Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Day Two - "The Statue of Liberty"

We woke up at 8a.m. on Thursday June 27th, and got ready to go see the Statue of Liberty! We were too excited to stay at the hotel to eat, so we started walking in the direction of our tour bus. After five or six blocks, we found the Starbucks! It was packed, as are most coffee shops in the city, but Joli managed to find a good spot to sit and wait for her breakfast.
 After we got our stuff, we headed upstairs to enjoy our food and people watch.
 I realized at this point that the sunscreen I put on the kids made them quite pasty.
 It was a nice, yummy breakfast.
 After we finished our breakfast, we walked the six or so more blocks to get on our bus! We were all super excited, especially since we were in Times Square! Yay!


 The buildings were just amazing! I was so incredibly fascinated by the awesome architecture!

 This is the point when you may be thinking "Wow, there are a lot of pictures of buildings", well you're just going to have to move on past that, because it's only the beginning!!!
 We all had headphones to hear our guide. Joli loved listening to all the cool facts, and since I couldn't wear my headphones and still hear the 85,000 things Markus needed to tell me, Joli reiterated everything that was said.


 Look at all the details!! I love it!
 All the rooftop gardens were just so cool, wish I could have wandered through them!

 This building is famous. Cannot for the life of me remember what it's famous for, but it's pretty cool!
 Markus loved pointing out all the buildings that have clocks on them. It was pretty neat.


 There were so many cool churches. Another thing I could have spent a lot more time experiencing!



 I'm not sure what the problem was, maybe his map wasn't folding right...???
 I was super entertained by this building!

 I was also fascinated by the water towers on most of the buildings, I wonder how many of them are still being used?

 Here was one of the parks we drove past, they were really pretty!
 This building was so cool with the archway underneath!

 The kids thought this building was with it's crazy waves was so cool. So did I!



 We were almost to the harbor!
 We went by the coolest church and cemetery. I totally have to go back and see it someday!

 We made it to Battery Park, and after a short walk, we were on the boat to the Statue of Liberty!

 There weren't too many people on the boat, so the kids had a good time playing when there was nothing to look at.



 This was the original train station apparently! It's no longer used, but so beautiful!
 I would have loved to explore Ellis Island. I probably could have spent an entire day reading all the history! Another thing to go back and see!


 Then we came up on the Statue!! The kids were jumping up and down so happy!




It was very beautiful, and the kids just loved seeing it. They cried when the boat started to head back. It's so wonderful to have kids that enjoy seeing things as much as I do!

Day One Vacation - "This is the flight that never ends"

We woke up at 3:30a.m. on June 26th and got ready to get on an airplane!! The kids were so excited! I couldn't wait to get there, however not so excited about spending five hours in a 3x6 space with a child that I've never actually seen sit still. They were incredibly cute though!
 Luckily we managed to get a flight that had TV screens on the back of the seats!

 Unfortunately, Markus was either too tired, too excited, or just too... three years old to watch anything for more than ten minutes!
 After jumping, screaming, kicking, hitting, pinching, throwing things and himself all over our small space, Markus fell asleep. Eight minutes before we landed...
 We had to wait awhile for our transport to pick us up. Some were more patient than others...
 Markus finally stopped screaming and was talking with me about the different colors and sights around him. He was especially interested in the yellow curb. Which people around us didn't think he should be looking at, and freaked out about, making him start screaming again. I could have punched them in the face!
 We were finally on the bus (which was not air conditioned), and back to the argument about wearing our seat belt while in motion. I don't think this lesson ever sunk in, which is why child seat companies make them so hard to unbuckle I'm sure!

 Our hotel was on 36th and 9th, and there was a beautiful old church across the street! I just LOVE old buildings and architecture. I couldn't get enough!
 After checking into our hotel and relaxing for a few minutes, we took a little walk to find something to eat.
 We found a place called Burgers and Cupcakes around the corner, ordered it to go, and brought it back to our room to relax and enjoy without the battle of "sit on your bottom" in a restaurant. I loved looking at the buildings outside our window.
 Our hotel had a restaurant, which we never actually ended up it. In fact, we never ate in any restaurant the ENTIRE trip!
 I was so entertained looking at the back of the buildings. It was like being in an episode of Friends!
We were all so tired, we fell asleep at 7:30p.m.! (4:30 p.m. at home!!) It worked out perfectly!