but I was going to guess 45 seconds. Then a short one to the main deck on 86. Then the Otis up to 102 – that one is probably 30 seconds or so.