WE "heart" NYC

I realize some of you are Disney fans, some of you love Hawaii...(Karen and Joe love both)....some folks are Carolina Beach addicts and Topsail fanatics....no one really likes Myrtle Beach (heh, heh, heh) ! But us...well, we are over-the-moon in love with NYC! Our first family visit was way back in the very early eighties. We drove from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie and took the train into Grand Central. These were Pre-Giuliani days...the city was a mess. Times Square was just awful...one porno shop,  strip club,  x rated theatre after another....we still had a great time...the kids really enjoyed it too....we did the U.N. and Staten Island ferry, Macy's, and oh yes, our first Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Since then, we have been back many many times, perhaps 35-40 visits and I never think, "well, I've seen it all now".

 

Today started out overcast. We took the ferry from Liberty Harbor across the Hudson river to the Wall Street port. Even gloomy is impressive here.

 

 

The ferry takes less than 10 minutes and cost us $6.50 each. A real bargain. The tall building is the new All Nations building on the site of the World Trade Center Towers. It is a beautiful building.

 

 

So, we get off the ferry and neither of us has any idea where the heck we are or how to get to where we need to be...I stop to take the above photo of the bike rentals...heard these are big in Europe, so cool we have them here too...well, a nice lady asks if we are lost?.... what do we say? "oh, no, thanks anyway."  We want so badly to be cool New Yorkers....and what do you know???? Right next to these bikes is a "YOU ARE HERE" map, we are saved!!! We find the subway, buy our Metro card (they now cost a dollar...bummer). We head way uptown...finally. Get off the Metro at 103rd and wander around once again....but, hooray! We finally find

 

 

At just $6.00 a piece, this gem of a museum was a bargain.

 

 

We had an early lunch in the café....delish! Paul looks unhappy here because he spilled some tomato sauce on his favorite shirt...the pizza was killer tho!

We visited several exhibits. A great one on the new small dwellings they are designing for folks who want to live in NYC, but not pay millions...The tinyhome movement has always been fascinating to me...there's lots of videos on YouTube so this was neat to see. We also saw a photo history of Manhattan and area and learned much more about this city's history. Spent about 3 hours there and we were beginning to fade...and we had a long trip back to Liberty Harbor.

We got lucky as the M4 bus stopped right in front of the museum and was not crowded so we hopped on and rode all the way down 5th avenue from 103rd to 32nd...passing lots of NYC icons on our way. Caught the Path to New Jersey, got off and asked a friendly postman which way????? He kindly gave us good directions and soon.....but wait....is that a real Mexican restaurant on the corner????? Yep, and now I am hungry...so we go in...

 

 

Killer hot sauce and chips....and way cute place

 

 

The end of a perfect day!

Tally ho,

Cathy