Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Our kids in Vacaville having a blast!

While N8 and I were off having a blast in NYC our kids were having a blast with my sister and her family. They seriously didn't miss us a bit! My wonderful sister took pictures while we were gone, thanks Karen!
Hanging at Old Navy with the mannequins!
Playing on the rocking horses!
Riding the 25 cent rides!
They ran laps, 2.5 miles to stay in shape!
Henry stretching out after his run!
Sacramento Zoo
Look- we match!
Henry is a climber
Mo really does like his Aunt!
Tire swing fun!
Once we got back:
We got the kids all NYC hats as souvenirs!

Our New York City trip, day 4

Here's our Thursday:
Wednesday
  • Walked, to Chelsea's Market
  • Walked to subway to Manhattan Temple
  • Subway to central park
  • Central Park-Belvedere Castle, Cleopatra's Needle, MET
  • Subway to Serenditidy
  • Serendipity frozen Hot Chocolate
  • Subway to Times Square-got tickets to Annie
  • Walked to Penn Station to get smoothie
  • Walked to Hotel
  • Walked to Pizza on 38th st
  • Walked theater on Times Square
  • Watched Annie
  • Walked to Hotel
N8 was crazy and got up and ran. He's training for his next marathon, I was soaking up the no children to wake me up!
We got up and going and decided to walk down to Chelsea Market. We decided it would be easier to walk than take the subway and walk (I'm still not sure that was the best choice, but oh well!). 
We did pass a giant frying pan (no clue why!)
 
and good views of the Hudson River:
I wanted to go here because this is the home of Food Network. It was an interested indoor mall of sort. We did pass by someone that I swear was Melissa d'Arabian, but no picture proof.
From here were rode the subway over to Central Park and walked through enjoying Belvedere castle on our way. It was apparently built for no particular reason except to have something fun to run into in Central Park!
Then we found something that both N8 and I were looking forward to seeing-Cleopatra's Needle. The reasoning- it's in a book we both read- The Cane Chronicles. It was quite impressive and I'm glad we got to see it!
Cleopatra's Needle happens to be right behind the MET (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). It has the same price policy as the Natural History Museum, so we paid $5 for each of us and enjoyed some art. 
We really were drawn to the Egyptian wing!
After them MET we took a subway and walked over to the Manhattan LDS Temple! It's crazy that it just right in the middle of everything. It's a smaller temple and does have regular sessions, but limited clothing rentals and requires appointments for sealings. We had a couple of sealing names, but will do them another time. I was glad we were able to see it!
One thing I wanted to was going to Serendipity and get frozen hot chocolate. N8 wasn't quite sure why, but went along it it. It was worth it- so yummy!
At this point we realized we had crossed all items off our must see list!! It was truly amazing! So we decided to go check out the discount Broadway ticket booth in Time Square and see if we could get tickets to a show for that evening. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and had 3 options we thought we would be happy with. We chose to go see Annie. We got the tickets for 50% off were excited to see Jane Lynch as Miss Hanigan!
After we got our tickets we headed back to do some creative rearranging in our suitcases preparing for a very early departure then next morning. Then we found another pizza place to stop by on our way to the theater. This one was called Lazzaras. Walking there also allowed us to walk through the garment district. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop and grab some fabric!!
Then we headed off to the theater. We had really great seats, about 9 rows from the front on the left side.
What made it even funner is finding out that one of the orphans in the cast had her mom, sister and aunt sitting in front of us! It was fun to talk to them and find out a little more about Broadway performers!
Then it was our last walk back to our hotel, a short night sleep and our last walk to the Subway. Our ride to the airport was much quicker than the other direction, about 1.5 hours.

Here are some things I learned from this trip that I think would have been helpful to know before hand:

  • Don't be alarmed if you see someone pee on the side of the road (so gross!!)
  • There are rats in the subway (we saw a few!)
  • Hotel proximity to a subway station is more important than general location (in my opinion!)
  • It really is better to just ignore the people trying to get you to buy things. Being polite just engages them.
  • Have a plan, but be willing to adjust where needed (like when it rains!!)
  • Have fun!


Monday, June 10, 2013

Our New York City trip, day 3!

Here's our Tuesday!!
Tuesday
    • Rode subway and walked to Rockefeller plaza
    • Went to LEGO store, today show and st. Patrick cathedral
    • Went to Macy's
    • Rode subway and walked to  Empire State Building, got to go to the 102nd and 80th floors
    • Rode subway and walked to Soupman, me broccoli cheese and nate tomato-yum
    • Walked to Carnegie Hall
    • Walked to FAO Swartz
    • Walked through part of central park saw Alice in Wonderland Statue
    • Subway to hotel
    • Subway & walked to Steak & Shake
    • Walked to theater for Wicked
    • Saw Wicked
    • Walked back through Times Square-m&m store, Disney store,
    • Walked back to Hotel
    Nate decided to sleep in and not run on Tuesday. I think our Monday had actually worn him out a little!
    So after getting going that morning we walked over to the Subway and hitched a ride over to Rockefeller Plaza (no ice skating, but still cool)!
    Right there was also a fun LEGO store which we of course had to go in!
    We also passed The Today Show (we were not early enough for the taping)
    Radio City:
    And a statue of Atlas (which was also so in LEGO!)
    Then a quick subway ride over to the Empire State Building (and Macy's, which was cool even if N8 didn't think I thought it was cool)! We had a super fancy "executive pass) to the 102nd floor which included all of the workers telling us "don't wait in any lines" multiple times! The Views were amazing!
     
    Unfortunately we waited to go to the 600th floor to see Olympus, but they wouldn't let us! (Percy Jackson fan?)
    We were hungry at this point and headed over to the famous Soupman for our 2nd Seinfeld experience! No soup for you!!
    I got broccoli cheese and N8 got tomato. It was some of the best soup either of us has ever had! The 2 ladies that ordered after us were actually afraid to order, which made the experience even funner!
    Once we finished our soup we headed over to FAO Schwarz to check it out. Our kids would have gone crazy in here!
    They happened to be having a Peep's promotion that day!
    FAO Schwarz happens to be right next to Central Park! So we walked on in and got our first taste of the gigantic park! We headed for the Alice in Wonderland statue.
    We were exhausted (or at least I was) but we had much to still look forward to, so another Subway ride and walk back to our hotel to clean up before Wicked!!
    We made a quick stop at Steak n' Shake. N8 had an awesome looking burger, fries and shake and I had some fries, which were really good! We might have to keep our eye out for another one of these!
    People say Wicked is awesome- well it is- we loved it!
    After the show we walked back through Times Square, did some more shopping and walked back to our hotel!