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September 2, 2005 — After spending an enjoyable evening in Richmond with Jonna's brother and his family, we set out for New York City around 9 am. Traffic was light and gas prices remained high, reaching at least $3.09/gallon as we ventured northward. The weather could not have been more perfect - low 80's and a wonderful breeze. The excitement grew as the kids learned that we would be traveling beneath the Hudson River through the Lincoln Tunnel into the city. From the tunnel, we emerged onto the bustling island of Manhattan - there is no place quite like it in the world! We quickly found our hotel, the Hampton Inn Chelsea, at 108 W. 24th Street and settled ourselves before heading
out to explore the city. Darby and Grayson wanted to take the subway, but we convinced them we would see more walking. Grayson commented in his adult-like fashion "Yeah, I really need to get a feel for Manhattan so walking will be best." We strode north on 6th avenue up through the theater district and Times Square with an end destination in mind - Dylan's Candy Bar! On the way we explored a gigantic Toys R Us, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, The Plaza Hotel, and Trump Tower before arriving at the desired destination of Dylan's! Dylan's Candy Bar is located at 3rd Avenue and 60th Street and it is owned by Dylan Lauren, daughter of Ralph Lauren. It is the coolest candy store ever! They have every known kind of candy lining the walls and a huge case displaying the names of famous people and a sample of their favorite type of candy! For a child it is like diving into the Willy Wonka movie! After everyone in the family painstakingly made their favorite choices, we headed toward the southern end of Central Park (click here for a neat overhead view). We walked all through the park and enjoyed the sights and sound of the New Yorkers picnicing and playing there. Once we reached Columbus Circle we estimated we had walked 5-6 miles. The kid's legs were killing them so we cabbed it the 36 blocks back to the hotel, grabbed a Jamba Juice smoothie for dinner and crashed. Tomorrow promises to be another beautiful day filled with adventure!
September 3, 2005 — The weather was outstanding again today! After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we boarded the subway for downtown. Once at Battery Park, we learned that tickets to tour the inside of the Statue of Liberty were not available this weekend. We decided to reserve tickets to tour both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for Tuesday morning before we head to Washington DC. We enjoyed wandering and people watching in Battery Park. The kids found an "alternative" Statue of Liberty and
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posed for a picture. From the park, we headed over to Fraunces Tavern at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. Fraunces Tavern was the site of General Washington's farewell speech to the officers in the Continental army after the Revolutionary War. The Sons of the Revolution have restored the tavern into a typical "tavern-type" restaurant downstairs and a museum on the two upper floors. They conduct a special hands-on Family Day activity the first Saturday of each month so the kids had the opportunity to paint a tavern style plaque. They both enjoyed the chance to get some paint on their hands! We meandered down Wall Street, appropriately named because the orignal settlers, the Dutch, had built a wall in that location to protect themselves from the Native Americans and the English. In that same area, we also saw the Federal Hall where Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States of America, and Trinity Church. It was amazing to see gravestones that are over 300 years old. We cabbed it up to Chelsea, made a brief pit stop at the hotel, and then ventured out again on foot toward the east side of the island to visit the United Nations building. The kids have been troopers with all the walking we have been doing and they are sleeping well at night! At the U.N. building, we took a very informative 1 hour tour. Our guide was a lady from Zimbabwe. It was very interesting to learn about all of the activities of the U.N. The kids were particularly interested in learning about the removal of landmines and they were fascinated with the fact that the U.N complex is an international (non-USA) property. There are 191 member nations and all activities of the U.N. are conducted in six major languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. We also sent a few postcards from the U.N. post office using stamps that are only valid for items mailed from the U.N. After our U.N. visit, the girls and boys split up. The girls headed to the American Girl Place - a mega, 4-story store that sells only American Girl dolls and items. Darby was in hog heaven! The boys headed to the ESPN Zone in Times Square to try to catch the UGA football game. Having no luck, they headed back to the hotel to see the game on TV. Darby and I enjoyed the next several hours shopping at the American Girl store and Barnes and Noble bookstore before meeting the boys back at the hotel where we found them watching the game. After the game (Dawgs beat Boise State 48-13), we headed out for some great NY Pizza, then called it a day.
