Well, our DC days came to an end. It was time to head North to New York. We decided to take a bus. It was cheaper than renting a car, and we thought it may be easier as well. Don't know if it was or not, by the time we took subways to and from the bus stations, but it worked.
I found out just how prone to motion sickness I was. When it was time to board the double-decker "Megabus," as we were handing our luggage over to be placed under the bus, the kids headed straight up the stairs of the bus, to the top level, all the way in the back--the worst place to sit on a bus if you're one that gets carsick! Ha ha. Thanks, kids! The queasiness overcame me before we even left the city! I had to leave my family on the top floor and find a seat on the bottom, next to a window. Needless to say, it was a long four hours. The yucky tummy did feel a little better after time, but the New York skyline was a welcome site at the end of the ride. Not only because we were at the end of our ride, but because this was NEW YORK CITY!! None of us had ever been there, other than on layovers in the airport. We were so excited!
The bus dropped us off six blocks away from Time Square, where we had to go to get on the subway line that would take us to Brooklyn, where our apartment waited for us.
Have you ever drug your luggage through Times Square with your family? Ha ha! This was quite the experience. Jeremy put his bag on top of mine and drug it himself so that I could hang onto Bennett. This is not a place you would want to loose a child!
Meanwhile, the two teens and I stopped for a bite to eat, then headed to the other end of Manhattan to China Town to do a little shopping. Sadie carried our nicer clothes around with her in her backpack and Landon wore his nice shirt all day so that we wouldn't have to go all the way back to the apartment to get ready for the show that evening. It worked. We didn't take any pictures there, but we really had fun walking through the little shops. We got t-shirts, a purse for our babysitter and Sadie got a good deal on some perfume that she's been wanting.
After our shopping excursion, we met up with the boys, then walked a while, then stopped at an Old Navy in the Soho area so that the teens and I could change into our nicer clothes. After getting spiffed up a bit, we hopped on the train to head uptown again. Time to see Times Square at night time!
These characters were so eager to have us take pictures with them. We were so naive. Elmo loves tips! Of course.
The kids LOVED Times Square at night. What a cool place!
When it was time to go to Phantom, we parted ways. The teens and I went into the beautiful theater and enjoyed an incredible show! Phantom wasn't our first choice, but it was much more affordable than Lion King or Wicked. So that's the one we saw. It certainly didn't disappoint! Wow. Just wow. That's all we could say.
When we came out of the play, we went back to the main Times Square area and walked around for a while, taking in the tourist shops. The weather was cool and perfect. We had so much fun that night. This will always be a fond memory. Spending the night out in THE city with my two oldest.
We made it back to the apartment around 1:00 or so, then crashed. What a day!
The next day was our last in NYC. We decided to spend it in lower Manhattan: The 9-11 memorial and Battery Park.
I love these pictures that I snuck with my phone on the subway.
Check out the variety of people next to Landon.
The two dudes on either side of him look very annoyed at me and the other guy was picking his nose. LOL I was hoping they didn't notice me taking a picture, but it looks like they did. Woops! And here I am posting their pictures on the Internet. Ooooops!
We encountered some long lines at the 9-11 memorial site. But it was worth the wait to spend some time on that hallowed ground. Walking down the streets that surrounded the WTC, we imagined all the debris rushing down the streets and the people running for their lives. It's hard to fathom what took place here on that fateful day.
The construction of the new World Trade Center is well underway. The first tower is almost done and the others are coming soon. We had never seen such a tall building in our lives!
Next stop: Battery Park. So disappointing that The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are both closed this summer. They are being renovated after sustaining damage in last October's hurricane. Well, it was still pretty cool to see it from far away.
Bennett is at that age where, if there is something to climb on or in, he has to stop and do it! Here he is in the old fort. Jeremy is not sure if he should be climbing on it or not...better get down, Bennett!
We spent some time just relaxing at this park, looking out on the bay. The weather was a little cooler than we had planned, but it felt good to just sit for a while.
