What a long day I’d had so far.  It started early at the Natural History Museum and has been non-stop since.  Thankfully I was moving away from the busy area of Times Square as I walked towards my last penny machine.

Located on 5th Ave between 33rd and 34th Streets is one of many NYC souvenir stores.  This just is actually located right across the street from the Empire State Building which makes it a pretty busy location.

I’ve been up in the Empire State building in the past and it’s a really cool experience.  When you’re at the top in the Observation area you get the most amazing views of New York City, but be forewarned it does get pretty windy way up there.  On this trip I wasn’t heading up to the top but instead just to the gift shop across the street to use the penny machine located right outside on the sidewalk.

The machine itself had some really nice New York themed artwork, and especially liked the topper with the manhole cover stating Collectible Pennies.

The designs available at this location included the New York City Skyline, ESB (Empire State Building, the New York Yankees, and Ellis Island.  With this coins stored away I stood there for a few moments enjoying the fact that I had managed to visit all the places I had wanted to see.  I was also able to get almost all the pressed pennies I wanted and only missed 3 sets due to broker machines.  Not too shabby.

My cousin had sent me a few txt messages as they had spent most of their day visiting Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  He then walked across the Brooklyn bridge and back to the Manhattan side which is where I ended up meeting him right near New York City Hall.  We sat on some benches near a few street performers and watched the show while getting caught up on things since our last visit together.  With the sun starting to go down we headed to the subway station and took a train over to Brooklyn and came up to street level right by the Barclays Center.

Once the gates opened we headed inside and made our way to our seats.  This was my first time visiting this new arena and it was beautiful.  Really a great place to watch a hockey game.

The New York Islanders were playing the Buffalo Sabres and for most of the game it was close.  But by the end the Sabres had pulled out the win with a 2-1 final score.

It had been a really long and busy day.  Unfortunately we still had about a 2 hour commute back to Jersey before I finally got into bed.  Luckily I had taken the next day off from work so I was planning on sleeping as long as possible.

Sometimes I think I overdo these trips with trying to fit too many places into one day, but as I heard my pocket jingling with all those new pressed coins I knew I had made the right choice.  My feet were going to be killing me for the next few days, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.