Our second mini trip was to New York City. We ended up staying in a hotel in New Jersey, about thirty minutes from the City. It was right next to a Ruby Tuesday's and around the bend from the movies, so we saw Ratatouille the first night we were there. It was a great trip.
Ready to go.....
Waiting in line for lunch
We are on our way!
Somehow we missed the I-295 exit and ended up taking a scenic route through Pennsylvania.....
Finally in New Jersey!
We love staying at these hotels
We were close to the Newark Airport.....
Jumping on the bed!
Noah on the elevator
The hotel lobby.....
Chillaxing at the hotel pool and hot tub
Heading into the City on the first day. The Lincoln tunnel was exactly 3.8 miles long and the traffic was bumper to bumper, but it moved along well so I was able to deal with it. Claustrophobic, much?
New York City traffic. We even had a cabbie bump us along so he could get by a bit faster.
Rockefeller Center. We all want to come back at Christmas time to see the tree and skate on the ice rink.
A two-story NBA store.....
Devin wanted to see the World of Disney Store. Here are some photos.....
Minnie Liberty
PIRATES!
One of Cody's favs - hope he's saving his money!
The name says it all! We had to see the biggest toy store in the City!
A giant octopus attacks Rick!
It's CandyLand!
Devin and some furry friends
Some really cool Lego creations.....
Lego World.....
Playing the giant piano.....
In case you had some pocket change and room for the piano at home
Josh waiting to leave the toy store
Central Park Pictures.....
Noah napping New York City style......
Entering M&M World - the kiddos favorite place! Where the M&Ms are $9 a lb.!
A hunk, a hunk of chocolate love
If only M&Ms were really that big and chocolatey!
Me and my twin M&M
Devin and her twin M&M
Cody and his twin M&M
(Noah napped all the way through M&M world!)
Broadway pictures.....
Pictures of Times Square - Rick's favorite place.....
New York City skyline
Some random pics from breakfast.....
.....appparently Kari and Noah enjoyed the continental style better than Josh!
Our last day consisted of seeing the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and the Empire State Building.
Heading into the Holland Tunnel
Inside the Holland Tunnel
Kari wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. We got to the ferry as early as we could and still had an hour wait to get tickets and a two hour wait to get on the ferry. We opted to take pcitures from the shore instead and Kari was fine with that (luckily).
Lady Liberty.....
A couple of cool shots of a butterfly and a squirrel that like to hang out by Lady Liberty
The kiddos wanted to run through the fountain. I was sure they weren't allowed to, so I mentioned loudly by a nearby police officer that it probably wasn't a good idea. But, he said it was fine, since it was a pool type fountain and they weren't wanting to wade in it. So glad I asked.....
(Rick actually ran through the fountain, too and he and Kari were the wettest!)
Rick took this picture to show me that my hair wasn't totally flat after the fountain shot out a bucket load of water and dropped it on my head
Noah put his own shoes on after changing his wet clothes
A group shot after getting wet and proof that we were definetely tourists. Not sure what Cody is grumping about, though
We could have taken the Subway, but Devin and I protested loudly about it. It stinks being so claustrophobic sometimes.....
We decided to see Ground Zero, a place Cody wanted to see, after playing in the fountains. We stopped in a Tribute Center across from the site. It was a very quiet place.....
The firefighter's helmet was found two weeks after he was. The jacket was torn from bottom to top and signifies what so many people went through on 9/11 - their lives were literally torn apart and changed forever
A wall of the names of the victims of 9/11. This was especially hard for me when I found the name 'Richard B. Hall'. It was so close to Rick's name that I started to cry thinking that was someone's husband, Daddy, son, friend......
A wall of pictures of the victims of 9/11
A picture a child drew of the events of 9/11 and the Towers
A quilt sent to NYC from an elementary school across the USA
These colorful origami swans hung from the ceiling as we walked to the basement of the tribute center
A tribute to 9/11 in the basement of the memorial
Some views of Ground Zero (the first one is in front of the Engine house across the street from the Towers)
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This is on the wall of the Engine house as you walk up the side street to Ground Zero.
A tribute to firefighters from the Engine house that lost their lives on 9/11
The Engine house right across the street from the Towers
We wondered if the station was still in operation and as we headed for lunch we found out the answer. An engine was returning from a call. It was very sombering to us to see the engine returning to the station.
After seeing Ground Zero we wanted to get lunch somewhere that we could only eat in NYC. We decided to eat at this cafe, just doors down from the firestation and across the street from Ground Zero, literally a few feet away from where the Twin Towers once stood.
We asked the gentleman who waited on us if he had been at the cafe on 9/11 and he whispered, "Yes, it was a very terrible day". We couldn't even imagine being that close to so much tragedy.
Some mementos in the cafe from 9/11
After talking to the kiddos about how valuable the police and fire fighters were on 9/11 it was nice to have one stop and talk to Kari and Noah. Noah was in awe of him shaking his hand
Rick thought this billboard was hilarious. We still haven't seen the movie
Josh wanted to see the Empire State Building and Rick was getting sick all day just thinking about the height factor of seeing the sight. Luckily for him, the expense and wait to see the sight had us shopping for souveniors instead.
The Empire State Building
After much delibration and realizing that anything else we could have done in the City would have cost us too much money we decided to leave before rush hour. Apparently rush hour starts a bit earlier in the City. Luckily, we had cabbies to cut us off and truck drivers to flip us off and keep us entertained. I never relized someone could or would actually lay on their horn for 20 mintues straight. At least it drowned out the profanity he was spewing.
This sign made us laugh and then cry as we sat in traffic for over an hour
We thought this sign was a bit amusing and probably hard to enforce in bumper to bumper hour long traffic jams
A picture inside the tunnel
Even though it took a while to get out of the city, it was an enjoyable trip. And we even found the right way home and missed the scenic route through Philly.
