Float like a Ben

Is it not amazingly clever that, via the power of the interwebs, I can print off a voucher in deepest Oxfordshire which I can then show to a nice American weeks later and thousands of miles away, and it means something? Yesterday, the Empire State Building and the uptown loop of the hop on/hop off bus tour. This morning, the helicopter ride from the Downtown Heliport at pier 6.

Sadly the system falls down if too many other people have had the same idea. After the ride we walked down to Battery Park to catch the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise. Turned out that we had to be at the far end of Battery Park. Looked at the queue and thought ... nah. Determined to do some floating on something, I decreed we would walk back to the Staten Island ferry (which is at this end of Battery Park). Was persuaded by Bonusbarn that this wasn't actually necessary and could we have some lunch. Walked back into Battery Park, the way we had come, to a lunch stand.

So we did a lot of walking. Not very American, I know. (Mind you, yesterday we walked up 6 floors of the Empire State Building. A lift gets you to the 80th floor when you have the choice of transferring to another to take you to the observation deck on the 86th - and waiting about 20 minutes - or walking. So we walked.) And then, back to the hotel to explore the delights of the 27th floor swimming pool. So I finally floated in something and everyone's happy.