Day 23

So I've been having some car trouble. My car has been getting a little frustrated when I wanted to do things like slow down or go faster. So Dave handled making me an appointment in Philly at the dealership to have it looked at.  We were going to be staying in an apartment in the city so two cars weren't a requirement for us to get around so the timing worked out well.

In order to make the appointment we decided to leave at 7:30am to check into the apartment, unload, and drop my car off on time.  Luckily I had my early riser with me so we were all packed up by 6:30 once she painfully convinced Laney to wake up.  We went to a little cafe to grab a bite to eat before we met Grammie and before we knew it we were on the road again.

We were thrilled with the apartment as it was very spacious, modern, and lovely. Personally, I was just looking forward to sleeping in a bed, watching some Olympics, and having quality wifi.  Once we unloaded the things we'd need from my car we brought the car in the the dealership.  The kids were asking for some down time so we headed back to our neighborhood to find a late lunch and relax for a little while at the apartment.

After lunch Brayden and I snuck across the street to Termini Brothers bakery to grab some cannoli for later. Our helper was thrilled to see us and gave us a tour and history of the bakery.  The original cash register from the bakery only went up to $5!

After she got our order ready she mentioned all kids get a free cupcake. Of course, we just ordered all this sugar and we need more! They just happened to have all the kids' favorite colors and they absolutely had to inhale them when we got home.

Later in the afternoon the dealership called to let me know I would be needing a new transmission which they would take care of within a week. They would be providing me a rental car so we raced over to the dealership offload the rest of our camping supplies. I was hoping the car would be fixed before we left Philadelphia but if not we could keep going in the rental car.

After hitting Trader Joe's for much needed groceries we made it home only to find a parking mess. During the day it pretty easy to find spots right in front of the apartment but once everyone came home from work we were out of luck!

One other very important benefit to staying in the apartment was laundry! We spent the rest of the evening folding laundry, watching Olympics, playing Pictionary, and asking the 8ball strange questions. Apparently Ryan is going to marry Farty McFartpants, Laney will be a famous Olympian, and Brayden will not be super, super, super, super, super, super rich.

Day 22

The girls got up a little early today only because of the sheer excitement of visiting the Natural History Museum.  Ever since we decided to stop in New York City this year, they have been excited about this stop mostly because of seeing Night at the Museum. They asked me about every 3 minutes how much longer until we left until finally we just decided to go.  Ryan even grabbed my 10 pound backpack to carry on her back.  About halfway there I remembered I'd forgotten something so I ran back to the car only discover Ryan had my keys in the backpack. Another trip later we were now going to be late to meet Grammie and Brayden!

We got there with a huge line that was moving quite fast and took pictures before moving on to all the exhibits. It was impossible to get all of Teddy Roosevelt into the picture!  Our first stop had to be the dinosaur room so we could all see "Rexy" from the movie.  I was astounded at the sheer number of fossils they had in the dinosaur exhibit. The kids really enjoyed learning about some of the animals for each historical era of the earth.



There were so many interesting fossils and they had many that could show the evolution of all kinds of different animals, even humans! I think we could have spent a month in this museum and not seen everything!

Of course we had to get a picture with the Easter Island Head!

About halfway through the museum we decided to take a break and head to Central Park across the street. We grabbed some smoothies and I pulled out the mini soccer ball I'd gone back for so the kids could play in some open area by the benches.  Brayden was so happy to be able to run around and sweat for a few minutes!

Once they were hot, we headed back into the cool museum to finish walking through some of the exhibits. I say some because we couldn't make it through all of them! The kids decided to skip the space portion and I'm sure we still missed a few others. 

 

 

Our last stop was the ocean area where we were all amazed at the enormity of the life-sized blue whale in the room. I definitely couldn't fit all of it into a picture! This shot in no way does justice to the size of the whale. All around the room there were displays of all kinds of different ocean animals. We had fun spotting the ones in our area and learning about all kinds of other animals too!

On our way to dinner the kids were exited to see Robert Indiana's HOPE sculpture on the corner. We studied the LOVE sculpture earlier in the year so now the kids want to recreate this one too!

