New York! New York!

Parker and I wanted to start off our trip with a major US landmark for our kids, New York City. NYC is our first major destination. The two of us have visited before and we were excited to show the kids. It was going to be a quick couple of days to play tourist so we hit the ground running. 

    

We checked into a lovely hotel on 32nd St., The Martinique. It was beautiful and right behind our first tourist destination, the Empire State Building.  It was a short walk over, there were a lot of people but since it was early afternoon, the line moved quickly. We enjoyed the exhibits on our way to the top. Cruz especially loved the King Kong exhibit. The Observatory on the 86th floor was really busy but we enjoyed it. After going around a couple of times, we went up to the 102nd. It was spectacular up there with its 360 degree views and floor to ceiling windows. It was fun to see the city from the top of the world before exploring it.  

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Central Park was easy to spot from the top. We decided to walk through the city to get to the park. It was sweltering in the city, in the 90s, but felt like over 100 degrees or more. It was fun being in the middle of the busy side walks, dodging cars, and taking snack breaks from vendors along the way. The kids loved climbing the boulders throughout the park and ran through sprinklers, that may or may not have been broken. Either way, it helped cool them down.  After Central Park, we headed to Time Square.

2004 to 2024!!!

In 2004, twenty years ago to the month,  Parker and I were 1,500 miles into our  Appalachian Trail hike. We were 24 and 25 years old. Since I had never been to NYC, we decided to take a few days to explore the Big Apple. We had been walking through the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, at 2-3mph. Being in the middle of the city was very intense. Parker was told a couple of times that he looked like Jesus, ha! We wandered the city, ate a ton, but couldn't wait to headed back to the same spot on the trail to complete the 700 miles we had left.

It was great going back after all this time and to watch our kids take it all in. My childhood friend Lyn, met us at Times Square. She is a New Yorker and she became our tourist guide. Thanks Lyn! We were in and out of the stores to cool down and ate plenty of ice cream and stayed hydrated.  This side by side of us, twenty years apart, gave us a good chuckle. Time flies!

The next day we slept in, then made our way to Battery Park. The kids loved getting on the ferry and walking around Liberty Island. We loved our quick visit to New York City. It was a great start to our trip and gave us good practice for public transportation. We headed to the airport to catch our over-night flight across the pond!