New York City!!!!!
Friday, July 6th, 2007Today was our check-out day from the Villas at Fairway. I don’t think we’ll be returning to this resort again. After a week of being sick, I know we didn’t make the best of the amenities, but I just don’t think we’d return to the Poconos again. One positive of his resort that many have taken advantage of, is it’s close proximity to New York City, only an hour and a half drive. Mackenzie has been asking to go to NYC for a few years now, ever since she first saw the movie Eloise at the Plaza. I know that this past week wasn’t a lot of fun for her, so even though I was a little apprehensive about going into the city with the younger boys, I knew it would make her trip. Andrew was on board, actually I think he may have been the one to suggest it!
I had read that the best way to get into the city from where we were in Pennsylvania was to drive to Staten Island and take the Ferry over to Manhattan. My one stipulation if we were going to NYC was to not have to drive in the city. By going to Staten Island you can park a few minutes walk from the ferry terminal in a municipal lot for $4 for the entire day and ride the Ferry for free! We got to Staten Island just after noon and managed to just catch one of the ferries. I wore Finn in the Pouch Sling and Andrew wore Ciaran on his back in the BabyHawk. Ciaran is just too much of a runner and will not hold hands, so we felt this was the best place for him. We also packed his little doggie backpack style harness to have with us for the day. The ferry ride was uneventful, although I thought it was pretty funny that in the ladies restroom, they have a separate vanity area that was filled with women all applying make-up and doing their hair in a mad rush before they hit the City. Another plus of taking the Ferry into the city is that it passes by the Statue of Liberty, something that Mackenzie really wanted to see!
Once we got off the Ferry we picked up day passes for the Subway and rode as far as Penn Station. Finn was fussing a little so I nursed him on the Subway, a definite first for me! The kids were in awe when we got up to the street level. We walked for a while along 7th Avenue then soon hit Times Square. Liam immediately spotted the ToysRUs!
We went in and were all amazed by the size of the store. It’s 3 complete floors and on the bottom floor there is actually a Ferris Wheel! We went up to the second level and spotted the Pokemon Store! They actually have dedicated departments for some of the more popular items. It was sad to see him pass right by the Thomas setup and run for the Pokemon. We ended up buying the kids each a t-shirt, with the boys choosing Pokemon and Mackenzie a NYC Hello Kitty one.
Of course hunger was setting in, and Ciaran immediately spotted the Times Square McDonald’s, so lunch was spent there. I will be the first to admit that I do enjoy McDonald’s food, but not the US McDonald’s! I despise it, I find the food tasteless and just plain gross, but I couldn’t talk them out of it! We continued along 7th Ave until we reached Central Park. I knew that there was a huge play area for kids (saw it on Law and Order…lol), it was much bigger (and better) than I remembered.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water area, it was just surreal being there. Here’s this huge park right in the middle of this Urban Jungle. Another I couldn’t help but notice was all of the highend strollers. Urban Mountain Buggies, Bugaboo Frogs…they were everywhere! The only way to get Liam and Ciaran out of the park was to bribe them with Sponge Bob Icecreams. Yes, bribery gets you everywhere! We stopped for a few minutes on one of the park benches and this butterfly would not leave Liam alone! It would fly around, but kept coming back and landing on him. It was really funny!
After leaving Central Park we walked down to Broadway to see the Ed Sullivan Theater home of Dave Letterman’s Late Show. Then we spotted a sign for the Nintendo World Store, near Rockerfeller Center. We’re huge Nintendo Fans, so we just had to check out the store while there. Along the walk there we saw Radio City Music Hall too. The kids (including Andrew) really enjoyed the Nintendo Store.
After this we decided that it was probably time to hit the road, as I really didn’t know my way back out of Staten Island and would prefer to do it during daylight. This plan was botched as we just missed the Ferry and had to wait for the next one. One thing we didn’t realize was when we got our directions (we use Microsoft’s Streets & Trips software) the route it gave us was directly through the city! Not fun at all, especially in the dark. I persevered and got us out! We drove as far as New Haven, Connecticut and spent the night there. It was a great day and definitely a great end to this leg of our travels!
