Trip to NYC

We headed out Thursday morning to spend 4 days in NYC. I found a great deal on priceline.com for 3 nights at the Hudson Hotel right off of Central Park at Columbus Circle. We were trying something this trip. There's a bus that runs from DC to NYC that only costs $35/roundtrip. Wow, what a deal! The tolls cost more than that.

So we showed up to catch the bus Thursday morning and to our amazement the bus was actually pretty nice. We arrived at Penn Station about 5 hours later and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. We dropped the bags off and went to eat some lunch. OK, I've been to NYC twice and it reminds a lot of San Francisco for one special reason. The restaurants and food are amazing! I gained 5 pounds in 4 days.

We stumble upon a kids carnival in Central Park where Emi rode some of the rides. I managed to jump on one for fun as well. Emi smoked me throwing at the lions faces (you know, knock 2 down, win a prize). He won a stuffed dog we've affectionately named "Astro".

Friday was our BIG day. We took the Subway down to Battery Park and stood in line to purchase tickets to go over to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Needless to say, we did a lot of standing!!!! We caught the ferry and we were on our way. Words can't express the how truly amazing it is to actually be at the foot of Lady Liberty. I guess it's something you always take for granted, but once you're actually there, it's almost surreal. The view of NYC from the island is breathtaking. We didn't get off the boat at Ellis Island because we had places to go.

We walked over the World Trade Center Site so Igda and Emi could see the 911 memorial. Well, it's really not a memorial just yet. Probably one of the most moving things you can do is to stand on the sidewalk and see all of the "heroes" names who lost their lives and see the pictures of devastation. One very touching moment for us occured as we were leaving Emi looked over at Igda & I and said he felt very sad. This came from an 8 year old boy! I'm telling you, it's an ominous feeling of death and destruction of so many innocent, ordinary citizens going about their daily lives. Next, we walked over to Little Italy and had a dynamite meal at great little Italian restaurant. We were cooked by the end of dinner and we grabbed the subway back to the hotel.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed for the Empire State Building. Oh boy, another line...wait a minute we can jump ahead if we pay double and get the full tour. We jump on the opportunity. It was pretty cool. There is a simulator you get into and it takes you on a helicopter tour of NYC...almost like the real thing. We waited in line some more and then finally we made it to the top. WOW! What an incredible view. I would put it up there with the view of LA from the Griffith Park Observatory. Absolutely breathtaking.

Our next trek took us back to Central Park where we rented a johnboat and paddled around the pond. You know, the one at the Boathouse where all the movies are filmed. We wrapped up the evening at a nice little Italian Restaurant, Serrifina.

Check out the photos!