NYC/DC Adventure Day 5

Tuesday morning was an early rise and goodbye to New York City as we caught the train out of Penn Station on our way to Washington DC.

We arrived at Union Station in DC in the early afternoon, greeted by Josh's Uncle David who was kind enough to drive in and pick us up. We headed downstairs to the food court for lunch where we had 'fast' Indian Food...and it wasn't too bad! We didn't have a lot of time to see much this day, as all the museums had switched over to winter hours, but we did make it into the Air and Space Museum. We were once again very fortunate to have a wonderful tour guide in David, who really should be working at the museum for his retirement! We got some great history on the various rockets and planes, along with some inside stories on super spy stuff!

After the museum we headed to Alexandria and walked around the historic downtown, then had some great Thai food. The weather was chilly but otherwise beautiful, and as night fell we returned to Davids house to chat and relax for the night.

NYC/DC Adventure Day 4

Monday finally brought a bit of sunshine, and our last full day in New York.
There were a lot of things we wanted to do or see so we headed out early, back downtown to catch the boat out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were a ton of people who had the same idea that day and strangely enough we kept running into people who were from Phoenix.
We arrived at Liberty Island and walked around. They are still letting you go into the base of the statue, but they only give out so many tickets a day and we didn't get any so we didn't get to go in. We took the obligatory 'we were here' shots, checked out the merch store and got back in line for the boat. We only spent about a half hour on the island, but we had read that you should expect 3-4 hours for the entire trip....we were about to find out why. We stood in line not long at all waiting for the next boat to arrive, but just as we were about to board they stopped the line because the boat was full. People were furious, but we were told there would be another boat in about 15 minuets. By that time the line had tripled and there must have been several hundred people waiting. We made it on to the next boat but not soon after they cut off the line again. We were on our way next to Ellis Island, where you could get off and tour around or stay and return to NY. As we pulled up we saw an even more monstrous line than the one before, so we decided to skip Ellis Island and just stay on the boat. All in all our journey was about 3 hours, but I can't imagine when we would have gotten back if we had stayed at Ellis Island!
After getting back it was time for lunch, so we caught the train up to Chinatown. We found a great vegetarian Chinese food place called Vegetarian Paradise, and it certainly was! After lunch we stopped by the Eastern States Buddhist Temple and couldn't resist going into one of the many Chinese bakeries we passed. Then it was over to Confucius Plaza for some enlightenment.
We decided since it was on the way we would hit up Kidrobot again and walk around NYU some more. We were hoping to meet up with Denny again for dinner, so we took the train back up to Time Square this time so we could see it at night.

We checked out some shops and found out Denny wasn't going to meet us, so we went over to the Empire State building just before it closed. It was a great time to go because it wasn't crowded at all and the view at night is spectacular. Not sure its worth the price, but amazing anyway.

By this time it was almost midnight and we hadn't eaten dinner, but this is New York! We finally found that hole in the wall pizza joint we had been looking for and enjoyed a late night bite before heading back to the hotel to pack for our train trip to DC.

NYC/DC Adventure Day 3

Sunday brought #32 for Josh, a little overcast weather and another adventure through the city. We were left to our own devices this day and decided to head downtown to see what we could find.

We were both so exhausted from the previous two days we decided to sleep in a little. Once we got moving the plan was to take the train downtown and check out the Brooklyn Bridge, but when we left our hotel we walked right out into a street fair! The city had several blocks along Lexington Ave. shut down so we decided to see what it was about. We got some great smoothies for breakfast from a vendor, there was artwork, music, lots of food and various items for sale. We also saw some more great architecture.
We decided the bridge could wait and that it was time for some NY pizza, so we took the train back down to the Village and hit up Arturo's. The food was great and they had a little jazz duo of piano/bass playing while we ate. After lunch it was time to make the trek up the Brooklyn Bridge. It was crowded up there but the view was great and the weather perfect!


We then headed over to City Hall, had some very strange ice cream, and walked up to the the World Trade Center site. We were very happy to see that it is no longer just a big hole in the ground and actual progress is being made. You can actually see some buildings starting to form! They had huge posters up saying 2012, so its still another 4 years but at least it seems the bickering is over.

Looping around to the back we found ourselves by the Manhattan Yacht Club where a ton of people were out enjoying the afternoon walking, running, rollerblading and just relaxing by the water. We also saw the Stars and Stripes parked along the dock. We sat and enjoyed the scenery for a while then walked along the pier down to Battery Park.

We decided since it was free it might be fun to take the Staten Island Ferry to get some different views of the city. On the way back it was dark so we got some great views of NY all lit up and just as we were pulling in they were having some kind of fireworks display...for Josh's birthday of course!!

NYC/DC Adventure Day 2

Saturday was the big 3-0 for Heidi! After some tasty yogurt/strawberry/banana/granola breakfast we were off to meet Fritz who was kind enough to spend his Saturday touring us around.

Our first stop was MOMA, but along the way Josh was taken by the amazing Gothic architecture of various churches and cathedrals we saw.

We headed in to MOMA which was crowded but interesting. They had an entire display of cool modern pre-fab homes and models which was quite interesting, including an entire metal house from the early 1950's. Probably wouldn't work too well in Phoenix, but it was neat. We saw some interesting photography and industrial design, including a helicopter hanging from the ceiling.

After MOMA it was back to the streets and our guided tour. It was really great having Fritz along, he knew so much about the city and we really got to see a lot. Along our way we passed by St. Patrick's and decided to go in and see more of the Gothic stylings of the church. We were very lucky to be there right when they were having a wedding so we were able to hear the unbelievable organ play and witness part of the ceremony.

Then we headed over to FAO Schwartz just to check out the largest toy store in the world, and the Big piano of course. Along the way we saw the strange underground Apple Cube store....those New Yorkers sure love their Apple stuff!


After checking out all the cool Harry Potter stuff, Fritz took us down to a skyway commuter that goes over to Roosevelt Island. Not much to see on the island itself, but for a Metro fare you get a great view of the city from above. Luckily there was a prayer booth for Josh to utilize before we got on the tram!

Then we headed down to the village to take a rest stop at a cool little beer garden. We snacked on some fried pickles, cucumbers, and french fries before continuing our tour through the city.
We hit up KidRobot for some birthday shopping and spent the rest of the evening wandering into and out of shops along NYU/Washington Square. As the night drew to a close we headed to what ended up being not very good Indian Food for dinner, then headed back to our hotel to recover from the days death march around the city!