The city. Wow. I have been there a few times before, but not with kids. Little people to be responsible for in a sea of humanity and chaos. It's not my favorite type of place to be in, but we were there, so we plunged in and did it for two whole days!
Spencer still claims it wasn't worth it, but he got a ton of Hilton honors points years ago when he was in a Florida hotel for work and his floor was littered with drunk high school girls who kept him up all night. After complaining several times they gave him the points to appease him. Those points got us our hotel...
Anyway...we pulled in to our Doubletree hotel Wednesday night around 5 pm. And whaddayaknow, our room wasn't ready and wouldn't be for about an hour. The concierge unloaded our things, and while we waited in the lobby they brought us cookies and water. By the time we got settled in our room it was almost 7:00; under other circumstances we would have gone into the city to have dinner but with 4 kids and one being a baby/toddler who was never ever getting a nap, we opted to find some food quickly and then go to bed. There was this little carry-out restaurant, VB3, and while it wasn't fast it was GOOD. And cheap! We had enough leftovers for dinner the next night! We also thought the room we were getting was a suite...but it was just a big room. So yeah...we spent 5 nights in hotels on our trip and just got used to having 6 in a crowded room. Awesome.
We had bought food at Walmart to keep in the mini fridge so we could eat breakfast in our room. By the time we headed out for the city the next morning it was almost 9 a.m. and the subway was insanely packed with people. We had our stroller and I'm pretty sure everyone hated us. It was hot and crowded. And that subway smell - not my favorite. But we made it! We emerged from the subway right by the Empire State Building, albeit about an hour later than we were hoping to.
Yes it was crowded. Yes it was expensive. But it was so worth it! The views are incredible! It was nice to get my bearings a little bit since you surely can't do that from the ground.
And...Sadie's face is pretty much priceless if you ask me.
After that we headed back to the subway and took it to W Central Park. I was just so glad it was cloudy this day. We ate lunch and then rented bikes for two hours (near Tavern on the Green). We rode the entire perimeter of the park, and that was cool and really fun, but we missed out on a lot of the super cool stuff on the interior of the park, because parking a bunch of bikes and locking them up, and taking kids out, etc... was just a time waster. But we did get out for a while near a pond on the north end. We were pretty wasted by then after a huge hill. I remember Spencer making lots of work calls any free chance he could get. (People back at home were starting to find out he had given his notice.)
I took the big kids to see Belvedere Castle (meh) while Sadie slept in the Burley - she did get a 30 minute nap this day, thank goodness!
We returned the bikes and walked over to Bow Bridge (famous), got to see a new NBC show being filmed (even recognized the actress!)
...and then decided to walk over to the temple. We take any chance we can get to show our kids different temples. We walked around and used the restroom even. :)
By this time it was getting late but we figured we were close to Times Square so we should go explore there and maybe get dinner. However, I am pretty sure we scarred our oldest. There were some very inappropriate people out at Times Square, and Emma burst into tears a few times. I wish I could erase those images from her mind (and mine!).
We ducked into the M&M store, bought a few trinkets, then had to head back through "Sodom." We made it to the subway, went back to NJ to our hotel, warmed up our dinner from the night before, bathed the kids, and all collapsed into bed.
The next day was even more ambitious. We had a reservation time at the Statue of Liberty for 9 a.m. so we took the shuttle to the ferry point (NJ side). The kids and Spencer got the headsets and I stayed with an incredibly grumpy Sadie while they went up to the pedestal.
It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Pretty much perfect. The kids did their Junior Ranger stuff (how cool! A badge from the statue of liberty!)
and we went over to Ellis Island. That would have been neat if there weren't a million people, and if our kids weren't bored. We did go visit the family history center there and ran into some sisters! They are in the Morristown mission. We looked up "Wirthlin" and found out that Spencer's grandpa and great-grandpa both came through Ellis Island. We got on the boat to Battery Park. Once there we walked up to the WTC site, past Trinity Church (gorgeous!)
It was busy there but I imagine it always is. Very somber. The kids were tired and so Spencer took Emma into the 911 Museum - I told them to take an hour. The other 3 and I played with squirrels and birds and just hung out. It was nice to relax and sit for a while. Spencer and Emma came out and looked very saddened. But he did say it was incredibly well done. Someday (for me).
The last thing I really wanted to do was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. So we headed that way. Sadie was an absolute mess so I held her the whole way. I think most people walk the other way because of the views but we were modifying. And it was still pretty awesome.
Our plan was to eat at Grimaldi's. It was 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, yet the line was out the door and down the block a bit. While we stood there and wondered what to do, a worker from the pizza place next door tried to goad us in. It didn't take much, and in a minute we were seated in Juliana's. OH MY WORD. Best decision ever. We ordered the margherita pizza with pepperoni, and I think it was the quietest meal I have ever had with my family.
Sadie ate almost two pieces herself, and the rest of us declared that it was the best pizza we had ever had. We found out that the people who had started Grimaldi's had also (later) opened Juliana's, so I think we got a good deal and didn't even have to wait. We also ordered a cannoli (meh) and the brookie bridge (YUM). Our total bill, after tip, was $50, and that was probably the best decision we made our whole trip.
We walked to the subway, made a few mistakes down there, made our way back to NJ again, and pretty much collapsed into bed once again.
Our flight was the next day at 2:30 (Saturday) but we had no idea about traffic from the city to Newark so we decided to go to the Natural History Museum for an hour or two. It was raining. The kids wanted to see a few things from "Night at the Museum" but by far the coolest was "DumDum."
We walked around but it is HUGE and overwhelming, so we didn't get to see all we wanted to. We stopped at Shake Shack (it was pretty good, but not as good as I hoped) and headed for the airport. There was no traffic, and the airport was almost entirely empty.
We were super early. As we sat in Terminal B, waiting to board our aircraft, I saw something on Fox News about a possible Ebola patient on a plane at Terminal B. I was thrilled to get on that airplane!
We flew home through Minneapolis again, and then to SFO. Sadie didn't sleep at all, though it was 10 pm to her body we we got home. Sweet Tanner colored on the plane until he was tired, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. I got to wrestle with a stinker toddler while she kicked the chair in front of us again and again and rubbed her eyes and whined. Spencer got to listen to a lot of General Conference. I was so glad when we landed.
This trip was SO FUN. I loved almost every single thing about it. Even though we had 6 people in a hotel room, Sadie was crazy, and it was expensive I would do it again in a heartbeat. My kids love nothing more than looking back at pictures of things we have done together, even (and especially) when they don't remember. The kids had independent study schoolwork that I never had to get on their case about, and it was all done and wasn't even too hard. We did so many incredible things together in those 10 days, and got to experience a new part of the country, and I am so glad we enjoyed this together.
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