New York City (Day 1 of 6)

In the van and headed to the airport. Every day for weeks Adam has been asking "How many days until we go to New York?"

Adam and Helen on the Park N Ride bus. It was our first time using one of the offsite Park N Ride services and it worked out well.

The kids remembered the ants in the Delta baggage claim area and wanted to check them out again


...and the dinosaur in the airport atrium

Thankfully the security lines were short

I really hate security checks. It might be different if security was really worth a crap, but as it is I say we take our chances and stop the madness.

Time for lunch at the airport food court

On the plane before takeoff. The flight went well and we landed over half an hour early.

In the LaGuardia airport getting a shoe shine from Adam

We bought 7 day Metro passes at the airport and hopped on the M60 bus. There are no trains from the LaGuardia airport - you have to take a bus to the subway.

Catching the N train to Times Square



It was so cool to pop out of the subway into all the bright lights and the hustle and bustle of Times Square



We walked around some and went into the Toys R Us store. It was really crowded and pain to make your way through the crowds.

We bought 7 day NY Passes which came with a 3 day voucher for the City Sights Tour Bus. We had to go to Madame Tussaud's to exchange our tour bus voucher and decided to tour Madame Tussaud's while we waited for the next Night Bus Tour

It's obvious from this photo, even in casual dress, that I could never be with J-Lo. We would be one of those couples where people are always saying "He's way too handsome for her"

Helen almost fell for George before I told her "Hello? He's not real!"

Derek wanted me to snap this picture with Wayne Gretzky

All bundled up for the open air night tour bus

The Brooklyn Bridge

Adam couldn't resist trying to touch anything within reach


Back in Times Square

The bus tour was okay. It was nice to see the city at night, but the sound system and the tour guide sucked. The guy didn't point out very many specific sights and instead thought it was more important to point out pretentious areas and then order the different areas according to how pretentious they are. A little bitter I'd say. We took it in stride and it became a joke for us.

The Times Square Ball that's dropped on New Year's Eve

At the Port Authority Bus Terminal to take a bus to our hotel across the Hudson River in Secaucus, NJ

The Port Authority at night sucked. In New York there were plenty of official people and security around - except in the Port Authority. There were plenty of vagrants offering help, but nobody official. It wasn't real clear which bus you needed to catch or how to purchase tickets. We figured it out and on following nights we ended up helping other confused travelers. How can there be nobody official around? That's ridiculous.

Saturday November 20, 2010

This is the first year that our school system has been out for the entire week of Thanksgiving. We have always wanted to go to New York and thought it would be the perfect opportunity. We really looked forward to the trip and enjoyed the anticipation.

I have been planning the trip for months. I ordered tour guides and maps and poured over plenty of online information. I created a spreadsheet with a bunch of worksheets. One worksheet listed over a 100 attractions with all the specifics: description, hours, directions, etc. Another worksheet listed over a 100 restaurants with similar specifics. I created additional worksheets with all the attractions and restaurants sorted by area (Times Square, Midtown, SoHo, etc). I then created an itinerary worksheet for each day trying to focus on a particular area of of the city each day.

It seems like we're usually rushed getting out of town so this time I decided to give ourselves some additional time and scheduled our flight for Saturday afternoon. I was intent on not checking any baggage so we had to pack light. Our flight was at 2:40 and we weren't sure how crowded it would be so our goal was to leave our house at 11:00. As we were headed out to the van I didn't like how everyone's bag was overstuffed. I ended up unpacking everyone's bag and pulling out a bunch of non-essentials so we didn't get out until 12:00.

We got a coupon in the mail for one of the airport Park N Ride companies. We decided to give it a try and it worked out well. The airport wasn't very crowded and the security lines were short so we had plenty of time for lunch at the food court.

Our plane was packed and a little delayed in leaving, but the flight was quick and we landed over half an hour early. We bought 7 day Metro passes and, using the MTA trip planner, we knew to board the M60 bus to the nearest train station. We took the N train to Time Square.

We all had huge grins on our face as we exited the subway station into all the lights and hustle bustle of Times Square. We walked around taking in all the sights. We went into the Toys R Us store and some other stores. It was so crowded that the novelty quickly wore off and we were ready to be out of there.

We walked to Madame Tussaud's where we exchanged vouchers for 3 day tickets to the City Sights Bus. We got the bus tour voucher with the NY Passes we purchased before our trip. We decided to tour Madame Tussaud's since it was free with our NY Pass and we had time before the Night Bus Tour.

Derek has asked to go to Madame Tussaud's in other cities - I've always said no before because I thought it was a tourist trap, but it was actually pretty fun. We all had a good time posing with the figures. By the end, Derek ended up being creeped out by the wax figures. We all had a good laugh when we reached a point where this women was in the walkway taking a picture of some wax figures. The lady was taking a long time and we were getting irritated before we figured out the women was a wax figure also. Good trick!

We made our way to the night bus tour departure point through the crowds on the sidewalks. We were hungry and had not had dinner yet and it looked like we had a little time so I went to McDonalds to grab something quick to eat on the bus. It ended up taking longer than I thought it would and the bus was just about to leave when I made it back. I had a couple McRibs. They're tasty!

The tour bus had an open top. It was a beautiful night but chilly. The sound system on the tour bus was crackling and the tour guide was very monotonic. He was more interested in letting us know which areas of town were pretentious or hip than anything else. It was still a nice way to see the city at night.

After the tour we walked to the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square and caught a bus to New Jersey where our hotel was. We stayed in at the Embassy Suites in Secaucus. It had a pool and was less expensive than staying in Manhattan and the online reviews said it was convenient to hop on the bus to\from Times Square. It did turn out to be convenient and we would definitely stay there again, but it sucked that there were no official people to be found in the Port Authority Bus Terminal at night. The place was hopping during the day and everywhere else in the city there were plenty of official people and security around to make you feel comfortable.

The flight was good. Madame Tussauds was a tourist trap but fun. Times Square with the stores, lights, and hustle bustle was wonderful but crowded. The bus tour was nice in spite of the tour guide. I hated that we settled for McDonalds with all the great food in New York. The bus to New Jersey was fine despite no help at the bus terminal. The hotel checkin went smoothly. It always feels like there are so many other things we're leaving on the table, but all in all a pretty good first day in New York.