New York City, New York: Day 1

(Actual date of visit: April 15-18, 2011)

Where do I begin with NYC...yes, the beginning. Lots to share but I'll try to only hit the highlights.

Tom's sister and her family live north of NYC so we stayed with them while we were in town. The plan was to take the train to Grand Central Station and walk over to Rockefeller Center.

Kaitlyn really wanted to be on the Today Show but luckily for me, we talked her out of getting up at 5:00 a.m. so we could get a really good spot on the rail. Unfortunately, we forgot about it being the week of Easter/Passover and a spring break week for a lot of people. It was super crowded by the time we got there.

Our not so good view at the Today Show.

All I wanted was an autograph from Lenny. He is the guy in the photo below in the black cowboy hat. He is at the Today Show everyday. I know it's weird but I always look for him in the crowd when I watch the show at home. He doesn't appear to be that friendly on TV but I was pleased to see him talking to everyone in the crowd and signing autographs. Next time, we'll be there early and bring him a little souvenir from Nerk. LOL

I wanted to get Lenny's autograph. Maybe next time.

After the Today Show, we walked over to Times Square and did the rest of our sightseeing via a hop-on-hop-off bus tour through downtown. Click here if you want to see a map of the loop we took.

Adam and Andrew on the NYC tour bus.

The bus tour is the way to go if you have kids like mine who complain about a lot of walking. The funny thing was we were sitting on the top of the bus and some of the street signs, traffic lights and tree branches almost hit us! Check out this photo that Tom snapped of the street sign ready to take our heads' off.

One time our tour guide started yelling, "Duck! Duck! Duck!" into the microphone. I had to crouch down to avoid being skewered and/or beheaded by a tree! Of course, Tom, Kait, Andrew and Adam, who incidentally were all across the aisle on the other side of the bus, thought that was hilarious. It's all fun and games until mommy looses an eye.

Our next stop was the Statue of Liberty. Our tour tickets included a ferry ride over to the Statue. We got there and saw a loooooonnnnggg line. Being the overly optimistic person that I am, I thought, "That can't possibly be the line we need to get in." So I asked someone and she said we had to go to the ticket booth to get our passes to the ferry.

What a relief because that line was a lot shorter! So we get to the front of the line and she says, "You already have your tickets, you just need to get in the line by the pier." I think "Cool," because she points in a direction away from the really really long line. (Denial is a powerful thing.)

So we go to the pier. There's that damn long line again! Once again I think, "There must be another line..." so I ask another person. They point in the vague direction of the long line but I rationalize that there must be two lines over there. "Doesn't that one look like a shorter line? That must be the line WE need." We walk over to the shorter line and I asked AGAIN.

I even show the nice young man our tickets so there will be no question. "Sorry lady. You need to get in that line." Me: "You mean the one that curves around the building and down the block?" Him: "Yep."

If I only had as much discipline and determination when it came to my diet and exercise....

As close as we could get to the Statue of Liberty.

Our last stop of the day was the Empire State Building. We passed it earlier and the line was out the building and around the corner. The tour guide said when that happens it is at least a 3 hour wait. So we stayed put on the bus and looped back around at the end of the day.

When we got back there was no line! Yeah! We walked in and right up to...you guessed it, the line! The one that snakes around and around until you get to "the elevators of false hope". Just so you are prepared when go, you don't take the elevators on the 80th floor to the top of the building. You take those elevators to the 86th floor and the next phase of the never-ending line.

By the time you get to the top and look out, you really don't care what's there.

One of the views from the Empire State Building

We hiked back to Grand Central Station where a good Samaritan helped us find the train we needed to get back to Cathy's. He was so nice, at first I thought he worked for the Transit Authority but then we found out he was just a nice person who thought we could use some help.

Who said the people in NYC aren't nice?