Our trip to New York

Yeah, yeah... It's been a thousand years since I've blogged, but I've been B.U.S.Y. It started with work completely blowing up. A girl that worked here got fired, so we've all taken on some extra work and some of our job responsibilities have shifted. The good news is, we hired someone new and she is wonderful, BUT it took a little time for her to get acclimated and up to speed. Now that she is, things are beginning to settle back down, but it's been hectic since New Year's. Oh, and an update on my resolutions... I don't think I've stuck to ANY of them!! But on to bigger and more interesting items-our TRIP...

Chris and I decided that this year, we would use our tax return for something fun for a change. For the first time since we moved into our house, we didn't use it for carpet, windows, a new AC unit, tile, etc. Originally, we were going to take a long weekend, just the two of us, to go to Miami to fish for peacock bass, and the on to the Everglades. In case you're wondering, this is what one looks like...

Well, that dream ended pretty early on... It got so cold this past winter that there was a giant fish kill in Florida and a bunch of the bass died off. They aren't native to this country, and they require really warm weather, so when it got down to freezing in Florida, that was all she wrote.
We decided that we would figure out a fun alternative, so the idea of going to New York City was born. We agreed that we would take Forrest and that Emma would stay home. I thought that would be the best, and Forrest has been so great with Emma that he deserved some one on one time with us. Well, Chris didn't have to ask twice... I booked it ALL!! You can just refer to me as a tour guide from here on...

Day 1:

Flew from Knoxville at 6:00 (getting up at 3:00 am isn't as fun as it used to be... or was it ever fun??).

Forrest's first flight!!

going down the runway...

Landed in Newark, New Jersey airport at about 10:30 am.

Rode the Air Train from Newark to Manhattan. Not unpleasant, but it took about 1 1/2 hours. This was a smart move on my part. A cab would have cost over $100, but we got there for about $36.

Exited the train at Penn Station, New York. The first thing we was after coming out of the station saw the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden.

Walked nearly 20 blocks to the hotel (not the smartest thing on my part, but I didn't know where the hotel really was...). For future reference, I will call the hotel and find the cross street. The MAILMAN didn't even know the street numbers!

Left the bags at the hotel and walked to FAO Schwarz (another long walk...). Note to self: wear more comfortable shoes... The giant piano from the movie "Big" is there. There are actually two girls that are paid to dance on it about every 20 minutes. It's on sale for the bargain price of only $250,000.00.

 Forrest was sooooo excited to go to FAO Schwarz! He saved his money for months...

Back to the hotel, then on to dinner, Toys R Us, M & M, Hershey's (which is conveniently across the street from the M&M store), and finally, the Empire State Building (again, not smart on my end-the line was over two hours long).

Forrest discovers the giant Toys R Us store in Times Square (it has a Ferris Wheel INSIDE!!)

 the M&M Store-whoever thought this up was a GENIUS...

 The Empire State Building BEFORE we went in... We were in line for 2 1/2 hours to get up to the observation deck. Note to self: go at a different time, or don't go at all! It was beautiful, but not worth the wait!

The Chrysler Building as seen from the Empire State Building observation deck. By the time we made it through the line, it was completely dark outside.

Day 2:

Breakfast at the hotel, and on to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This was probably one of my most favorite parts of the trip. I was smart enough to buy reserve tickets before we left, and we only had to wait about 25 minutes in line (as opposed to the folks in line for over three hours!).

We got there early, so we had time to walk a few blocks up to the World Trade Center site. The last time I was in New York was just after the 1993 bombing, but the buildings were still there. It was such a sad place to be, knowing that so many innocent people lost their lives there...

the view of our Lady from Battery Park

the view from the ferry

Just to get an idea of how BIG she is... Forrest is sitting on her big toe! This was a mold of her foot that was taken during renovations in the 1980s.

Ellis Island

The luggage room at Ellis-passengers were told to put down their things and go upstairs for the medical check. What an amazing place!!

Day 3:

Breakfast at the hotel, and on to the Museum of Natural History.

 Forrest was amazed at the dinosaur exhibit! This was the first time he had ever seen life-size dinosaur bones. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time, so we barely made it through any of the museum, and we were there for over two hours!

Next stop: Yankees game!! They played the Cleveland Indians, and won 11-2. A-Rod hit a grand slam homer in the bottom of the 7th inning-his 20th career grand slam!

the view from our seats

the newest A-Rod fan!!

After the game and dinner, we did a walking tour of Grand Central Station.

This was such a fun trip!! I think we crammed everything possible into four days that you could. There were so many things there that we didn't see, but the mom side of me wanted to get as much educational stuff in for Forrest that I could. Plus, I was more excited to see how HE would react to it all than I was for myself. I hope that we can go back again soon, and maybe take a few more days. I think we'll have to do more saving than just the tax return for that one...



Day 4:

Unfortunately, this was our last day. We did manage to squeeze in the King Tut exhibit before our flight. I didn't get any pictures though... We weren't allowed to take any.

We took the train back to the Newark airport (which only took 30 minutes on the return trip-go figure...) and spent the remainder of the day in three different airports. This was a looonnnnngggg day!!