World's Biggest Picnic? (15th July)

This was our first real down-time in New York so far... the morning spent catching up on rest after the excitment of the last few days and taking care of laundry (as mentioned in the previous post). Not wanting to rub it in too too much for those back home - but with "real feel" temperatures of around 30 celcius, you tend to use up your shorts and singlets rather quickly! With Jason at work we explored Manhattan on our own, making our way to Grand Central Station (Shona being very impressed before we even got into the main room!), Times Square during the day (which is in the middle of trial traffic restrictions) and scoping out some presents for some very lucky people. An hour wandering through Central Park made the massive scale of it abundantly clear and we thought that there were a lot of people enjoying it at that time. There are heaps of people running and cycling or just lazing about on the grass! Buying picnic supplies with Jason at Whole Food was an eyeopening experience (translation: that place is chaos!) and anywhere that needs to annouce over a loud speaker which isle is free has got to be busy! Back into the park to meet Shannon and his friends we realised just how many people can enjoy the park at any given time as thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people crammed onto the Great Lawn and surrounds for the free concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Although we knew about it and Shannon 'got there early' to save a spot - we didn't even make it onto the Great Lawn that the orchestra was playing to. Luckily Jason found a better spot, so we looked out across Turtle Pond to the crowds and the sound quality made it all worth while. Plus we had fireflies dancing to the music too! After the concert we strolled back to Times Square to check it out at night with all the bright lights showing up in the dark. It was still crazy full of people! We had heaps of fun in the MnM's store trying to buy Emma some peanut butter MnM's. Turns out they have 3 floors with every product you can think of branded MnM, but not the bags you buy in the shops with actual MnM's. So Emma we are still looking for you...