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.
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.
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.
