Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There (New York Part 2)

Welcometo my Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There Blog.

We loved New York so much we had to go back for a second visit to try and cram in all the things we missed the first time around.

Highlights.

New York traffic – if my husband and I can work together to navigate and drive us through rush hour traffic in New Jersey, Manhatten and Queens, then we can get through any crisis!

Being on the morning show 'The Early Show' on CBS. While queuing for Shrek tickets in Times Square we were approached by a nice young man wanting to know if we’d be interested in being part of the live audience on ‘The Early Show’ which is filmed in a studio near Central Park. Of course we said ‘Yes’ – and then found afterwards that we had to be at the location at 7am. Getting up at 5.45am to catch the subway from our hotel in Queens, not a problem… We still got a kick out of the whole experience and catching a brief glimpse of a real TV studio.

Broadway show. The four of us went to see ‘Shrek’, because two of the four of us were under the age of 12—but we ended up having a wonderful time, and Shrek was fantabulous!

Empire State Building. While not exactly a ‘highlight’, the views at dusk were beautiful. Pity the experience of getting said view made us feel like a cross between criminals and lambs led to the slaughter. While freezing our butts off in the outdoor observatory, my husband gave my then nine-year-old daughter with sore feet a piggy-back ride, only to be told by a security guard he couldn't do that as it was 'dangerous' and that 'she may fall off the ledge'. Hellooo, Mr. Security Guard? The fence is over 8 feet tall and curved inward, how the HECK is she going to fall off the building?? We couldn't even throw her over the fence if we tried.

Museum of Natural History. Tour guide, Irene, made our highlights tour here so worthwhile, and the expressions on the kid’s faces getting to hold petrified dinosaur poop? Priceless.

Central park horse and carriage ride. After a long, cold walk part way through Central Park trying to find ‘The Castle’, (which we couldn’t), we gave up and had a lovely ride through the park at dusk, complete with Irish-accented driver, and lovely, snuggly blankets.

The Stardust Diner. This diner was a blast! The food wasn’t the greatest, but what fun listening to the staff belt out hits like ‘Girl’s just wanna have fun’ and ‘New York, New York’!

NYPD. I have a fascination with men in uniform, I confess. So I took any opportunity to get a photo with them, or shove my kids in front of them.

Grand Central Station. We have kids that loved the movie, ‘Madagascar’. And no, we didn’t spot a lion, zebra, hippo or a hypochondriac giraffe. Would’ve been cool though. *sigh*

Our last night in New York was drizzly and cold, and my footsteps were heavy as I took one last, lingering look at the iconic Empire State building before heading down into the subway. And I finally get what Billy Joel was singing about when he blew off Miami Beach and Hollywood in favor of the Big Apple. 
I’m in a New York state of mind too.

Tracey