On the way to breakfast Adam checks out the view of the hotel lobby
Our non descript Embassy Suites hotel across the Hudson River in Secaucus, New Jersey
Each morning we went to the bus stop just across the street to catch the 320 bus to Times Square. It wasn't bad at all. We never waited more than a couple minutes and the ride only took 20 minutes or so.
Helen at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square. The place is hopping in the morning.
Great architecture everywhere in New York
The boys kept checking out the Rube Goldberg contraption in the Port Authority to see if it would ever start working
On the walk to Times Square we went past the Imperial Theater where Billy Elliot is showing. We had tickets to Billy Elliot for Tuesday night and were really looking forward to it.
We kept seeing these "No standing anytime" signs so we just had to stand under one and take a picture
Times Square on Sunday morning was much less crowded. Still plenty of activity, but not like the night before.
In the Disney Store. There are some really nice stores all over Times Square.
Lots of stopping to play with the toys
Our destination. The City Sights Downtown Tour bus.
At least this bus was covered. We were glad after the open air bus the night before.
I specifically chose to take the bus tour on Sunday morning hoping for light traffic. Who knew they would be tearing up the streets?
The Macy's store on 34th Street
Makeshift Nine-Eleven Memorial
Loved all the little groceries
Chinatown
Heading across the East River on the City Sights Brooklyn Tour. Our tour guide was terrific...night and day difference from the guide the night before. He was a real New York comedian.
The tour buses take the Manhattan Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge has strict vehicle weight limits.
On the bridge looking down East River Drive (aka FDR Drive) towards the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Derek enjoying the tour
The kids couldn't wait to eat cart food. It was their food of choice on the trip.
Me and my italian sausage - with onions and hot sauce of course
The Wall Street Bull. I had no idea it was so anatomically correct and that people love to take pictures of the back side as much as they do the front.
Trinity Church
Helen and Adam enjoy the warmth emanating from the subway
Sculpture commemorating a giant sycamore tree in the churchyard that was toppled by debris from the World Trade Center towers collapsing
The Trinity Church Cemetery where a number of famous people including Alexander Hamilton are buried
The streets around the NYSE are blocked off to motor traffic now and tours are no longer given
Federal Hall where George Washington was sworn in as the first president when the nation's capital was in New York
Wall Street takes its name from a log wall fortification built in the mid 1600's
This Tiffany location was closed on Sunday. No little blue box for Helen.
Whenever we passed a park the kids always wanted to stop and play
Walking along the South Street Seaport near where the original Fulton Fish Market was until it moved to the Bronx several years ago
Taking a picture in front of a tugboat named Helen
There was a great local market with all kinds of interesting food and drink
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge
Looking back towards Lower Manhattan
The Statue of Liberty in the distance
Adam and Derek on the Brooklyn Bridge with the NY skyline in the background
Lots of brownstone housing
View, from Brooklyn, of the harbor with the Statue of Liberty in the distance
Lower Manhattan from across the East River in Brooklyn
Great place where we sat and took in the view of Lower Manhattan
We tried to eat at Grimaldi's Pizza but the wait was over an hour
So we settled for ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory
The River Cafe a great place for dinner with a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline
We took the subway from Brooklyn back to Times Square for the 6:30 showing of Lion King at the Minskoff Theater
We had a little time to look around Times Square some more before the show. M&M's World with the World's Biggest Wall of Chocolate.
Who knew there could be 3 floors worth of stuff related to M&M's?
After the Lion King we had a chocolate cheesecake at Junior's before packing it in for the nightSunday November 21, 2010
I had big plans and set the alarm for 6:30 so we could get up and get it going, but we were so tired from the day before that we let the radio play until after 7 before we actually got up. Poor Adam likes his sleep anyway and then we run him all over the place. He is not usually ready to get up.
The breakfast at the Embassy Suites was a notch above what we were used to at hotels like Hampton Inn. The Embassy Suites had a good buffet as well as a person making made to order omelettes, pancakes, french toast, etc.
We took the bus to Time Square and walked around. It was so much nicer without the crowds like the night before.
We used our City Sight's 3 day tickets and took the hop on/hop off downtown tour bus to Lower Manhattan where we caught the bus for the Brooklyn Tour. The downtown bus let us off at Battery Park which is the departure point for the Statue of Liberty so there was lots of activity in the park and we walked around taking it all in.
The Brooklyn bus tour was good. Brooklyn is more about where and how people live and local neighborhood stuff. Our tour guide was great. He had a quintessential New York sarcastic humor. I loved it and tipped him $5 afterwards.
The Brooklyn bus tour ended back at Battery Park and we walked a couple blocks to the financial district to see some sights like Wall Street and Federal Hall. Then we walked to the South Street Seaport area on the way to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is a popular thing to do. There were plenty of people walking both directions to and from Manhattan, but it wasn't overcrowded. The sun was starting to set and the weather was brisk but nice. Overall a great experience.
In Brooklyn we walked around some trying to find Grimaldi's Pizza. We took a wrong turn and went out of our way, but we got to see some nice brownstone houses and stopped in a little park to take in the beautiful view of Lower Manhattan at sunset. We finally made it to Grimaldi's only to find out there was a wait of over an hour. These people are just not cooperating with my plans! We walked down the street to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and had some really good ice cream and watched people walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
We didn't have time to walk back across the bridge because we had tickets for the Lion King Broadway Show so we walked several blocks to a subway station and caught the train to Times Square.
We had a little time before the show started so we walked around Times Square for a little while. When we reached the theater there were people lined up all the way down the street. We were worried but it turned out that they were all waiting to get into another theater to see some Japanese classic musician.
The Minskoff Theater is large and a good venue for big Broadway extravaganzas like the Lion King. We all enjoyed the show. Everything was very vibrant and colorful and top notch - the performances, the sets, and the costumes. I guess you don't get to Broadway if you're not top notch. Here are some reviews.
After the Lion King we walked next door to the Times Square location of Junior's restaurant (the original is in Brooklyn) for some cheesecake. It was really good and worth the hype. We all had a sugar high as we walked back to the Port Authority to take the bus back to our hotel.
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