Experience NYC with kids

Ironically, I got to spend two birthdays in a row in the Big Apple.  Matt took me there for our first experience as I turned 40 last year and we would have never guessed we'd return one year later with our kids in tow.  We were excited to watch their reactions to the big city, Times Square and Lady Liberty.  Just getting into the city is quite a process, however, and we experienced some true New Jersey hospitality along the way.  We stayed in a park that looked like Disney Land, online, but turned out to be Disney Slums.  It did have wild turkey/geese/peacock looking birds that roamed free (we were told to eat bugs and tics), which the kids liked.  Other than that, it was full of iffy looking characters smoking a lung out every day.  There are a LOT of people who smoke in the East.  I wonder what the statistics really are, but it seems like everyone has a cigarette in hand.  The NJ beach was so much fun and so much warmer than the northern coast of NH, so we luckily were able to leave our RV park to spend a few good days there.   Funny, I didn't even take one picture of the RV park...that's how stellar it was. 

Small sand crabs or sand fleas

Pointing out the first sights of the NYC and Freedom Tower

Freedom Tower overlooking Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan. All of these buildings had windows blown out and major damage after 9/11

The Sphere is a sculpture that once sat between the twin towers but was relocated and kept in original form with dents and all from the debris that rained down on that day. Quite a sight.

I love that siblings hang onto each other in the big city.  We rarely see moments like this.....Alex willingly holding hands with Elise.

A special birthday dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. 

On the escalator in the worlds biggest ToysRUs in Times Square (4 stories tall).  A full sized Ferris wheel sits in the middle.

New subway right down to the World Trade Center where the kids had the whole place to themselves.  Quickly became a jungle gym.

I love this photo of everyone looking up at the Freedom Tower.  We sat in front of the church that was the ONLY building that didn't have any windows blown out or structural damage.  It's a somber and sobering feeling to know what happened there.

On the free Staten Island ferry ride into NYC.  Lady Liberty is quite a sight. 

Our last glance at her as the sun was going down heading back to Staten Island.

 

I was telling my Dad about how feeding the pigeons was what the kids all say they loved about being in NYC.  Not the WTC, not Times Square, not Battery Park, not even ToysRUS.  Feeding the pigeons.  He wisely responded, "from a child's point of view...kind of like keeping your eye on the sparrow".  I love my dad.  I have to remember even the littlest things are important.