New York City

Since we mentioned it here on the blog, most of you know we went to New York City as part of our trip to the east coast of the US in March. More on the rest of the trip later, but here are some fun shots from our trip to NYC. On Friday we caught the DC2NY bus directly from Vienna Metro Station to New York. This saved us having to drive, and allowed us all to ride together in the same vehicle. We went with Jason's mom, sister, aunt, and cousin.

After checking in at the Roosevelt Hotel, we ate lunch at Grand Central Terminal and wandered up to Rockefeller Center. Rachel stayed busy looking around at everything. We bought tickets to ride up to the "Top of the Rock" Saturday morning, and checked out the Lego store. Then we walked to Times Square, the home of commercial over-stimulation -- hmmm, did I (Dad) mention that NYC is high on my list of places you couldn't pay me to live? You can see in the picture to the right that the three girls are looking in three different directions to observe the craziness.


As part of my cousin's "sugar quest" we visited the M&M's store and the Hershey's store. We had to go back to the hotel to recuperate before dinner. Dinner at a cafe a few blocks from the hotel, and then the older girls went to see Spiderman, a new play with music from U2. You may have read about its many production difficulties; while the play was good it was paused several times to restart technical action scenes. Meanwhile, Rachel and Daddy headed back to the hotel. While walking back, Rachel's head and eyes were moving back and forth constantly in the stroller, trying to take everything in. She began to make a few frustrated sounds, but as we entered the hotel lobby she visibly relaxed and began to smile again. When we got to our room, which was quiet, she sighed and was ready for some fun playtime before bed. Even a 5-month old knows you have to recharge after NYC!

View of NYC from Rockefeller Center

Next morning we were up with Grandma O. and off to the "Top of the Rock," the observation deck at the 70th floor of the Rockefeller Center. Beautiful sunshine greeted us after we zoomed up in less than a minute thanks to a super-speedy elevator. Rachel's favorite part of the deck was feeling the wind in her face as she came in from the outside section of the deck. After descending, we took Rachel's first subway ride down to the end of the Manhattan and the Staten Island Ferry terminal. This free ferry was a great way to see the shoreline, and spend an hour inside (it was cold outside) looking at scenery. Most of the ferry did what we did on Staten Island: disembark, walk through the terminal, and immediately re-board the return ferry back to Manhattan. Nice views of the Statue of Liberty.

Taxi back to the hotel for rest, then we headed out on an afternoon trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). Rachel was reasonably entertained by the Egyptian section, and we also viewed the armor collection and the musical instrument section. More dinner and then we went to see Robin Williams in his Broadway debut play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. A deeply affecting play, it was nonetheless good to see phenomenal acting from the entire cast.

Sunday morning we started our day with a run at Central Park, which was a nice change from the concrete jungle. While there, we saw several thousand people walking, running, and racing in the 2011 Colon Cancer Challenge, to raise awareness and funds. We also saw people cleaning up from an early-morning duathlon, and tons of people going to the zoo, or simply enjoying the sunshine in the park. Following our run we returned to Times Square area, visited the Disney Store, and rode the big Ferris wheel inside Toys R Us. Rachel liked the Ferris wheel while we were moving, but was unimpressed with the stopping and starting to load the next round of passengers.

Soon it was time for another park with less stimulation, so we headed to Bryant Park, where we enjoyed more sunshine and used the public outdoor reading room: shelves full of books for anyone to read while sitting in the park. We walked back to the hotel past the NYC Public Library, where we talked with a couple from Connecticut holding a sign reading "Talk to Me." We finished up our trip by waiting in line on a random street corner for our bus.

Grandma held a sleeping Rachel for the majority of the long ride home to NOVA.