New York, NY? Why not?

The Herrins went on a spring break trip to New York City! Well, us girls did anyway- Chuck was there on work and we tagged along. We headed out on Monday afternoon and returned today. We had a great time and the Cohen girls came down to hang out with us, too!

We stayed in the financial district since that's where Chuck's meeting were. Our hotel was the Hilton Millennium- right across the street from 9/11 ground zero. The room was small and  had 2 double beds- we ended up getting a rollaway after the 2nd night of no one sleeping because they were hanging off the bed.

While Chuck was in meetings we did the touristy thing. This was my first time in the big apple and we did as much as we could- Central Park, The MET, The Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, The Lion King on Broadway, The Merrill Lynch Bull, St. Paul's Cathedral, and general sightseeing. The girls and I learned to navigate the subway and crowded streets and it was AWESOME! They did so well and we had a ton of fun.

Tuesday we got up and picked up a subway map and directions from the concierge and headed out. It was a rocky start- having never taken mass transit before, but a couple texts to Lisa and instructions from locals had us with a metro card and we were on our way.

Central Park was our first stop since we had a really pretty day. We just walked around, watched some street performers, played on playgrounds- it was a lot of walking and we still didn't see half of it. We even got to ride the carousel.

There was still huge snow pile- the kids were excited.

Belvedere Castle

Our next stop Tuesday was to the Empire State Building.  We stopped at the 86th observation deck and looked around and then decided to go on up to the 102nd floor. I'm glad we went up- but the view isn't noticeably better and instead of open air views it's glassed in.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from the 86th

Downtown Manhattan from the 86th- The tallest building is the new World Trade Center Building

Our hotel window overlooked this really cool old church and graveyard. Really old. On our way to the subway the day before I had looked through the gates at the tombstones and most were so thin  and weathered you couldn't even read them. Wednesday, while we waited for the Cohen's to arrive from Boston we looked around in the church.

The church is St. Paul's Chapel. It was built in 1764 and is the oldest standing church in Manhattan. It is still in service as a church, and it also houses a 9/11 memorial- they opened their doors as refuge from the recovery workers during the aftermath of the WTC collapse. Inside they have maintained the box that George Washington used 230 some years ago. The history there is palpable. After looking through the inside we wandered through the grave stones a bit.

Grave stones at St. Paul's Chapel

When we got the call from the Cohens we jumped in their car and headed uptown to get them into their hotel, next it was lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square and then we were off to The MET. So here are my thoughts on The MET- I was very excited to go and see works of art in person that I have seen on T.V., or read about but from now on I will just look them up on the internet. It is not an enjoyable place to walk around for me- it's very pretentious and breakable things are sitting out every where. It was not fun for the kids- they liked some of the stuff but for the most part were bored. Just not our thing.

All the girls with Van Gogh's self portrait

Best part of the museum? Feeding pigeons pretzels on the front stairs. 

After The MET, we headed back downtown to Battery Park to try to get a water taxi to the Statue of Liberty. The scheduling didn't work so we walked around on Wall Street a bit and took our picture with the Merrill Lynch bull.

Yay, Bull!

We went back to the Millennium to wait for Chuck, then we all went up to Times Square for diner at Planet Hollywood. We also went in the giant Toy's R Us and rode their indoor ferris wheel. Then the Disney Store. I love that the Disney Store had Disney/New York stuff. W got a stuffed Mickey in an I love NY shirt and M got a Minnie dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

Peeps Display at Toy's R Us

NY Mickey and Minnie

On Thursday the weather turned bitterly cold. It was 19 with a wind chill of 4. We bundled up and kept going. We met the Cohen party and went to breakfast at Burger Heaven, then to see Rockefeller Center, the NBC store, the M&M store and then back down to Battery Park to pick up a Statue of Liberty ferry. It was SO COLD!! The wind made it miserable to be outside.

At Rockefeller Center

Disco M at the M&M store

I ran outside on the ferry to get pictures

The kids came out briefly, too.

After that it was time for the Cohen's to head back to Boston. The girls and I enjoyed some downtime in the hotel waiting for Chuck to get back, then we all headed uptown to catch The Lion King on Broadway. It was excellent! We all enjoyed it immensely!

Headed into the theatre

This morning we had an early start to get to the airport, and we were on the ground in Houston by1:20. The trip was a lot of fun- I'm glad we decided to tag along with Chuck. We left so much undone but we'll go back. It was great to see the Cohen's- just wish it had been longer, and we can't wait until they come visit us here!

And I added 4 shot glasses to the collection

Now back to regularly scheduled Houston programing...