Grand Central Tour

Saturday we had a fun afternoon exploring Grand Central.  It's been crazy cold around here, so an inside activity that was outside of our apartment was definitely appealing.  We've been on a severe weather alert again, but luckily it wasn't like our hurricane last year.  Anyway, this has been the centennial year for Grand Central, so I snagged a Groupon for the audio tour.  After Chase had a nap and lunch, we headed into the city.  

Chase was definitely warm and ready to go.
And yes, his hat has a mustache on it.  Pretty sweet.  (Thanks Bri.)

And of course, he was very vocal about the whole experience :)

 Our first stop when we arrived at Grand Central was the Transit Museum to check out the Holiday Train Show.  We had hoped Chase would enjoy the model of the city with actual trains circling around to the North Pole.  He loved it.  We have lots of pictures of the day because Marcus brought our camera, so enjoy ;)

Haha.  Loved it.

Looking at the city.

Looking toward the city model.

A movie clip Marcus put together:

Next we headed downstairs to the dining concourse to grab some lunch.  We were planning on just a banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery but ended up with burgers from Shake Shack.  Yum.  (Don't worry, we did grab a banana pudding before we headed home.)

And then we were ready for our tour of Grand Central Terminal.  I learned that Grand Central Station is just the lingo for the subway section of it, so I'll have to work on using the correct names :)  The audio tour was actually pretty interesting, and after the inauguration of our new mayor, I was actually pleased to hear Bloomberg's voice again.  Haha.  I couldn't believe the tiny details in the architecture, history, and Vanderbilt family.  Marcus took a few pictures around the terminal, so here are just a few of those.

The clock on the information booth that's always exactly correct.

The ceiling that is actually painted backwards.
The Vanderbilts claim it was correct because it's showing God's perspective of the stars...

The amazing chandeliers.
These don't have covers over the lightbulbs because when they were hung electricity and lightbulbs were new.  They wanted to show off :)

The tour was really fun, but I guess Marcus and I are just big nerds because we always enjoy a good audio tour.  Chase also seemed to have a good afternoon.  Obviously the highlight for him was the trains, but he was really well behaved and happy the entire time.  Love that little boy.  And we love getting to know our city.