Kids in Central Park
Basking on a rock in Central Park
Central Park Carousel
Fountain Shot
The Beastie Goys? Flakes on a Train? Subway hopping, regardless....
Water taxis are so cool!
One of the cool things Gena noticed during our outing on Tuesday to Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty is that there were water taxis apparently making runs between the harbor attached to Liberty State Park and the oh-so-close New York City skyline.
Turns out that's exactly what she saw. And the cost for this little joyride across the Hudson River/Upper New York Bay was a fraction of the cost of other transportation options we had attempted (other than the bus). So Wednesday morning we drove back to Liberty State Park and took the New York Water Taxi across. It was awesome! Reminded me a little bit of the vaporettos in Venice. The kids were thoroughly entranced. We benefitted from practically no other folks taking advantage of this approach to the City, which was very nice when struggling with a stroller, backpack, and three kids.
We didn't have a lot of things we needed to see in NYC, but we came up with a short list:
- Central Park
- World Trade Center Site
- Times Square
- Grand Central Terminal
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Empire State Building
Our goal for Tuesday was to take the subway up to Central Park, then back down to Times Square and possibly the Empire State Building. We got off the water taxi at the pier near the World Financial Center. Which happens to be pretty much right next to Ground Zero for 9/11, so we were able to take an elevated walkway over West Street and see the construction going on.
As we set out for the subway station, we came across the Amish Market, a glorious dining and shopping site with an incredible array of yummy food. We had a great lunch before heading out for our big city adventure. We found the Chambers Street subway station and bought fare on Subway 1 uptown, getting off successfully at the Columbus Circle station right outside the southwest corner of Central Park. We spent an hour or so walking around the southwestern portion of the park. The kids were able to ride the Central Park Carousel.
But the kids were also restless. We decided to try and make our way downtown again and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to have dinner at Grimaldi's Pizzeria.
Did I mention we didn't bother with a map of NYC?
Other than visually scanning the major features via Google Maps, we didn't have anything actually in our hands to guide us on our quest. We took the subway back to the Chambers Street station and struck out in what I thought was the right direction - south. We ended up at Broadway and Wall Street, which was a tad off. We cut back over to the east, but ended up too far along the Bridge to actually get onto it. The kids were pretty tired by this point. We walked back up under the bridge looking for a pedestrian access point, but it was pretty clear that we were going to have to walk quite a ways further. Even if we could find it and get across, getting back was going to be murder - and we had an 8:30pm deadline to be back for the last water taxi back to Liberty State Park.
So we reluctantly let go of our hopes of walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and settled for having seen it. We had dinner in a greasy pizza joint and walked back towards the financial district. We stopped again at the Amish Market to pick up some goodies for breakfast the next morning. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all pretty exhausted.
Thursday we did much the same thing. We headed directly to Times Square, which I really can't adequately describe without overworking the words wow and amazing and unbelievable. It's even more incredible in person than it looks when you're watching Dick Clark or Ryan Seacrest or whomever is doing the New Year's Eve ball drop thingy. It was packed enough on a Thursday afternoon - I'm not sure I'd really enjoy being there with thousands upon thousands more people.
To be completely touristy, we ducked into the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Service was poor - which is what I remembered from my previous visits to other Hard Rock Cafes. The food was good but overpriced - but it's really the environment and atmosphere that you're there for. As a former music buff, it's always cool to see stuff that the Beatles wore or the guitar that Paul McCartney played. Not as impressive to see Courtney Love's guitar or flyers from Marilyn Manson concerts but hey, there's no accounting for taste, right? ;-)
We sat in Times Square for probably 30 minutes or so after lunch. The kids were once again pretty much done with the whole walking-around-a-big-city-thing. Reluctantly, Gena and I agreed it was time to call it quits. We skipped the Empire State Building and Grand Central Terminal. Those will have to wait for next time. We had a dinner of fresh fruit and cheese and crackers back at the hotel, which the kids loved - along with getting to just sit around and watch television instead of traipsing across New York City.
Someday Gena and I will hopefully get to come back and see some more stuff. For this time and place in our lives, though, it was exciting just to be here and see a little bit of it. To remark at the incredible diversity of peoples and languages and fashions. That's enough for now. At least, it will have to be.
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