After three days in Washington, D.C., we paid approximately three zillion dollars in tolls (seriously, what's with all the tolls) and drove into NYC.Yep, you heard me right...we DROVE into NEW YORK CITY! I tried to figure out lots of ways to keep that from happening. I researched trains from Washington, flights, driving most of the way and parking just outside the city, hiring us each a private unicorn to take us there, teleporting, etc, etc, etc. In the end, driving our own car in just made the most sense for lots of reasons. We were very pleasantly surprised to find our hotel quickly and avoid a whole lot of city driving. We used the valet parking at the hotel, and it was worth every expensive penny. We stayed at
Four Points By Sheraton Midtown - Times Square in case you are interested. It was very nice and an excellent location.
We did a lot of sightseeing in Times Square the first day.
We had fun at the giant Toys R Us (with a ferris wheel inside), the Hershey's store, the M&M store, and lots of other places in Times Square.
We were really hungry and didn't really have a food plan in place. So unlike me I might add...I always have a food plan! We happened upon
Guy Fieri's restaurant, so we decided to check it out.
The kids loved their hamburgers (which is good because we had to spend their college savings to pay for them).
My pasta dish was really good too! That being said, I probably wouldn't go back. There's so many options in NYC!
We went to the Empire State Building.
Parker and Claire were excited to see the place where they filmed that scene from "Elf".
Of course, we had to go to Macy's. The windows were decorated so beautifully. I bet they are so gorgeous at Christmastime. The store itself was huge!
One the first evening, we had our first experience with New York Pizza. And I fell in love. True love forever.
On our second day, we wanted to see some sites that were far away from Times Square. We managed to figure out how to purchase subway tickets and which train to board. Keep in mind, we just came from Washington where we rode the Metro lots and lots for several days. With no problems at all.
So we rode the Subway down to the financial district where we visited the 911 Memorial, One World Trade Center, New York Stock Exchange, and the Raging Bull.
Then we made our way over to the ferry for The Statue of Liberty.
After seeing the statue, we jumped back on the subway to head back towards the hotel. That's where this story gets interesting. Our children will probably only remember one event from this whole entire trip for the rest of their lives. Witnessing lots of different cultures and interesting people is to be expected when visiting a big city and certainly when riding a subway, and we had prepared them for that. We encountered a very angry man who shouted very, VERY ugly and inappropriate words and phrases for most of our trip back. The kids were scared, and we were all very ready to get off when we finally made it to our stop.
We loved the pizza so much the first day (when we all just shared one piece to see what it was like). Pizza for dinner was clearly an excellent choice! It was just as good as the first day, maybe even better. So my affection deepened. I have no doubt that there will be NYC pizza in heaven. (And Krispy Kreme doughnuts. And Aussie cheese fries. But that's beside the point.)
After our nutritious meal, we walked to Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, The Today Show Plaza, and visited the studios where several shows are filmed (like The Tonight Show).
The highlight of our whole trip was that night when we went to see Les Miserables on Broadway. Our kids (and we) have seen it several times, but not in NYC. (Actually, I did see it when I was a senior in high school in NYC, but I slept through it. I know. It's a sad story.)
It was truly amazing!
One our last day, we just walked around the city some more. We may or may not have had one more piece of pizza. (I'm not kidding people. The struggle is real.)
Then, because I wanted to drive across the Brooklyn Bridge and because my husband loves me a whole lot, we drove all the way across the city. It wasn't awful (says the person who wasn't driving), but I probably wouldn't recommend it. Nobody seems to follow any driving rules and there are cars AND PEOPLE everywhere to watch for and hopefully not hit.
It was fun to drive over the bridge on our way to Coney Island.
Coney Island pictures up next...