July 13 - The Big Apple

After a few attempts to see New York City in past years we arrived to a sunny, warm day – no rain, mist or snow. The 60 mile train ride on the Metro-North railroad down from Newburgh to Grand Central was very pretty – following the Hudson River. The rail system is really easy to use and very economical. Being 11, the boys got in as children - really good ticket prices! It would be a great place to live and then commute into the city. We had a look around Grand Central. Rob loved the constallations on the roof and Mike felt it was easier to navigate than and agreed that Union Station in DC was better. After arming ourselves with a map of Manhattan Island and a subway map we bought a day pass and started exploring. We made a beeline to Battery Park only to find out that all pass to go up the Statue Of Liberty had already been handed out. As an alternative we decided to take the free ferry to Staten Island. The views of Ellis Island, the Statue and Brooklyn Bridge were wonderful. We then passed the World Trade Centre site on our way to Wall Street. The old buildings really have some character. We strolled past Brooklyn Bridge so that we could get a better view of the waterfalls – some artist has erected these for the summer. The lines to get up the Empire State building were long but the view was worth it. The map we purchased was useless – what a waste. What we really needed to do was take up a real good Manhattan map. We discovered that both State of Liberty and Empire State Building tickets are available on line – which would have saved us disappointment and time. Sunday is not a good day to see the NY Library – it was closed. Times Square is busy and the boys were overjoyed to find Nerf guns in a Toys-r-us store on the square. They had not stopped talking about them since playing with a friend in Annapolis. We moved on to Central Park so that I could relax and the boys could play war games. Just before it got dark we returned to Grand Central and caught the train home.