Thanks to the Jefferson girls for their suggestion to eat at Ellen's Stardust Diner. The kids had a blast watching and listening to all the wonderful talented staff as they serenaded our dinner and dessert! We enjoyed show tunes, 80s tunes, and current songs the whole place got into. Everyone in the restaurant belted out Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" as we were leaving!

The girls and I walked home a different route to take in another view of the city before we left the next day. I was unable to capture the lights of the city as they twinkled at dusk, but it was definitely beautiful. As the sky grew dark and the city lit up, we sat and talked about our day, especially how lucky we were to have Grammie with us. Another wonderful end to a full day.

Day 21

We were all able to sleep in a little bit this morning because the tour buses weren't running on weekdays I suppose. The day before there would be a huge bus drive about 20 feet from our heads every 15 minutes or so starting at 5am. We ate breakfast and got ready to meet at the train for our busy day.  I promise we have utensils, but what kid doesn't love to eat watermelon like this!?

  

We made it to the Empire State Building with what seemed like every other tourist as we waited in line after line after line. Just when we reached the end of a line that Disney-snaked all around a room we would make it to another room full of people waiting in line again.  The view was great though from a completely different side of town as the One World Tower with a much closer view of the buildings in the area.  We were able to point out buildings like the Flat Iron Building and Rockefeller Center since we were only 80 floors up.



The kids even spotted the One World Center downtown! We climbed the 6 floors up to the open air observatory  and walked around. Brayden even got the courage up to put his hand through the bars outside.



















Once we had our fill of beautiful views, we headed back down and hopped back on the tour bus for some more history of the city. This tour guide was really great with an obvious love for the city.
I love the architecture of the older buildings with their intricate carvings, statues, and designs. They did these amazing things without power tools and we just build boring boxes now!
       

We hopped off about an hour later for our tour at the United Nations. This was one of the places I was super excited about as I'd never been and I'd read they do wonderful tours, especially for children. They ended up putting us with another group that had already started for some reason so we didn't get to hear the beginning, but we did get to go to the room they'd visited for a quick picture.

We joined just as they were discussing the emblem of the UN that places no country in the center to make them seem more important.

Three of the rooms were gifts from different countries - Norway, Denmark, and Sweden and were finished in a style fitting to them. Each also had some part of their design that reminded the members present of the goal of the UN. It was really neat to see the actual rooms we see snippets of on news reports!

Ryan was asked to come in front of the group and tell the guide her tour was boring to illustrate the human rights articles the UN attempts to enforce in its member countries. It made sense to us that just because that statement might upset our tour guide it does not give her the right to take Ryan to jail for sharing her opinion but that's not what happens in many countries. 

Next she told us about some of the different committees that meet to solve some of the bigger problems in the world.  She talked with us at length about the newly developed goals that were to be reached by all countries by the year 2030.  I was especially interested in a campaign she talked about called ShareTheMeal (https://sharethemeal.org/en/index.html) that would be really easy for us to contribute to and see where the money was going at that point in time with all the needs around the world. I also thought the kids might be interested in sharing the money in their "give" parts of their banks with this program. 

Last up was the huge general assembly meeting room with room for all countries and some of the NGOs that help administer and oversee the programs the UN creates. Each year a country name gets drawn out of a hat and that country's delegates get to sit up front with all the other countries alphabetically seated behind them. There is so much attention to fairness I feel like I'm at home dealing with my children!

Before we left we just had to try on the UN security helmets for a picture! It was a tad too large for Ryan!

  

We hopped on the train back to our little city and had a quick dinner of enormous pizzas and salads. We all snacked on some M&Ms, rested, and took showers to get ready for the show tonight. 

We ended up taking the wrong train into the city though so we had to request an UBER lift to the Gershwin Theater. If you're ever in New York City, find Marvin to get you where you need to go fast! I had to close my eyes a few times, but he got us to the theater with 10 minutes to spare!

Dave had picked out our clothes and shoes to send with Grammie for the show so I was a little nervous about how we would look, but I think he did a pretty good job!  We were all super excited to see Wicked in some amazing seats Grammie scored. I'm really not sure how she does this every time we go to a show!

