Monday, July 09, 2007

New York City - Day One

I'm finally getting around to the long awaited New York City post. I'm a little concerned the anticipation has continued to build and you will be left sorely disappointed. And I'm going to do the visit in two parts. Day One and Day Two for your reading convenience.

We left the house about 9:00 Thursday morning. We had originally thought to leave about 7:00, but decided that traffic was as good an excuse as any to sleep a little later.

Our first destination was the Trenton, New Jersey train station and we made it within an hour. Trying to figure out where to park and all that added on to our time, but we just didn't care. We were spending the night in New York City!!

We've decided the ferry is really the way to go, though I did enjoy all the reading time I had on the train. An hour and a half after departing Trenton we arrived at Penn Station and walked the 8 blocks or so to the hotel. It was too early to check in, but we dropped off our bags, ate some lunch and took off through Times Square, walking to Rockefeller Plaza. The ice skating rink doubles for an outside cafe in the summer.


From there we hit the Disney Store because Katie needed a pirate costume for VBS next week. Not that she wanted to go to the Disney Store. It's just that it was a necessity. We passed this on our way:


Walked a few more blocks to FAO Schwarz, but didn't stay very long. After that we were tired and needed a good sit. So we took a carriage ride around the lower half of Central Park. This would be our view:


We may have seen more than just that, but I didn't do so great with the camera this trip.

Enough time had passed that we could check into the room so we caught the subway at Columbus Circle and got off at 42nd and 8th - a half a block from the hotel. We checked in, ooo'd and ahhh'd over the luxurious beds and view of the Empire State Building, or its spire at least:



After cooling off and resting we decided we'd better head out for dinner before the coming storm hit. We walked up to Hard Rock Cafe and, once again, I stunned and amazed my daughter by knowing just about every band they showed videos for - from the early 80's to this year. Okay. "Stunned and amazed" is probably overstated. Alright. Truth be told I only managed to stun and amaze myself. She didn't seem to care.

It hadn't started raining yet so we went further up Times Square until we got to Maxies. There we ordered a fudge marble cheesecake to go.

Two things New York City has more than its share of are Duane Reade pharmacies and Starbucks. So we stopped in one of the many Starbucks we passed for a yummy beverage as an accompaniment to our delicious cheesecake. Then we ran into a Duane Reade (this is probably the first time I've ever actually meant "ran" as we were still trying to beat the storm) for bottled water and plastic forks.

We made it back to the hotel just as it started to sprinkle. Up to the room, change into our comfy jammies and share the cheesecake.


You can tell how excited we were because I completely forgot to take a picture until after we'd started.

After the filling repast we ordered a movie "Are We Done Yet", got snug in our beds and laughed our heads off. Then it was a good night's sleep and our adventure started back up Friday morning.

More to come...

Labels: food, fun, kids, movies, touristy, weather

Mused by Jenster :: 2:07 PM :: 23 People musing:

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