Day Two

Early to rise we set out for Manhattan, NY. How excited we were. Our hotel was in Queens so we took the M60 bus to Astoria to hop the N Train to the city. The subway (aka TRAINS) was clean and very efficient. They were informative as well! Great for newbie’s like us. Each train not only speaks the stops it is making but has a digital reader board tracking each stop; from start to finish. As each stop is made the digital board updates.

Our first stop of the N Train was 42nd street. It was a bit chilly but otherwise a nice day for a walk through the city.

The Second & Third picture is in front of Walgreens before hitting Times Square. The last picture is more of that same Walgreens building, but I could not get that many frames in at once. It is so very tall that it took 4 pictures (which I will photoshop later) to get it all in!

As a stereotypical was of thinking, we (more so I) expected fast paced New Yorkers rushing by and knocking us over. However, though crowded, most New Yorkers were working and the tourists were not as many as we expected.

Now off to the LARGEST in the world!!

The Empire State Building made out of Lego’s! It was simply amazing. This Toys R Us was any child’s dream. Inside the 4 story building was an actual 60 ft Ferris wheel offering rides to the customers. They featured a Jurassic Park 5 ton, 20 feet high, 34 foot long animatronic T-Rex that made you gasp as it moved so life like! Each display was outrageous!

This Optimus Prime display towered over Bryce who is only a mere 4’ tall!

Down the river and through the woods - well, not exactly but a short walk later we happened upon the wonderful goodness of the Hershey Store and the M&M Store. Needless to say - we were happy campers, as the pictures quite simply speak for themselves!

Do you expect anything less from these two "hams"?!

At the M&M store, you can choose your hearts desire of plain or peanut and every color under the rainbow. No sense in pulling your hair wondering what colors were chosen... MrMr most certainly picked the ONLY colors that matter - ORANGE & BLUE "<>

With over twenty-five million visitors each year Central Park is our next stop!

Central Park occupies about 1.2 square miles and we walked most of it. Richard ran into a Georgia fan - because most people can't walk past Richard in his UF ensembles to which he sports most days that end in Y, without stating Go Gators - or booo Go Penn State, or Go Bulldogs...blah blah blah. They talked about the new drafts and where Urban Myers stands and...well...you get the idea - it was a WHILE!

After spending an hour or so in the beautiful park, we headed over to ChinaTown for some dinner. Our restaurant of choice had a multitude of choices. Serving delicacies from Malaysia, Thailand, and China. They split a LARGE plate of Chicken Lo Mien (always a safe choice) while I enjoyed a bowl of Hot n Sour Soup. My favorite!

We walked through Littly Italy and past the Manhattan Bridge (below) and we were full and almost exhausted from all the walking.

Off to our hotel room in Queens to rest...well SO WE THOUGHT.

We were advised from here to take the N train back to Astoria and then the M60 bus bak to Laguardia. No one bothered to mention that the M60 ran in two directions. Now I state the rest of this story in complete humor and not racism. So just enjoy the humor in the story.

To start the escapades off, it was freezing by 6pm and everyone AND their mom were at the bus stop waiting for the ever-so popular M60 bus. The first bus arrives FULL and 20 more people at our stop push and squeeze their way onto this already packed bus. So we decide to wait for another. 15 or 20 minutes later the next M60 bus arrives, it too is packed to the fullest. Behind us is a Staples Center Store - and Richard must go to the bathroom or else his eyes will turn yellow and he will explode. So we wait while he goes. Not even 2 minutes after he leaves (half way to Staples) the next M60 bus arrives, this time empty. Richard cannot hear my screams so we wait some more. Within seconds another EMPTY M60 bus arrives and yet we wait again, in the cold until Richard returns.

About 10 minutes later we are able to board the next M60 bus. After 4 stops Richard asks "are we on the right bus". I state yes it said M60 on it. "OK". We wait 2 more stops before I look around and notice that we are the only white people on the bus and the neighborhoods to which we are stopping now are not so "nice" by any means.

I politely ask the driver if this bus is stopping at LaGuardia where he begins to laugh and tell me that I am on the wrong bus going the opposite way and we need to get off here and take the "OTHER" M60 bus that say LaGuardia on it back.

We manage to get off when HOLY @#)! the first sign we see says "Harlem Soul Food". At 8:00pm we manage to be the only white people walking on the sidewalk headed to death (we are sure in our mind) but, we keep calm not to scare or warn our little guy that we are in dire danger and our prayers are just because we LOVE TO PRAY!

After 3 more missed buses and 45 minutes of arguing/praying/praying/arguing we get on the right bus headed for our car parked at the hotel- which we still must head to Union City, NJ for our next hotel and to prepare for Richard's race in the morning. We ended Alive on a happy note at a VERY NICE Marriott in Union City, NJ.

The Arrival

Arriving in Newark was a breeze. However renting a car - not so much. It seems that Corporate America has moved away from getting the sale and customer to doing absolutely whatever it takes to make it EASIER for them.

Our day started with the Budget Rental Car counter, to which we had a reservation 1 week plus 2 days, for approx $300. GREAT DEAL! Think again. To start, DEBIT = not accepted. CASH = "what's that we don't take cash". Oh my goodness. What is corporate America coming to when the U.S. Dollar is no longer acceptable. What makes the difference between Visa Debit and Visa? You get my money right then, right now vs. a charge card I can dispute and get the charges reversed.

So moving on, we are told that only two other rental agencies accept debit. One was almost twice as much as our reservation and the other, hold your pants, $1014. Yes, it is true.



DAY ONE: Leaving the dreadful taste of Newark's Car Rentals behind us- we begin our journey!



Moving on to a fun and event-filled week, we headed from Newark straight to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.




Richard has been battling Vertigo and oddly enough the ferry rides were not as bothersome as we anticipated. The weather was beautiful and Lady Liberty was simply breathtaking. Monument passes and Crown passes were already sold out when we got there but the park was a great experience. We had lunch at the Liberty Park. I was expecting it to be high priced but we had a child's all organic chicken tender meal with organic french fries and organic juice for $5.25. Very affordable and everyone enjoyed. We boarded the Jersey bound ferry again and headed back to the port. It was an great experience.

From there we headed to Queens/East Elmhurst to our hotel. Traffic was not nearly as aggressive as we anticipated but it took us over an hour to go less than 25 miles. It was a bit crazy but not aggravating so that made it a pleasant road trip. Bryce was fantastic. Not being able to run about or be silly was tough for him however, he was a joy to be with during the grid lock.

For dinner we headed back over to Brooklyn to Grimaldi's Famous Pizzeria. We waited in line under the Brooklyn Bridge for about 30 minutes before we were seated in this TINY restaurant. Loud and packed we began to worry about our decision but after ordering a large (16") pizza with pepperoni and 3 cokes we DEVOURED every bite. 3 for Richard, 3 for me, and 2 for Bryce-a-roni.





Our full bellies walked the boardwalk under the Brooklyn Bridge where Bryce and Richard proceeded to eat an ice cream cup from a local creamery as we took pictures of the city lite up against the water. It truly seems like a different world here in New York.