My husband had never been to New York before, so we had to do a few of the "touristy" things while we were there. We went up the Empire State Building to catch some views of the city.

We had decided to spend the money ($30) to go all the way to the 102nd floor (there is also the main observatory on the 86th floor), but when we asked for tickets to the 102nd floor at the ticket window on the 2nd floor, we were sold regular tickets ($14) for the 86th floor observatory. We couldn't figure out what was going on - the clerk told us nothing, although there were signs all over the place saying "the 102nd floor observatory is now open!" We thought perhaps you bought a supplement when you got to the 86th floor, but according to their  website, that's not so.

It ended up not mattering. The views are great from the 86th floor - nothing else in that area is as high as the Empire State Building, so you get great views of the downtown skyline. One interesting fact that we learned is that you can see the location of 5 of the world's previously-tallest buildings from the Empire State Building... although two or three of them are no longer there.

We were at the Empire State Building on a Friday afternoon, and it was somewhat crowded. There was a bit of a wait for the elevators and we did have to fight our way to the rail on the observation deck. However, as everyone is constantly moving to get a different view, it wasn't a big deal - someone was always moving along so you could squeeze in fairly easily and quickly.

One note, though - if you think you'll need to use the bathroom, do it downstairs. The only women's restroom I found only had two stalls in it - and one of those was out of order when I was up there.

We enjoyed our visit to the Empire State Building, and even for an "old hand" like me, it was still fun to view the NYC skyline from the observatory.

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