NYC Take II

In case you are wondering what happened to NYC Take I, it was foiled by the subway and traffic. We tried to take the kids to NYC last Saturday. Instead of driving into Manhattan, as we usually do, we decided to drive to the Bronx and then take the subway. When we arrived at the subway station we found this sign, "Subway service is not available at this station. For subway service go to 135th street." We were at 242nd street.

No big deal, we thought, we'll just drive down to 135th and find parking. But, after driving only 2 blocks in over 10 minutes we decided that wasn't going to work. So, we decided to get back on the freeway and try to get over to the 96th street area on the west side of Manhattan. In a matter of a couple of miles we realized that that was also going to be impossible due to traffic. It wasn't that we couldn't get there, it was just that by the time we did, we would probably have spent a more than 4 hours in the car and we wouldn't have enough time left to do what we wanted to do. (At this point it had already been over 2 hours since we left our house.)

Needless to say, we were very disappointed that we were going to have to turn around and come home. Even that turned into an adventure due to insane traffic, a truck broken down at the top of an exit ramp, and a fender bender.

Anyway.

B left for Scout camp on Sunday and on Monday R and I decided we would take the girls and try again. This time we played it safe and drove our traditional route into Manhattan and parked in our favorite parking garage. (Total trip time... 1 hour and 15 minutes)

We walked past the Manhattan temple and into the south end of Central Park and spent the afternoon exploring. The park is so huge that even though we walked and walked and walked and walked (what's that from?), we still only saw a tiny bit of all there is to see in the park.

We started with a trip to the gift shop in the old Dairy to purchase a map. And right next door to the gift shop is the Chess and Checkers house where the outdoor cement tables have chess/checker boards designed into the tops of them using small rocks...some red, some black. Next time we'll have to bring some checkers.

From there we walked north. We found the statue of Balto.
Then we wandered further north to the Conservatory Water where we had fun watching people sail the remote control sailboats. There are a ton that you can rent and sail, but we saw two boats that were ones that people owned and brought to sail in the pond.
From there we found the Alice in Wonderland statue and the girls had fun playing on it.
Next we wandered over to the Loeb Boathouse and wandered part way around the lake, watching all of the people out in the row boats on the lake. It looked like such fun, we'll have to try that next time. We stopped at the Bethesda Fountain, next to the lake, and P and C found turtles swimming in the lake.
We crossed over the lake on Bow Bridge and headed off into the Ramble. It didn't take us long to discover where it got its name. Thank goodness for the map or we would have gotten lost. With all of the trees blocking the view of the skyline, and the the curvy paths, it felt like you were on a hike in the mountains somewhere.

We wandered out of the Ramble at Belvedere Castle where the girls enjoyed watching the couple that was getting their wedding pictures taken.
We found a giant statue of a warrior on a horse.
We continued north to see the Obelisk
And the Great Lawn. (Check out P giving herself Bunny Ears.)
You can see from the scaffolding and barriers in the background that they were getting the lawn set up for a concert later in the week.

Our goal had been to make it to the Reservoir but by this time, we had been exploring for 3 and a half hours, we'd walked about 4 miles and were tired and hungry so we decided to go and eat dinner.

R took us to the Shake Shack were he has eaten before, and we all had yummy burgers and delicious shakes. Then we hopped on the subway and headed south to Time Square.
We took a quick tour though the huge Toys R Us store and enjoyed seeing the Lego sculptures
and gigantic Dinousaur.
We also visited the M&Ms store where they have everything M&M.

Back outside, the girls were mesmerized by all of the flashing lights, giant TVs and changing billboards.
It really is something to see.Then we jumped back on the subway and headed to our car and home. We were definitely tired but had enjoyed a great day. We can't wait to go back and see more of the park.