Jeremy and I tried to talk the kids into taking a trip to Central Park that afternoon, but none of them wanted to do any more sightseeing. You don't go to NYC and not see Central Park! Bummer.
So...we can now say we've been to "the city." What a cool experience that was for the kids, to see what city life is all about, first hand, and even live amongst the locals for a few days. We're so glad we got to do this. Next post: Upstate NY. Only 2 more days left of this fabulous trip. It's been fun to go back and blog about it. You forget about all the little frustrating things and the bickering that goes on between the kids. That's the great thing about family vacations. :)
I found out just how prone to motion sickness I was. When it was time to board the double-decker "Megabus," as we were handing our luggage over to be placed under the bus, the kids headed straight up the stairs of the bus, to the top level, all the way in the back--the worst place to sit on a bus if you're one that gets carsick! Ha ha. Thanks, kids! The queasiness overcame me before we even left the city! I had to leave my family on the top floor and find a seat on the bottom, next to a window. Needless to say, it was a long four hours. The yucky tummy did feel a little better after time, but the New York skyline was a welcome site at the end of the ride. Not only because we were at the end of our ride, but because this was NEW YORK CITY!! None of us had ever been there, other than on layovers in the airport. We were so excited!
The bus dropped us off six blocks away from Time Square, where we had to go to get on the subway line that would take us to Brooklyn, where our apartment waited for us.
Have you ever drug your luggage through Times Square with your family? Ha ha! This was quite the experience. Jeremy put his bag on top of mine and drug it himself so that I could hang onto Bennett. This is not a place you would want to loose a child!
Eventually, we found the subway station that we needed and somehow figured out how to buy tickets and get on the right train. After a 15 minute subway ride, we found ourselves in the Bedford Struyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, where our cute Brownstone apartment waited for our arrival. I found this apartment on a vacation rentals website called VRBO. It was so expensive to stay in Manhattan, this made more sense.
Not only was it about half the cost, but we got to experience life on Sesame Street.
OK, not really, but it felt like it! Every day on our short walk from the Subway station to our apartment, we saw older men hanging out playing chess and younger men playing basketball in the park. We bought our groceries at a little corner market and did our laundry in a little Laundromat. We lived like the locals. For the first day or two, we felt a little unsafe, but the apartment manager assured us that this was a very sought-after, safe neighborhood in Brooklyn. We heard sirens and horns honking all night long, but we just trusted that this guy knew what he was talking about.
The apartment itself was probably 80 years old. I wish I had taken more pictures of it. It was so charming. Bennett and Landon both enjoyed sitting out on the fire escape watching people. There was an elementary school right across the street, where school was still in session, so we got to watch the kids play outside at recess time.
That whole day, we somehow had in our heads that our Broadway tickets were for that night. As soon as we checked in, Sadie, Landon and I (who had tickets to Phantom of the Opera) got all ready and headed to the subway at about 7:00. When we were waiting for the train to pull up, I decided to pull out our tickets to make sure I had the time right.
Imagine our surprise when I realized that these tickets are for tomorrow night, not tonight!
So, we walked back to the apartment, and I got immediately pulled out our Yankee Baseball tickets, which we THOUGHT were for the next night.
Imagine our dismay when we read that they were actually for THAT NIGHT! ALLLL the way on the north end of Manhattan, about an hour away. Oh, so sad. By the time we would get there, the game would be half over. The part that was hardest to swallow was that the money that was going in the trash. Luckily, our tickets were only about $14 each. The cheapest we could find. But ugggg. We crossed our fingers that we could get some decently-priced tickets the next day. One thing we knew for certain: We would have some very sad little boys if we didn't go the next day.
That night, we got our jammies on and played games.
The game on Wednesday was in the afternoon, so we didn't think it would be too busy. Maybe we could get more nosebleed-section tickets at the gate. We were hopeful.
We soon found out, though, that the cheapest available tickets were $85 each! There was just no way we could justify that kind of money six times over.
