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.

Day 28

I woke this morning a little later than normal and without any machine gun fire!  Once the kids got up we packed everything and headed to the beach since it poured the day before.  I wanted at least to be able to put my toes in the water and get a picture or two!  I'm not exactly sure what part of the cape we were on, but I'm thinking this was probably just Cape Cod Bay.  It was freezing!

Next up was a fun suggestion by Uncle Terry - Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.  We had a little drive ahead of us so we only made one stop at this border.

I never saw a sign for Connecticut and by lunchtime we were there.  

As with all our stops, we really wish we'd had more time here.  There was so much to do and see but I knew we would need to get on the road in just a couple hours to make it to Aunt Sue & Uncle Mike's house at a reasonable hour.  I had the kids pick a couple things they really wanted to see or do and we hopped around to all of them.

We learned how boats were made and toured a few. What a beautiful day and cool clouds! 

We learned what might be going on in a typical year in Mystic Seaport with a scale model of the area. My kids love these things, especially picking out the animals and figuring out what the people are doing.

Then they made boats. This room was so crowded I just had to sit back and watch as they worked on their creations.  Ryan was at least accommodating to her crew as she made benches for everyone to sit or sleep on.

Laney was more interested in using as much glue as possible.

Brayden wanted to duplicate one of the example ships.  All I could think of was where in the world we were going to keep these for the rest of the trip!

After a quick tour of the chapel and schoolhouse, we headed to the children's museum.  They learned about the life of a sailor by sleeping, cooking, and working. 

If only Laney had been a little bit taller - Ryan cracked me up in this one!

When we hopped back into the car I programmed the gps which happily told us we'd be in New Jersey in 2 1//2 hours.  I figured we might need to add an hour to that with traffic so we'd get in between 5:30 and 6. However (you knew there would be one of those), at about 45 minutes away we came to a complete stop before the George Washington bridge.  We crawled for about 30 minutes and the kids started to get antsy so I decided to exit the highway and make my way through the city.  

My people watchers were so entertained!  We drove through The Bronx and right down the middle of Manhattan.  A Friday afternoon at 5pm was definitely not the most efficient time to do that, but to see the awe in their faces as they looked around the middle of Time Square was priceless.  It wasn't dark yet so they didn't get the full effect of the lights, but they sat there looking around with mouths dropped open almost the entire way to the Lincoln Tunnel!   Ryan is also convinced she saw the real Batman.  Of course not just someone dressed up making a quick income off the tourists - I didn't tell her that though.

Within another 40 minutes we finally made it!  Uncle Mike had a beer or 4 already waiting for me! The cousins were playing together as if they'd always known each other. Frozen was a big topic of conversation and Samantha, Laney & Ryan played tricks on Brayden while Natalie trailed behind trying to keep up!

It was so nice to get to socialize and meet people I'd only heard about.  We were even surprised by 2 bags full of Trader Joe's snacks for our trip - thank you Joanne!  After Aunt Sue cooked us dinner, the kids played and played like they would never run out of energy!  It might have something to do with the ice pops and cupcakes they were being fed!  

Brayden loved to hear stories about when Grandpa lived in this house. He couldn't believe all the Clarke kids slept in our bedroom back then!  

After the kids went to bed, we chatted for awhile then I crashed as well.  How luxurious it felt to sleep in a real bed!   

Quote of the day: "Brrrrraaaayyyy-deennnnnnnn, come find uuuussssssss!"  The call of young cousins is magnetic!

Day 28 - Time crunch and Times Square