The show was wonderful and very funny! I do believe it will be all the kids' favorite part of New York City. I got chills every time the main character Elphaba belted out a solo.  What amazing talent in this show!

After the show we hopped in another UBER vehicle and arrived safely back at Grammie's apartment within 15 minutes. The girls and I walked back to our spot laughing the whole way about the different parts of the show we enjoyed. It was late, but a wonderful way to end our day! 

Day 20

As the girls and I walked home from the train station the night before, I tried to prepare them for sleeping with the city sounds. They have stayed in hotels in larger cities before, but living in a tent is a whole new level. After they had a snack and played a little we all climbed in the tent and 7 seconds after we closed our eyes fireworks started! I think I might have even said out loud, "Oh you're kidding me right?"

At first the girls were nervous it may have been gunfire until they heard the whistling firecrackers. We eventually just got back out of the tent and enjoyed the part of the show we could see.  They only lasted about 15 minutes and once we got back inside the girls were asleep almost instantly.

The spot I'd reserved turned out to be the only spot that was covered by a shadow the whole night from the bright security light. The city lights were already bright enough! I woke up this day pretty refreshed and ready to get our day going.  We were camping on an itty bitty spot with room for only 1 tent and a picnic blanket. It was nice to be able to picnic and chat in the coolness of the early morning.

We met Grammie and Brayden a little later at the train and headed into the city. First up was the One World Trade Center Observation Floor. I was very excited about this stop as I'd been into the Empire State Building before and I knew it would pale in comparison.

I was absolutely blown away by this experience - so much so that I don't want to say anything about it and hope everyone gets to experience it for themselves. Suffice it to say the view was breathtaking!

   

Brayden took a few breaths and even relaxed on the glass floor while I took a picture!

Grammie got us the ipad extra that gave information about all the buildings as you pointed it in the direction you were looking. We had fun spotting the buildings after we learned a little bit about each one.

Next we headed in search of the hop on/hop off bus to take us around the city and help us figure out where things were. We had quite a time finding the area, but finally we were on the bus and learning the history of this wonderful city.

     

About 5 or 6 stops in we decided to get off at Chinatown to walk around and find some lunch.  Ryan was amazed by the grafitti we were seeing everywhere and inspired to paint the bridge in Pensacola again!

   

Most of the stores were closed so we ended up eating some pizza in Little Italy at Lombardo'a. The pizzas were huge and delicious! We ended up walking a ways into SOHO then hopped in an UBER to Battery Park to go visit Lady Liberty. The line for security was incredibly long and hot, but once we got on the ferry it was a cool and quick ride to the island.

We climbed the 195 steps up to the pedestal and walked around outside for our second beautiful view of the day. It was very crowded so we didn't stay on the deck very long.

  

  

  

Grammie took a picture of all of us to prove that I actually do exist!  I have a picture of me similar to this one with the Twin Towers in the background. I hope these guys never have to experience something like that in their lifetimes.





We peeked into the museum so the kids could see some of the parts of the statues of the past. We didn't have time for the whole museum, so the kids settled for one picture instead. They couldn't help themselves being so close to her nose!

We hopped back onto the ferry and headed to Ellis Island next. We walked through some of the rooms to read about the experiences of some of the people who were there. We didn't have much time for the audio tour so we ended up watching the movie which was a nice overview of the hope, struggles, and disappointment many of the people experienced there.



Once we got off the ferry we headed to Times Square to let the kids see the madness. For the first time the kids understood why I wanted them hanging on to us! For my people-watching kids this walk was overwhelming and wonderful all at the same time.  Once Ryan spotted this guy, we had to stay for the entire painting of the New York skyline in 5 minutes with spray paint. Dave might need to pull out our left over spray paint cans when we get home as she has been inspired!

We visited the 3-story M&M store that was just about as crazy as Times Square. The kids were ecstatic to try all the different kinds of M&Ms. We had no idea there were strawberry flavor, but everyone's favorite was definitely the mega size of course with 3 times more chocolate!

Once we'd had enough of all the stores we headed back to our spot and talked about all we'd done that day. Our feet were tired, our bellies were full, and our brains were overloaded.