NYC Photos

I see I have a few unpublished posts. Here are 2 photos from NYC. The first one is taken from my cousin's balcony. He told us that he lived next to the Empire State Building, but we didn't know what that meant. It MEANT that we could throw a rock from his balcony through one of these windows if we wanted! He said it was only probably the 3rd time they were on their balcony (on top of the apartment building) that has an amazing view of the city.

Hubby finally got down his skyline shot! Looks good! We took a free ferry to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty and the city from this view.

NYC

Above: The slightly anticlimatic Rockefeller Christmas Tree

Below: In a cold, dark, grey, smelly Central Park-we decided it would be better to see it in the summer.

Since my great-uncle lived only '20 minutes' from NYC, we knew we had to take this chance to visit it. We were not up to traffic or finding parking and if we found parking, paying the high prices, so we checked out the train and took it from a neighboring town. In total the travel time was about an hour and cost $6.50/directly/person, so it was ok.

Hubby and my sister went the day after we arrived. My sister was meeting friends from school and hubby was exploring. I am glad I did not go, because I was tired from travelling and they got home around midnight.

My mom arrived at 6:30 am, so we went home, rested, then thought that maybe we would go back in and not do downtown, but more Brooklyn. We took mom and the baby with us. Those pictures are still on a memory stick at hubby's work. I had planned to go for a few hours and again we were out from around noon till after midnight.

We did the Brookyn Bridge, Wall Street, took a ferry to Staten Island, then we could see the Statue of Liberty, we saw lots of cops standing around the Occupy Wall Street area, did a little shopping. I know I am forgetting things, but one of the coolest things we experienced was the 9/11 memorial. We went to it only to find out you had to get free tickets, so we got them and had to come back a few hours later. To go into the memorial area is security like at an airport. It was very amazing! We ended the eveing in Times Square eating at Bubba Gumps.

I have to say that Mateo was such a trooper! No, he wasn't cold for anyone worried, he was in a fleece snowsuit, with a hat, blankets and plastic over the stroller. I was glad mom and my sister were there, because they helpeed carry the stroller up/down many flights of stairs, because not all the metro stops had elevators.

Above: We met mom's cousin and his wife and they said they lived downtown, next to the Empire state building. No joking! This is from their balcony. There is one little building between them.

Below: Taken from the ferry. The tallest, colorful building you see (on the left) is the new Trade Center Building

Mom watched Mateo for a day and we made a long day out of it. It was the longest he has been left and he was great. On this day we did Central Park, Central Terminal, LOTS of walking to see lots of areas and buildings, Chelsea Market (super cool!), Highline park (even cooler!) and we ended the evening by visiting our cousins and having yummy Chinese food.

The next day just hubby and I went in the evening to a Brooklyn Tabernacle Christmas presentation. I enjoyed it, but would like to go again to something else. A concert, service, or who knows what. Their quality was great, but I was disappointed, because they were singing to a recording, so it sounded like a huge choir, but you only saw like 20 people. PLUS, they were singing the whole Christmas CD that I have, I would have like to hear something new, but it was still a great experience and they have a beautiful building!