Weekend in NYC continued...Saturday

 We were up and out by about 9 on Saturday morning despite our late night the night before.  We wanted to be in line early for Matilda tickets.  We weren't able to get "rush" tickets but we did get seats in the very last row for that night's performance and at a good price.  It was worth waiting in line in the freezing cold.  Once our tickets were bought, Tobi directed us to a place to get breakfast.  We got famous NY bagels and took them back to Tobi's hotel so that we could eat breakfast in the warmth of the unique lobby. 

 This lobby looked like a library/study complete with fireplace and a coffee machine that made lattes and cappucinos...for free.  :0)  We enjoyed our breakfast and mapped out our day.  First stop...Grand Central Station to get on the subway to the 9/11 Memorial. 

 The 9/11 Memorial was really neat to see.  It was sobering to read so many names of those that lost their lives in that place.  We talked to a man that was selling books and he was with the Salvation Army at the time and was a first responder there on 9/11.  Of course we bought his books and then took a picture with him (which isn't on the blog...again, not sure why I didn't upload that one). 

 After leaving the 9/11 Memorial we walked along the water to Battery Park.  We had a view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from there but didn't actually go out to either of them.  The day was cold but sunny and beautiful and it felt good to be outside enjoying such beautiful scenery on the fringe of a big city. 

 Next stop was SoHo with the anticipation of going to Black Tap for lunch and one of their famous milkshakes...that dream died when we found out that the wait to get in was 3 hours long.  On the walk there though we passed a Greek restaurant that sold Greek iced coffee and I remembered the amazing Greek coffee I had a couple of years ago in Greece...so I told everyone how amazing it was and we all went in to get some.  You have to get it iced though and it was cold but we did it anyway.  The girls and I loved ours...everyone else...not so much.  They actually thought it was terrible.  Devin's face in the picture below says it all. 

 After our coffee we got back on the subway to go to the other Black Tap location and meet up with Tobi's friend, Joel.  He was in line for us at Black Tap but the wait was going to be 2 hours so he took us to Chelsea Market instead and we had the best Pad Thai I've ever had for lunch followed by gelato.  Chelsea Market was a very cool place to see too.  It is built in an old factory and still has the original floors and walls.  Now it is a mall of sorts with restaurants and stores. 

 From there we went to the High Line.  The High Line is a relatively new walking path/park built on an old railroad track.  There are benches along the way and various unique little spots like a little amphitheatre type seating area overlooking a window out onto the road.  We walked almost the entire thing.  Then it was back to the subway and back to the hotel for a short rest before Matilda.  Well, the moms rested...we left the kids in Times Square where they took in the sights and went in some of the stores and we met up with them later. 

 Christine's sister came in from Long Island and joined us for Matilda.  The show was amazing and perfect and we loved it!  Even from the last row in the entire theatre...it did not disappoint.  After the show we walked Jackie back to Penn Station which turned out to be a very long walk and then got on the subway again and walked some more (including about two blocks in the wrong direction) and finally made it back to our hotel at about 1 am after stopping at a mini mart for a midnight snack.  We were living like real New Yorkers!  My pedometer on my phone said we had walked about 10.5 miles that day and my feet and knees were feeling every step.  We all slept very well that night!

A Weekend in NYC!

 A little over a month ago I talked to Ollie and he agreed to let the girls and I fulfill a dream of mine...to spend a weekend in NYC.  We found a great deal on the flight and hotel and our trip was planned!  Over the next couple of weeks it evolved and Devin and his mom joined us.  Soon after, we found out that Anabel and Tobi would be in town the same weekend.  I did a little bit of research before we left about how to use the subway system and we had a loose list of things we really wanted to see but other than that, we were flying by the seat of our pants. 

 Our flight left in the morning and we were in NYC by early afternoon.  We took a few minutes to dig out our winter weather gear and we were off to find our way to the hotel using public transportation.  I love a good challenge like this, no boring, expensive taxi ride for us!  It was a bit of a comedy of errors from the beginning...

 We got our Metrocards and headed out to the bus stop and soon the bus came.  We hopped on and immediately got yelled at for not having a bus ticket...oops.  Off the bus we went with all of our luggage and back to the curb where we found the machine to get a bus ticket.  We got on the bus and nobody even asked to see our tickets but we had them and we looked like we knew what we were doing this time.  Until...we missed our stop and decided to pull the cord asking the bus driver to stop for us.  We assumed he would so we stood up with all of our luggage and then had to continue standing and standing until he finally decided to stop about 5 minutes later.  It was a long 5 minutes.  We got off the bus and really had no idea where we were or where the subway station that we needed was.  Thankfully there was a map and a nice lady who stopped to help us.  She pointed us in the right direction (I was confused because it was above ground instead of below ground) and we made our way in.  Then we had a debacle trying to get through the turnstiles with our luggage.  We finally managed though...and made it on to the subway where we had our first unique NYC experience. 

 Some guys got on the subway and said, "Everybody stand back and no one gets kicked!"  Then they turned on some music and did some impressive breakdancing/Parkour moves for our entertainment.  They were great and we thoroughly enjoyed our intro to New York.  We got off at the right stop this time and only had a block or so to walk to our hotel.  We got checked in and the girls and I got a free upgrade to our room and ended up with a suite with a kitchen, living room, and bedroom!  The hotel was old but very nice and in a perfect location.  We were just two blocks from Central Park and about 6 blocks from Times Square. 

 Tobi and Anabel met us at our hotel and we immediately set out for Central Park to play in the snow! But not before stopping at Starbucks for coffee (there was one right across the street from our hotel).

 The weather was great!  It was cold but not too cold and there was still lots of snow on the ground.  We walked for a while and found Strawberry Fields where there is a memorial to John Lennon.  I don't know why I didn't upload any pictures of that...oh well.  We took tons of pictures in the park and Devin's Mom, Chris, played in the snow and made a snow angel and she and Devin had a snowball fight.  He had never seen that much snow in his life so it was a lot of fun for them.  We eventually headed back to the hotel and stopped in some souvenir shops along the way.

Back at the hotel we got ready for our evening, we had tickets to Les Miserables.  We walked from our hotel to Times Square and found the theatre and then found a place to eat dinner close to the theatre.  Times Square was amazing and the kids loved it.  They were in awe and I love the pictures I got of them experiencing it for the first time. 

 Les Mis was an incredible show and despite our exhaustion from our day we all were mesmerized by the performance.  I will admit to taking a short nap during a very long song between Cosette and Marius...just enough to wake me up to finish the show.  Les Mis will end it's run on Broadway in September so I'm really glad we got to see this incredible show.