All Around New York

Jim and I decided that while in NYC we would go ahead and book a hop-on/hop-off bus tour so we could see as much of the city as possible in our short time frame.  We began Monday by making our way to Times Square and boarding the tour bus and setting out to tour downtown Manhatten.

We purchased the tickets that included admittance into either the Empire State Building or The Rock.  We had decided to make our first stop the Empire State Building because it is just so classically New York!  We could see it in the distance!!

We had to pass Macy's to get there....they were beginning to gear up for the Holiday season already.

We had been "warned" by many people of the vast lines and long wait to get up to the top of the ESB but I have to say, we had THE BEST experience there.  Perhaps it was because it was a Monday, perhaps because it was so early in the day, whatever the reason we were up there lickety split.  And having a stroller....holy cow they made every accomodation possible for those of us with strollers.  It was amazing.

You basically go from the lobby to the point where the building starts to narrow.  From there you have one more elevator up the last 6 floors.  Before getting on our last elevator we were greeted by King Kong himself.  He sat on Charlotte lap.  It was so funny.

And the view...

Charlotte LOVED looking out and running around the entire deck.  She totally had a blast.

After heading out from the Empire State Building we hopped back on the bus.  We enjoyed a narrated tour through Manhatten as Charlotte slept on Jim's shoulder. 

Our tour ticket also included a boat tour around the land of Manhatten so after getting off the bus we walked down to the boat area.  It was about 12 blocks and we made easy work of it but everyone kept talking as if it were SO FAR away.  We got in line and boarded the boat in no time.

The boat tour started at 4pm and so we got to see the skyline in both day light and all lit up for evening since it was a 2 hour cruise.  Charlotte and Jim enjoyed looking around.

Part way through we passed the the Statue of Liberty.  This was the closest we got to her this trip.  With a short amount of time in the city you really need to allow quite a bit to take the ferry over, tour, etc.... so we opted to save it for another time.

It was still pretty awesome to see, although much smaller than I had expected.

Charlotte was reaching her breaking point by this time in the trip.  I figured hey...at least we made it until now!  She was a bit embarrassing screaming and wailing on the cruise.  I don't know what she wanted but she was ticked off, and obviously, we didn't exactly have anywhere else to go at the moment. 

So, Jim and I took turns dealing with the poor screaming girl and going to enjoy the views.

This is my favorite:

We still had one more stop on our agenda that day (I know....we are a little crazy!).  Our bus tour also included a night tour of the city and since we were leaving the next evening this was our only night to do it, so we got to where we needed to be and boarded the bus for the night tour!

The woman tour guide taking this picture assured me she couldn't take a bad picture because she had used so many cameras by now blah blah blah....she lied.

At one point we were driving over one of the bridges and we were in the outside lane.  In the front, top of that bus Jim and I both felt like we teetering on the edge ready to topple at any second.  A little creepy I tell ya! 

We drove across to Brookly and got a nice view of the city and wound our way back and ended up again in Times Square.  We were beat.  We hopped the subway back to Queens to settle in for the night. 

Charlotte played for awhile after getting back (and dropped a metal bowl which in turn caused the downstairs neighbors to come visit).  We finally headed to bed knowing an early morning awaited us.