Day 9: I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!

While I'm sure there are more impressive views on Manhattan, I can't complain with the view out of our window on the 38th floor.

The city was no less amazing from ground level.

We kicked off in Times Square, Emma's grin firmly in place. Breakfast was in the Roxy Deli, a small cafe on Broadway, served by a waitress who was a 12th level adept in the art of Grumpy Waitressing. Unfortunately for her she was up against two 13th level adepts in the art of Being Charming. We had her smiling and chatting by the meal's end. Score one for the tourists.

Then we wandered up to Central Park. Our clothes and backpacks must have screamed "tourists, with wallets bulging with cash" as every twenty steps we had to beat off yet another person flogging bike hire, jazz clubs, pedi-cabs, comedy shows, horse-buggy rides, and the who knows what else. But we did it with 13^th level Charm.

Being a Saturday, Central Park was full of Halloween-themed activities for the kids, most of whom were in costume. Our favourite costume was a child dressed as a sushi roll. You just don't see much of that in Sydney.

There was also the chainsaw-wielding gorilla, which may or may not have been Halloween related. Hard to say. After all, this is New York.

And there were squirrels, hordes of them. You could walk from one end of Central Park to the other, squirrel to squirrel, without ever having to step on the ground.

We made it as far south as the Guggenheim, then cut over to Madison Avenue and headed back towards Times Square, finally finding a cafe that served the best coffee we'd had since hitting the US. Finally I had a decent cappucino, the antithesis of the one I had in the Macy's cafe in Honolulu. Sadly whoever made that coffee thought a cappucino was percolated coffee topped with froth.

Wrong. Horribly, tragically wrong. This coffee replaced that painful memory with a blissful one.

For fun we walked through some of the mega-expensive shops in 5th Avenue. I knew they'd be expensive, but didn't appreciate how expensive until I looked at the price tag for a coat in Barney's: $13,800. We wouldn't get $13,800 if we sold Emma's Toyota Echo, and she can't drive a coat.

We fled.

Eventually we made it to Saks 5th Avenue, where Emma bought a gorgeous coat at K-Mart prices. It's true: we could have bought the entire K-Mart store at Macquarie Centre for the same price.

Actually while it was expensive, it wasn't stupid expensive, and it is beautiful. It was worth it.

For the evening's entertainment we did what you do when you're in the theatre district: see a Broadway show. We settled on the Addams' Family, starring Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia. Thoroughly entertaining, and exceptionally funny. We laughed so much the woman in front of us spoke to us about it during the intermission - fortunately to say how much she enjoyed hearing us laugh.

We returned to our room to learn the Texas Rangers finally won a game in the World Series. Glad I missed that one.

An exceptional city. It gets better with every visit.