September 4, 2005 — We were afforded another beautiful day today - mid-70's and breezy. We walked up to Columbus Circle at 59th Street and the kids enjoyed playing in the fountain there. We decided to spend an easy Sunday in the sun and strolled through Central Park. It is so easy to get turned around in the park that we weren't quite sure where we were going. Darby was trying to locate the old-fashioned carousel she rode when she was up here in the spring and we finally located it. We all took a
spin to some old carnival tunes! From the carousel, we hiked all the way up to 83rd Street via the park. We were thinking about going to the Natural History Museum on the upper west side since they were suppose to have a reciprocal program with Fernbank in Atlanta. That didn't turn out to be the case, so we decided to bag the museum idea since we will be be doing plenty of that in Washington. At this point, we had walked over 7 miles and Darby's feet were killing her, so she and Mark decided to cab it back to the hotel for a rest. Grayson and I were gluttons for punishment so we walked back through the park, stopping for ice cream and a peek at the Central Park Zoo. Grayson and I also popped into FAO Schwartz Toy Store at 5th and 58th and we got to see professional dancers dance on the giant-sized piano, just like was done in the movie "BIG" with Tom Hanks. It was very cool. The store is 3 floors jammed with the biggest stuffed toys we ever saw. There was an enormous stuffed elephant that cost $15,000 - needless to say there weren't many shoppers clamoring to purchase that! We also made a quick stop at the American Girl Place again to pick up a few Christmas presents, and then headed down 5th Avenue for the hotel. Grayson LOVES the subway so we boarded the subway at the 42nd Street station and headed back to Chelsea. After a good rest for all, we took a cab back up to the park to grab some dinner. We made our own salads at Whole Foods and then the kids blew off some energy racing around in the Sheep Meadow area of Central Park. We hiked back down to our hotel AGAIN - 36 blocks - and turned in for tonight. We have gotten more walking done so far on this trip! Darby is disappointed that she missed the trip to FAO so she plans to be there tomorrow morning at 10 am when they open to see them roll out the red carpet and we hope to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to get a dose of culture.
September 5, 2005 — Today we were up and out early. We headed uptown to FAO Schwartz to be there when the store opened. The doors opened promptly at 10 am with men in red coats and hats rolling out a red carpet and playing a tune on their trumpets. When we entered the store the entire staff was there lining the main walkway clapping and cheering. We went upstairs to the giant-sized piano that
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Grayson saw yesterday and both kids loved playing on it. Grayson tried to play The Entertainer and Darby was working on Für Elise. Those are the pieces they have been working on with their piano teacher. It was amazing but you could actually make out the tune! After exploring the store for about an hour, we headed north on 5th Avenue up the east side of Central Park to The Metropolitan Museum of Art at the park and 82nd Street. The museum was great. We saw works by Van Gogh, Picasso,
Toulouse Lautrec,
Gauguin, Monet and many others. We also enjoyed the armor exhibit, the Egyptian area, as well as the American art areas. The rooftop garden of the museum was breathtaking as we had another gorgeous day here - high 70's with a breeze. After a few hours of culture we were ready for a mid-afternoon lunch/dinner and decided to try Serendipity. Serendipity has quite a celebrity following and I guess that is what contributed to our 1.5 hour wait at 3 pm in the afternoon! We weren't in a hurry so we walked around and came back an hour later for dinner. The restuarant was cute and had a fun menu but overall I was unimpressed with the service and the high prices! Serendipity is on 60th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue and from there we could see the cable car that takes commuters over to Roosevelt Island. We decided to ride over to Roosevelt Island and back just for fun. The view was incredible. It was 5:30 pm by the conclusion of our ride and Mark decided to head back to the hotel to get a little work done and jumped on the subway while the kids and I opted to walk back and window shop. We are turning in early tonight exhausted. We are all getting weary of walking, but our legs are getting into great shape! Tomorrow we have plans to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the morning after we pack up and check out of the hotel. We will head to Washington DC late tomorrow afternoon for some adventures in our nation's capital!
September 6, 2005 — 6 am came early this morning! We had to get an early start to get down to Battery Park for our day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We hopped in a cab driven by a Kamikaze and were down at the park in no time! We boarded the 8:30 AM Circle Line ferry for Liberty
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Island and were in awe of another beautiful day! We explored Liberty Island for a while before going through several layers of security to get into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The pedestal itself is 154 feet high, and the statue towers an additional 151 feet above the pedestal. The statue is no longer open to the public, but from inside the top of the pedestal it is possible to see up the center of the statue to all the girders, which is an extremely interesting view. Darby and Grayson completed the Junior Ranger program, available at most National Parks, and were awarded Junior Ranger badges, providing both a fun and educational experience for them. From Liberty Island we headed over to Ellis Island via the ferry. We explored exhibits depicting the experience of the many immigrants who entered the USA through the New York Harbor between the late 1800's and 1954 when the facility was closed. By 1 pm we knew our time in NYC was nearing an end. We headed back to Manhattan to check out of our hotel and retrieve our car. On our southbound route to Washington DC we detoured through my hometown of Bordentown (Exit 7 on the NJ Turnpike). We ate at a fabulous diner in Bordentown called Mastoris. I had prepped Mark and the kids about how great the food is there - particularly their famous cheese bread - and they were not disappointed. We had to take a couple of loaves to go! I gave the family the 5 minute tour of historical little Bordentown, warning them that if they blinked they might miss it! For such a small town there is a ton of history. The kids posed in front of the first free public school in New Jersey, a one-room schoolhouse founded by Clara Barton and situated in Bordentown. After our tour, we headed south to Largo, Maryland where we will be staying while we visit DC for the rest of the week. After settling into the hotel, the kids crashed to re-charge for tomorrow, which promises to be another packed day!
Philadelphia • Williamsburg • Jamestown • New York City • Washington DC
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