The New York Sightseeing Trip

Thursday, April 6, 2006 - Day 1 TRAVEL: Millers Falls, MA to North Bergen, NJ The day started off pretty good. We got up and got Ryan ready for school. Jillian stayed back to finish up some packing. I started a load of laundry that we would be needing for the trip then packed my son in the car and drove him to his school. I came back for the wet clothes and Jillian. We still don't have a drier. I put all the wet clothes in a trash bag and tossed them in the back seat. We loaded her car with all the stuff for the trip then made our way to the laundromat off Main Street. With the clothes set to be drying, Jillian and I left to have breakfast at Bickford's. "Are you nervous about coming here?" she asked. She was of course referring to my little picketing adventure and the posts about the sudden closings of their local restaurants and how poorly managed this chain is. We needed to go here one last time before the property changes hands and the layout is changed. It's where we went to dinner after I proposed to her. She thought it would be a cute idea to leave this note. We picked up our laundry and packed it into the suitcase. Then drove to get our son from school. We got there early and watched him play with the other children. As the other parents started coming to pick up their children, we nabbed Ryan and started the drive for the vacation. The drive started so easily. It was easy sailing from Massachusetts through Connecticut but there was a situation when we hit New York - Ryan had to use the bathroom. When he says he has to go that could me immediately this second or in the next few minutes. He did a great job holding it and I took the first turn off I could find. With disaster avoided we now had to find our way back. We got lost at around exit 6a on our directions for a couple of hours. If we were on the Amazing Race, we would have been one of those couples that people say, "oh, we would not be acting like that in that situation." Oops. Good thing the cameras weren't on. We finally found our way then made it to our hotel and checked into our hotel. Resting briefly at the hotel, Jillian made us some ham sandwiches. We left hotel and set out to the city. The phone book provided a map which showed a connecting subway train from New Jersey to New York at the Newark Airport and that seemed to be just a bit up the street. Just up the road we saw a metro station, it wasn't the airport though. We hopped out and looked at the map on the wall. This train would bring us to Hoboken. I didn't see Hoboken on our maps we had as a connection to New York but we asked the security guard and he said this was the right train. With round trip tickets in hand we boarded the train to Hoboken station. Ryan digs trains. Unlike the DC trains we took, this one was pretty fast. From the station we caught a ferry to Manhattan Island. We were the only ones on, it felt like we were VIPs of something. We disembarked the ferry at about 8pm. We were in New York. When we bought our tickets we asked when the last ferry would be returning from New York. The ticket agent told us the last ferry left at 9:30pm. Our goal for the night was to see the Empire State Building. As we were walking from the ferry dock we saw it and decided to walk to it. The walk began to take too long and the building was out of sight so we hailed a cab. The ride took 15 minutes. Ryan really liked the cab ride. We were dropped us off in front of the building. Looking up at it is enough to make you dizzy. The first elevator brought us to the 6th floor where we were directed to a line for the next elevator. The lines moved pretty quickly. We took the next elevator to the 80th floor where we stood in line again and posed for a mandatory picture they tried to sell you when you came back down. Then took the final elevator to the observation deck. Looking out at the city was cool at night, so many lights. We walked around all four corners and checked out the nightlife of the city. After we had our fill of the cityscape, we bought a pencil for Ryan's pencil collection then we made our way down and out the building. It was well past 9:30 and had missed the last ferry. Across from the Empire State building was a McDonalds, so we crossed and got some food. When we visited DC they had street carts for McDonald's and they cost a pretty penny compared to the Massachusetts Restaurants I frequent. Luckily they had a dollar menu. With bellies full we set off to find a way back to the hotel. We found a subway station but they didn't have any connections to Hoboken. There was a sign that said to walk down and block and turn left or right. That brought us to Penn station. They didn't have any either and they advised us the same thing, walk down a block and take a left of right. We finally found a station with the path trains that connected New York to New Jersey. From Hoboken we took a train back to our car. Warily drove back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Friday, April 7, 2006 - Day 2 TRAVEL: North Bergen, NJ to Millers Falls, MA Jillian and Ryan got up at around 8am. The hotel had a centennial breakfast and they had one of Ryan's favorite cereals: fruit loops. We checked out at 8:50 or so and made our way back to the metro station down the road. Again, boarded the train to Hoboken station and then hopped on the path train to New York. After the train, we made our way to the tour bus company's visitor's center to pick up the tickets Jillian reserved for us. They had a life size statue of the Rock. The first bus we boarded, which was a double-decker, was for the uptown loop. It covered Central Park, Park Central Hotel, NYC & Company Visitor Center, Times Square, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Sawan Grocery, Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center, Dakota Apartments / Strawberry Fields, American Museum of Natural History, Upper West Side, American Youth Hostel, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Riverside Church, Fort Tryon Park, New Leaf Cafe, The Cloisters, Apollo Theater, Harlem Market, Central Park Conservatory Gardens, Smithsonian National Museum of Design, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frick Collection, Central Park Zoo then back to the visitor's center. The tour took about 2hrs 45mins. The first tour guide was great, I wish I got his name. After the first tour finished we walked over and bought some food. Jillian got a sausage hotdog and I got a regular one. Pretty good. Ryan was asleep so no hotdog for him. Then we set out to find the downtown loop bus. We eventually found one and took a seat at the top. The downtown loop covered Times Square, Broadway, Macy's, Empire State Building, Flatiron Building, Union Square, Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown / Little Italy, City Hall / Brooklyn Bridge, World Trade Center, Battery Park, South Street, Lower East Side, East Village, United Nations, Waldorf - Astoria Hotel, and then Rockefeller Center / Radio City Music Hall. We hopped off at the Battery Park stop to see the Statue of Liberty. When Jillian reserved the tickets she also picked up a couple ferry tickets to Ellis Island and the Status of Liberty. We boarded the ferry. On the way over the coast guard escorted us. An announcement came over the P.A. that said this was the last ferry and we had to decide between Ellis Island or the Statue of Liberty. There wouldn't be enough time to do both. The ferry drove first to Ellis Island. I took a few pictures of it but we decided not to that the tour there. On to the Statue! The ferry docked at 4:10pm. On the way off the boat, Jillian asked when the next one would be back. We were told 4:30. Perfect! We double timed it to the front and took a few pictures then walked around the island back to the returning ferry. We were escorted by the NYPD on the way back. We got back on the bus and continued to tour to the Rockefeller Center / Radio City Music Hall stop. There were a few more stops on the tour but it was the end of the tour for us. Ryan says that the skater's at Rockefeller Center were one of his favorite parts. Light was fading fast and we were getting hungry. We looked for a sit down restaurant but didn't find any in the part of the city we were in. So we walked back to the path train station to take the train back to Hoboken because we remembered that there was a waterfront cafe there but it was closed by the time we made it back. We took the train back to the station down the street from our hotel. On the same road there was a steak house called La Fusta, we stopped there for dinner. Their food was pretty decent and the portions we just right. Jillian and Ryan both had ravioli while I had a veal parmesan. After a decent meal we drove home, arriving back a little after 1 am. This has been another fine vacation wrap up brought to you by the Henry Family.