The part that made me sad about this mix-up was not getting to see my niece at the game. Emily, who was serving an LDS mission in NYC, was at that game with all the rest of the missionaries in that mission. We knew we were going to be at the same game ahead of time, and had arranged to meet her there, with the permission of her mission president. I was so sad I wouldn't get to see her.
After much deliberation, though, we decided to let Jeremy, Bennett and Max go to the game and Sadie, Landon and I would go do something else, since we had the privilege of seeing a Broadway show that night.
It took Landon a while to get past his disappointment. Boy, was he mad at us. What kind of ding-bat parents make this kind of mistake?
What do you do, though?
Bennett and Max had the time of their lives. A real-life major league baseball game! Jeremy said they ate it all up.
Our cute niece was able to somehow connect with Jeremy and the boys, even though they were in different seats than we had originally told her. Yay! We are really loving reading about her experiences there. What a great place to serve the Lord!
Meanwhile, the two teens and I stopped for a bite to eat, then headed to the other end of Manhattan to China Town to do a little shopping. Sadie carried our nicer clothes around with her in her backpack and Landon wore his nice shirt all day so that we wouldn't have to go all the way back to the apartment to get ready for the show that evening. It worked. We didn't take any pictures there, but we really had fun walking through the little shops. We got t-shirts, a purse for our babysitter and Sadie got a good deal on some perfume that she's been wanting. After our shopping excursion, we met up with the boys, then walked a while, then stopped at an Old Navy in the Soho area so that the teens and I could change into our nicer clothes. After getting spiffed up a bit, we hopped on the train to head uptown again. Time to see Times Square at night time!
These characters were so eager to have us take pictures with them. We were so naive. Elmo loves tips! Of course.
The kids LOVED Times Square at night. What a cool place!
When it was time to go to Phantom, we parted ways. The teens and I went into the beautiful theater and enjoyed an incredible show! Phantom wasn't our first choice, but it was much more affordable than Lion King or Wicked. So that's the one we saw. It certainly didn't disappoint! Wow. Just wow. That's all we could say.
When we came out of the play, we went back to the main Times Square area and walked around for a while, taking in the tourist shops. The weather was cool and perfect. We had so much fun that night. This will always be a fond memory. Spending the night out in THE city with my two oldest.
We made it back to the apartment around 1:00 or so, then crashed. What a day!
The next day was our last in NYC. We decided to spend it in lower Manhattan: The 9-11 memorial and Battery Park.
I love these pictures that I snuck with my phone on the subway.
Check out the variety of people next to Landon.
The two dudes on either side of him look very annoyed at me and the other guy was picking his nose. LOL I was hoping they didn't notice me taking a picture, but it looks like they did. Woops! And here I am posting their pictures on the Internet. Ooooops!
We encountered some long lines at the 9-11 memorial site. But it was worth the wait to spend some time on that hallowed ground. Walking down the streets that surrounded the WTC, we imagined all the debris rushing down the streets and the people running for their lives. It's hard to fathom what took place here on that fateful day.
The construction of the new World Trade Center is well underway. The first tower is almost done and the others are coming soon. We had never seen such a tall building in our lives!
Next stop: Battery Park. So disappointing that The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are both closed this summer. They are being renovated after sustaining damage in last October's hurricane. Well, it was still pretty cool to see it from far away.
Bennett is at that age where, if there is something to climb on or in, he has to stop and do it! Here he is in the old fort. Jeremy is not sure if he should be climbing on it or not...better get down, Bennett!
We spent some time just relaxing at this park, looking out on the bay. The weather was a little cooler than we had planned, but it felt good to just sit for a while.
Jeremy and I tried to talk the kids into taking a trip to Central Park that afternoon, but none of them wanted to do any more sightseeing. You don't go to NYC and not see Central Park! Bummer.
So...we can now say we've been to "the city." What a cool experience that was for the kids, to see what city life is all about, first hand, and even live amongst the locals for a few days. We're so glad we got to do this. Next post: Upstate NY. Only 2 more days left of this fabulous trip. It's been fun to go back and blog about it. You forget about all the little frustrating things and the bickering that goes on between the kids. That's the great thing about family vacations. :)
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