New York City

New York City.

I have never been there before. 

I have seen many movies and T.V. shows that take place there.

I was really excited to finally see it for myself.

I think I will have to go back again to really experience more of the City though.

Our plan was to spend half a day in the city.  A few hours would be spent touring Liberty & Ellis Island.  A few more hours would be spent touring Times Square and eating out at a fabulous restaurant.

You know how the saying goes, things don't always turn out like you'd planned.

Jody drove us into the city to help save some money on train fares.  Cace had to work, so this is the first time Jody drove in the city.  It's only an hour drive.  The plan was to get in and quickly park the car and go on foot or subway everywhere else.  However, we missed a turn and the GPS ended up taking us in a roundabout way to the parking garage.  Jody had to do a lot more driving in the city than she'd planned.

It was madness.  

The only city traffic I can compare it to is the traffic in Rome, Italy.

Cars/taxis dodging in and out of lanes.

Horns honking.

A constant stream of pedestrians.

A constant stream of traffic.

It was insane and I don't think you could ever pay me to drive in that city.  

Jody's SUV has sensors on the front and back that beep when you get close to something.  Let's just say those sensors were constantly beeping.

I was very impressed with her aggressive driving.

She did say at the end of the day that she would never drive in the city again though.

We finally got parked and headed to Battery Park via the Subway.

Stan had to carry Miriam in her stroller up and down all those stairs in the subway.  Let me say again, I'm so glad he was there! 

After waiting in line, we finally boarded the ferry to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty.

Here's a view of the New York City skyline from Liberty Island.

The building under construction is the new Freedom Tower being built where the twin towers used to stand.

Then we waited in line some more to board the ferry to Ellis Island.

We did a quick self-guided tour through the museum on the inside because Miriam had no patience for standing around.  On the far left corner of this picture you can sort of see Stan chasing Miriam around the grass while we waited in line again, this time to board the ferry back to Battery Park.

 Here's how Miriam occupied herself on the ferry, playing with a stranger's shoes.

 The Libery/Ellis Island tour/ferries took much longer than expected.  By the time we got back to Times Square, we only had time to do a quick walk through and head back to the car so we could avoid rush hour traffic.  If we'd stayed any longer, we would have had to wait until after rush hour traffic (7 p.m.) to leave and I knew Miriam would never make it that long. 

So here's a few shots of the craziness of Times Square:

 The ball that will be dropped on New Year's Eve.

 Notice the NYC Police Dept. has a small station here.

The Toys R' Us at Times Square was really cool--here's the Wonka Candy section.

So I didn't get to tour any movie studios or eat at any fabulous restaurants this time.  I'll just have to come again--when I'm not pregnant and we have a babysitter for Miriam.  The big city is definitely no place for a toddler.

The day ended nicely though, with some delicious ice cream at "Friendlys."  And no, I didn't eat that whole sundae myself (Jody and I shared).