We did it! We picked dates, guarded them carefully on the calendar, rearranged by a day to be back for our youth pastor's last Sunday when we found out he was taking a new job, and went to New York for a couple days.
New York City has been on Aliza and Anna's list of places to explore for a long time. Our lodging was about an hour and a half north of the city and so we planned to go into NYC on our way to Cold Spring and again on our way home.
But first, we got lunch at the Christiana Mall and were very surprised that our friends were also having lunch at the mall on their way to a family getaway. We had a more social and little longer lunch than we had planned but it was fun!
Jeremy is an amazing navigator and I can follow directions so I drove into NYC while Jeremy found and prepaid for a parking garage very close to Grand Central Terminal. Several times we debated taking the subway, but with 6 people, logistically and $$ it made sense to just drive in. First stop was Grand Central Terminal for bathrooms.
We walked up 5th Avenue to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
We went in an walked around. Anna was especially impacted by this experience in relation to what she was seeing compared to what we believe.
Taking in everything along the way!
In Central Park, it was a little disturbing to watch a raccoon wander out of the bushes and across our path.
Anna was in her element! She loved everything about the city!
Isaiah's outfit choice had to be documented. I wanted so badly to tell him to change his socks. But I decided he would be easy to spot if we got separated and he was quite happy about them. Isaiah was happy to make sure he was holding my hand while we were walking. Our family is a picture of big contrasts right now--Aliza ready to wander off by herself, Anna ready to move to the city, Isaiah still holding my hand, and Josiah biding his time until we leave the city.
There is one child who makes her way into most every picture!
And then we were in Times Square. Anna was mesmerized. Aliza was looking for Broadway because the goal is to make it to a show at the end of the summer.
After walking past an ice cream truck on almost every block, ice cream was a necessity after supper. It wasn't even very good ice cream, however it hit the spot anyway.
Three days later, on our way home, we went back into NYC and this time parked in Chinatown. The plan was to eat lunch in Chinatown which we did. Jeremy found a place that had high reviews and it was just the experience we were looking for.
We drove from Chinatown to the Financial District. Chinatown really did us in. lol. Isaiah didn't eat well and he needed a bathroom. Bathroom was first on the agenda and was not easy to come by. I thought I found something for Isaiah to eat, but it wasn't right for him.
The only thing Josiah expressed minor interest in was Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. We didn't make it to either of those, but we thought the Charging Bull would be interesting. We didn't even try to make it through the crowd to actually see it. (By this point, Josiah really didn't care what he did or didn't see.)
The ultimate goal for the afternoon was to get to the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We were successful in doing that. The city skyline from the ferry was spectacular.
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