Road Trip 2011: Day 8 of 20 (Secaucus, NJ to New York, NY)



We stayed in Secaucus when we went to New York last Thanksgiving and thought it was a convenient alternative to staying in New York City so we stayed there again on this road trip



At Thanksgiving we stayed at the Embassy Suites but it was full so we stayed across the street at the Hampton Inn. They both use the same stop when catching buses into New York City.

Catching the subway to the American Museum of Natural History. We didn't get a chance to see it at Thanksgiving.

You can pick from a number of special exhibits. The boys wanted to see the Frogs exhibit.

Love this exhibit that shows just how insignificant humans are

Derek enjoyed talking with the staff about this self contained environment

We loved the animal displays - they were beautiful and so detailed

We walked through Central Park

The kids are always on the lookout for turtles, so they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw all the turtles in Turtle Pond

What a fantastic place Central Park is. So much going on. It was neat to see the difference of seasons from when we were there at Thanksgiving.

Our destination - Central Park Zoo

Gray's Papaya

Catching the train to Broadway...

...to see Wicked

We took some photos before the play started but no photos allowed during the performance

Checking the GPS as we navigate through Time Square

It was Helen's birthday and the birthday girl wanted some cake at Junior's. We remembered it from our trip at Thanksgiving.

We love New York

Tuesday June 7, 2011

We felt confident with the routine of getting into New York since we stayed across the street at the Embassy Suites at Thanksgiving and we were catching the bus to New York at the same bus stop we used then. But things never go as planned. There was some difficulty communicating with the bus driver about the fare since he didn't speak English very well. We ended up not getting the return tickets I requested so our first stop, once we reached the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York, was to customer service. That took some time. At Thanksgiving we bought a multiday Metro Card and I figured we would just buy a single day card this time, but they stopped selling the single day cards recently so I had to figure out which of the many options was best for our plans - which were kind of fluid. So much for feeling confident that we had it all figured out.

When we finally got to the train platform we thought we wanted, several trains we didn't want came and went and made us question whether we were in the right place. We were leary about getting on the right train because at Thanksgiving we were trying to go to the American Museum of Natural History and we got on an "express" train that blew right past our destination and into Harlem. It turned out we were on the right platform and, eventually, our train arrived.

We got to the American Museum of Natural History a little after it opened. I had formulated a plan where we would leave the museum around noon and head to Coney Island to ride some rides and eat at Nathan's, but it became obvious that the museum was going to warrant more time and nobody was really up for the hour long train ride each way, so we ditched the Coney Island plans. Instead, we relaxed some and spent most of the day at the museum. We had a great time and we still didn't see it all.

The kids were anxious to get to the Central Park Zoo before it closed, so we left the museum an hour or so before closing and walked across Central Park to the zoo. Central Park is so nice and we were really glad that we had some time there. We only had about an hour before the zoo closed but it's a pretty small zoo. It's so nice when there are things you can get through quickly so you can move on to something else, but then you leave wondering if it was worth the money. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

We walked back through Central Park and over a few blocks to Gray's Papaya for dinner. The hot dogs were simple but tasty. The kids didn't really like the papaya juice, but Helen and I thought it was good. The Metro station was across the street from Gray's and we were in the Theatre District in no time.

At Thanksgiving we had seen the Rockettes, Lion King, and Billy Elliot. We regretted not being able to see Wicked then, so we were looking forward to seeing it on this trip. It was Helen's birthday so it kind of worked out to be a special birthday outing. We arrived at the Gershwin Theater in plenty of time for the preshow anticipation to build.

The boys weren't so sure about Wicked going in, but everyone liked it. There was a lot more humor than we expected. And as is always the case on Broadway, the production and cast were amazing. We still think Billy Elliot was our favorite, though.

We made our way to Times Square and took in all the sights. It's such a wonderful overflow of sensory information. We had eaten at Junior's on our last trip and Helen really wanted her birthday dessert to be from there. We got the same cakes as last time, carrot cake and chocolate mocha cheesecake, and they were just as good as we remembered.

We walked back to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and hopped right on our bus back to Secaucus. What a great day.