Dear Friends:
Two weeks, my family and I spent the week traveling down the East Coast of the U.S. In the last blog post, we covered our time in Boston. This post is about our stop in New York City.
We took the train, because we wanted the kids to experience that form of transportation, and to see a little more of the countryside - without having to keep our eyes on the road. We had a great time on the train, and finally arrived at Penn Station. It was time to explore Manhattan, and for the kids to see some of the incredible sights there.
Our first stop was Rockefeller Center - made famous in so many movies and TV shows. It wasn't cold enough for the ice skating rink, but the place looked amazing, as usual:
We tried really hard to get a picture with everyone in focus. We weren't terribly successful. I guess my arms aren't a good substitute for a "selfie stick":
Just walking through the streets was fun. G-Man kept trying to tell us that he smelled something "funny", but we told him that's the way New York always smells ; )
We found the NBC Store and wanted to see what they had. I ended up with this cool souvenir from the Jimmy Fallon show. I love the bit with Hashtag the Panda:
Next door was Nintendo World. G-Man wouldn't let us go past, without stopping inside. I didn't put up much of a fight:
Upstairs, they had a mini museum of old Nintendo systems. I was looking at the Gameboy portion, remembering how much I've spent on these devices over the years.
With the sun setting, we made our way to Times Square, so the kids could see all the lights. These days, it's basically a series of gigantic, enormous video screens - everywhere you look. Still impressive, though:
The kids asked to go to the Disney Store on Times Square. We had a lot of fun in there - the kids wandered through all of the displays. I found a wall of brand-new toys from the upcoming Star Wars movie. I simply couldn't pass up this figure collection ; )
We returned to the hotel, where the kids discovered a unique couch in the lobby. They thought they were pretty funny...I have to agree:
The next day was actually my birthday - my 50th birthday! My family did a good job of trying to celebrate it in a hotel room away from home:
Because this was going to be our only day for sight-seeing, we grabbed the kids and headed out to some choice locations. We started with Grand Central Station:
We then made our way on the subway to Battery Park. We have been trying to help G-Man understand what happened on 9/11. We started with this globe that was retrieved from the World Trade Center rubble:
The kids were most excited about seeing the Statue of Liberty. I think they were a little disappointed that it looked so small from Manhattan. We didn't have time to take the ferry boat ride out to the island:
At Battery Park, they had a collection of globes set-up for display. Many were colorful and artistic. I liked this one a lot:
Looking up from the globes, you could see the new Freedom Tower (aka One World Trade Center), built right next to where the old World Trade Center used to be:
This building is really, really tall. It's the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, and currently the 5th tallest building in the world:
We walked the distance to the 9/11 Memorial. It's an amazing structure, reminding all of the sacrifices made that day. We talked about the fact that for my generation - and perhaps the one right after - this will be like "the day that President Kennedy was shot" for the previous generation. You remember exactly where you were, when it happened. The memorial is massive in size - equivalent to the size of the original World Trade Center towers. You can start to get a perspective on the side, by looking at the people on the far side of the picture:
There are two of these - one for each tower. It's humbling. Next to it is a museum (closed) that looks like the original tower, but fallen on its side:
We were back on the subway. This time, our youngest daughter decided to lick the wall of the subway car. The bacterial horror is still hard to get out of my mind. She had to learn....
We traveled all the way uptown, to see the LDS New York Temple - an oasis of peace in a very noisy city. I love this sacred building, right in the middle of a crazy metropolis:
We then walked to Central Park, the last stop for our sight-seeing that day. We let the kids play on an awesome playground. It was such a gorgeous day...so we decided to take the kids on a traditional horse-carriage ride through the park:
On our long walk back to the hotel, we kept running into crowds along the streets. Pope Francis was visiting New York City that day, and thousands had lined the streets to see him arrive. Security was CRAZY:
Not only was the Pope in town, but he was addressing the United Nations Assembly. Many world leaders, including President Obama, were there. We saw lots of demonstrations. This group was pro-Egyptian, located right across the street from the Egyptian president's hotel.
I actually witnessed a fist-fight that broke out between pro and anti-Egyptian groups. Never a dull moment in New York!
That night, my wife and I went to the theater. We stopped at Junior's, a famous NY restaurant that specialized in cheesecake. Can you see the "Diabetic Friendly" cheesecake on the menu? Is there such a thing??
My wife really wanted to see Hamilton - a truly unique show. It was a fusion of hip-hop, pop, blues and traditional Broadway tunes...all telling the life story of Alexander Hamilton. Crazy, right?
Well, I can tell you that it totally worked. The show was stunning. I loved that they found a fresh way to tell the story of one of our Founding Fathers. My favorite was a rap battle that took place in Washington's cabinet over state debt and the emerging Federal banking system. Mind-blowing ; )
Sadly, we departed the next day. I managed to grab my favorite hot dog - Nathan's on the way out of town. Phew! Another checklist item crossed-off ; )
We boarded the train for Washington, D.C. - our next destination!!
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