The Ambitious Odometer: {Spring Break} A Day in "The Big Apple"

Thursday, April 4, 2013

{Spring Break} A Day in "The Big Apple"

Much like last year, for the second part of our Spring Break week, I decided to take the kids, along with my mom, on a trip up to visit my grandmother in Eastern Central Pennsylvania. Because she is 98 years old, frequent, but short, visits work out best for both her and for the little ones! While we are up this way, I generally try to plan some day trips so that my mom can visit a lot and the little ones and I can visit a little. Today, I took the littles on an all-day trip to New York City. While Hubby is completely comfortable driving the Suburban into the city, I do not like the idea of driving in a big city where I don't know my way around both backwards and forwards! In talking with my good friend, S, we decided that it would be easiest for me to drive into Jersey City and catch the ferry over. This was way easy, and thankfully, we really didn't really run into much traffic at all. S was so sweet to ferry over to Jersey City to pick us up...

The littles LOVED the ferry ride...

S was so very kind to take my crazy (and ambitious) plans and map out both the easiest routes and the best travel methods between stops. We took our first subway ride of the day...

and started out with a late breakfast at Tom's Restaurant, famous for both inspiring the Suzanne Vega song, "Tom's Diner" and being the stand-in facade for Monk's Cafe' on Seinfeld...

We met up for a brief visit with Aunt E, before heading down to Riverside Park to burn off some energy...

before walking a good bit of the park back up to Grant's Tomb...

We then took a cab down to The Astor House, home of The Junior League of the City of New York...

and enjoyed lunch in the Roosevelt Dining Room...

before touring the beautiful building, formerly a private residence. It was neat to learn that Dominic Chianese, star of The Sopranos, married his current wife there back in 2003...

Our first stop after lunch, was the Theodore Roosevelt Birthsite...

Though his original birthplace was demolished in the early 1900s, a replica was rebuilt on the original site in the early 1920s...

While touring the home, the ranger showed us an old photograph of little "Teedie" with his favorite chair, and here is B with that exact chair...so neat!