New York, New York

This past Thursday, we went to New York City. Due to a combination of being unfamiliar with the city and having a 2-year-old, it was not quite as thrilling as it might otherwise have been, but still fun!

Side note: if your 2-year-old is content to be in a stroller, you should have no problems. Our 2-year-old has to be bribed to sit in his stroller and we only had so many fruit snacks to give him.

Before you look at these pictures, please know that we did nothing touristy and were really only there for about 4 hours. Our main purpose was to consume food and see a bit of the city.

On our way in we were greeted by the tiny Miss Liberty! Hello New York!

We got some pretty good views of the skyline.

Our first stop was Lombardi's Pizza, but when we got there it was closed.

And there was a note on the door: "We will be closed for a couple of days for oven cleaning." Really??

So we found pizza somewhere else. And it was delicious! Maybe because it was in New York, maybe because we were hungry and cold and a bit stressed and just wanted to sit down inside. Either way, it was great!

See how happy we were?

And then we found an indoor park, which was super because, like I said, Josiah did not see the thrill of simply sitting in his stroller while everyone else got to walk and run.

The park was a store front filled with astro-turf, fake plants, some picnic tables, benches, bean bags, and full spectrum lights. There were several people sitting and working on their computers and moms with tots running around. A brilliant idea! Did I mention it was about 30 degrees outside?

There was a lone, and very old see-saw inside,which we of course took advantage of.

And then we were off to see some sights! Like the sweater someone knitted for this bike.

And Broadway!

An Amish Market. Isn't that what everyone goes to see in NYC?

The Empire State Building!

And the streets of New York.

With all the people and crazy delivery trucks that don't care about blocking traffic.

This would be an awesome place to live in the city, don't you think?

I like interesting buildings.

Really, I just like big cities.

Oh, and we did none of this sight seeing without nai cha, of course! In fact, that was one of our sole purposes for going to NYC. :) We spent most of our time in Chinatown, buying snacks and tea.

By the way, Chinatown and Little Italy are right next to each other and the difference was quite amazing. Chinatown was crowded and busy and dirty with loud music blasting from various storefronts. Little Italy was slower paced with sidewalk cafes and people politely asking if we had eaten lunch. It smelled like Italian food and had festive Italian music playing. Basically, Little Italy was boring in comparison. :)

This is my wonderful hubby who did lots of stressful driving through the city while I sat and marveled at various sites, thinking of Seinfeld and Friends and how fun it would be to live in the city.

And this is the only family picture we have in New York City. Awesome.

The drive back to Southern NJ should have taken less than 2 hours. But when a dump truck and a gas tanker truck have an accident at a place where 6 lanes merge into 3, it takes longer. Hooray for the iTouch with Veggie Tales!

So that was our trip to New York City! A bit unconventional, but still fun.

Oh, and that makes 19 states for Josiah.