East Coast Extravaganza, Part 3: New York, New York

We had a great time visiting New York City, then Palmyra, Niagra and Washington, D.C., and then we drove back up to stay with Mark and Marchella in New Jersey from which we would spend a couple more days in the Big Apple.

Monday morning, June 11, 2012, we drove to Brooklyn to see if we could get discount Broadway tickets.  But somehow we ended up in the wrong lane and ended up driving across the George Washington Bridge without paying the toll.  There was apparently no way to pay it afterwards except to wait for the rental car company to send us a bill.  Then Linette dropped us off to get the tickets, and we found that the TKTS booth was closed on Mondays, so we finally got her on the phone just before she paid $15 to park.


And this guy rode by.

We gathered the kids and rode the ferry over to Staten Island, looking at the Statue of Liberty along the way.

Then we got off and back on for the return trip.

At that point, it was time to walk up to the 9/11 memorial.  We grabbed hot dogs and chicken kabobs (with a really spicy sauce) from a street vendor on the way.  The fountains there were pretty impressive, being the size of the foundation of the two towers, and inverted so the water flowed down and then down again.

Below you can see the tower that is being built in place of the ones that fell.

A museum was being built but wasn’t ready yet, so there actually wasn’t a lot to see, but it was still a decent somber moment.

And, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness.  Only light can do that.  And hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that."

At that point, we didn’t dare get the car again, so we rode the metro up to Central Park, which was a new experience for the kids.

Once at Central Park, the kids had a blast playing on the big rocks there.  Here Erika and Adam show their respective enthusiasm for reaching the top!

I had always wanted to play a game of chess in Central Park, but this was the only guy who wasn't playing, and he wanted to play Jared.  And he seemed to be a bit inebriated.  Jared only played a couple of moves before it was clear the guy wasn't really going to play, at which point Linette and the rest of the family rescued us.  "And that," Linette stated, "is what a drunk man acts like."

I had Erika do a series of back hand springs across Central Park.

And we walked by the Manhattan Temple while we were there.

Then we ate at an awesome New York pizza place.  Jared and Adam were really excited.

And after all that walking, we demolished the whole spread.

What a great day.

The yellow cabs were out in full force.

That afternoon we rode back down to our car on the metro.  I took a picture of the girls mostly because I thought the guy looked stylin'.

And as we neared the end of the line, Sienna just couldn't be contained on the metro.

Kelsi, doing a little New York shopping...

And we drove through Times Square at night on our way off of the island.  Everyone was amazed at how everything was so lit up! Even normal things like McDonald’s said “MC-DONALD’S!!!!” on Times Square.  I was glad we took the drive through there to let everyone experience that.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, was my 45^th birthday.  It started out much like the day before: we drove across the Brooklyn Bridge, this time dropping off Linette and the girls; and then I drove around to wait for them to try to buy Broadway tickets.  They ended up getting us half-price tickets for “Sister Act”, on the 8^th row.  That gave us something fun to look forward to for the end of our New York trip.

While I drove around, I somehow ended up on a street that was heading across a bridge, and there was no way off of it except for an illegal maneuver right in front of a police car.  So I went ahead and did that anyway.  Then, as I was trying to find some way to get back to where we came from, I drove through a little suburb, past an elementary school, and suddenly this little street headed over another bridge, with no escape! You just can’t win! So we went over a bridge, enjoyed a jaunt through Chinatown, worked our way back over to the Brooklyn Bridge, and then picked up Linette and the girls.

It took a while to get the car over to the garage, and then I started walking up Central Park towards the museum, and it was quite a walk.  I had to check the map on my iPhone several times to stay on the right path to get to the museum.  It was raining pretty steadily all day that day, so I was very thankful for the umbrellas that Mark Mathusek’s mom had lent us.

As I walked along, I stopped to look at the seals at the zoo.  A lady was taking pictures with an iPad as I stood there, and suddenly the rain started dumping.  I instinctively put my umbrella over the lady and her iPad, and she laughed and said “Merci, monsieur!” Her husband was standing there, too, and I just thought it was so cute that she would speak in French.

It was a long walk to the museum.  When I got within about a block of it, the phone rang.  It was Linette, and she said that they had taken a wrong turn, and had ended up pretty much right where I had dropped them off.  Oh no!

Meanwhile, the kids had fun at the toy store.  Here Jared dances on the piano featured in the movie "Big".

And there's always the "act like your favorite Lego guy" poses.

And here, Sienna demonstrates a Jack-in-the-box (that's a bear).

And here is a family picture in the room of mirrors.  Can you see everyone?

Still raining.

For dinner we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Here Erika shows off her new purchase.

After we ate, we had some time to kill before our Broadway play, so we sat in the restaurant and read, while avoiding the rain outside.

The janitor seemed impressed when he said, "Everyone one of them is reading.  That's rare!"

We got doughnuts as a substitute for my birthday cake.

New York.

And finally, it was time to see our Broadway play! We saw Sister Act, featuring Raven-Simoné (from "The Cosby Show" and "She's So Raven").

The play was very well done, a lot of fun, and completely appropriate for the family.  We had good seats that we got at half price, so that was nice.  And it was so great to look down the row and see everyone smiling and enthralled with the performance.  What a great way to wrap things up.

With that, we took one last walk through the rain to retrieve our van, and then headed back to Mark & Marchella's house.

The next day we said good-bye, rushed to the airport, turned in our car, walked to the check-in line, and missed our flight due to silliness on the part of the airlines.  Fortunately, they were able to get us on a flight a few hours later, so we just hung out in the airport, reading books and feeding the birds that were trapped inside.

And this was the last we saw of Adam's hat, as it was left on the plane.  It had served us well.

It was an awesome trip, and it was great to be home in Utah.

And then, it was back to real life...

What a great trip! We pushed pretty hard throughout the whole trip, but we saw a lot of great things, and got to spend a lot of fun time together as a family.  I especially enjoyed having more interaction with Adam, since he had been away at school or off doing his own thing so much of the time over the previous year or so.  We did feel like going home a couple days before the end, so maybe 10 days should be our limit.  But it was a grand adventure.