New York City

These are all from our trip to New York with Avery and my parents last month. For Avery's 12th birthday gift, he got a trip with Mom and Dad to NY (instead of more "stuff"). I'm not sure he thought he came out ahead when all he had to open were clues as to where we were taking him, but he LOVED the trip. We went non-stop for 3 days and saw as much as we could possible fit in. My mom and dad had said they they wanted to come with us next time we went to NY for one of Reed's conferences, so when we told them we had a date I called to let them know. They called back in about 3 hours with tickets and a hotel room! It was so fun to have them with us!This is right after we met up with Mom and Dad. They came in the night before, but we got the early flight out of louisville and were to Times Square by 10am--perfect!
Top of the Rock--our favorite for a view of NY. We think it is a much better view that and Empire State Building cause there is so much more room on top and you can see uptown and downtown. We could also see the USS NY which was there that weekend.

We had AVery pick a top 3 to see--there is way too much to see in one weekend so we wanted to hit his highlights. #1 was Times Square--which is where we stopped first to check in. I still love to come into the city. We always come in to the Port Authority which is just a few blocks off of Times Square. So we knew we were close but it was so fun to turn the corner with Avery and have him look up and see all of Times Square. #2 was the Natural History Museum--which we hadn't seen before. It was great!
They had this special exhibit on frogs which Avery loved!

Mom and Dad with gum-gum for the dum-dum statue. The museum isn't really like the museum in the movie, but parts of it are and it is similar. It's really a cool museum. But, we knew this statue was really in the museum somewhere--totally in the way back corner of the top floor. So we walked all the way there just to get this photo. It's hard to describe how BIG this place was--no way to see it in a single outing.

After the museum we walked back through central park. It was only the first day and we had already done so much walking! But we stopped to get nourishment from more street vendors!


Leading up to the trip AVery wasn't sure about Broadway, so we didn't buy tickets ahead. I had a couple of shows in mind I wanted to maybe see, and luckily we got tickets to one of them. I had seen the old show of Finian's Rainbow when I was a girl. It was a great show! Top notch performances etc! And, it made both Avery and my dad fans of Broadway. Too bad we couldn't get tickets to something we wanted for Saturday night!
Day 2--ready to walk! Times Square Subway station in the background


Ground Zero--really cool. we were here on the morning they were commissioning the USS NY which was made from some of the scraps from ground zero. This fire station was really touching.
back on the wall behind this plaque they have the old street sign and debris from that day framed in shadow boxes.

The church from National Treasure on Wall Street.--great clean bathrooms!

Wall Street
This is where George Washington took the first Oath of Office--they were filming some movie behind us. we also saw them filming one in Little Italy which Matt Damon is in--but we didn't see anyone famous.
Brooklyn Bridge
We took the Staten Island Ferry through the harbor and to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a cold day, but clear and blue to it was pretty!




AFter shopping on Canal (one of Avery's favorites), we walked back through Little Italy and just happened upon this pastry shop. It was AWESOME. On the corner of Mulberry-the best eclair I have ever had.
Toys R Us-Times Square--another favorite of Avery's
M&M world

Day #3--this is when you wonder if you can walk any more!
Avery's #3--donuts from Donut Planet at Dean & Deluca. They were great. They had been recommended to us by Aunt Jill.



Lunch right before Mom and Dad had to leave. We told them all we would take them to a real NY deli. The portion sizes are unreal! This was the only meal all weekend that AVery didn't finish--and that is saying a lot cause we ate like kings!


Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Then--a mad dash for the airport. Avery and I thought we were going to miss our flight, but we made it. Reed had to stay for his conference.

What great memories!