New York City

NYC Skyline taken from Hoboken NJ

    Have you been to New York City? Where did you stay? How did you get around?

    When I went to New York with my family we decided our legs were our best mode of transpotation, even though 6 of our 10 legs happened to be pretty small, but that was the way it was having 3 daughters under 5. After all walking is one of the best things you can do with your family and it was a good/cheap way to get around and see the sights on a budget.  I'll share with you how I spent a lovely afternoon with my family walking 37 blocks of New York's Concrete Jungle.

    It was a beautiful Saturday in May. We stayed in Hoboken NJ to save some money. After looking at all of our options of getting  to Manhattan, we took the Path transportation underneath the Hudson River to the very surprisingly busy and a little bit confusing streets of New York City, our plan was to walk as far as we could towards 5th Avenue and Central Park in hopes to take a carriage ride in Central Park



FDNY Crews in Times Square

     After we gathered our bearings and asked which direction to go, we took in the view, of the very tall Empire State Building (look wayyyyy up). We pointed our noses towards Times Square and walked in baby steps. We stopped at a souvenir shop so I could get a NYC Snow globe. Then Continued the trek of 36 more blocks. Sounds completely crazy I know, but that day my kids were great, they walked their little hearts out. When we finally reached Times Square there was so much to look at and take in all at once. There was a movie being filmed, there was FDNY Hazmat squad at one building, so many distractions but we stuck to our plan and kept moving, passing a gentlemen’s club with a large black man at the door. He seen that I had 3 daughters and gave me a sympathetic "how are you" head nod or the "man you are screwed in 10 years" head nod, I'm not sure which one it was, I get them mixed up all the time.

Time Square Banner Art

     All jokes aside we went down a side street just past the Disney Store, after spotting a Tim Horton’s! (O Canada!) this is no joke we grabbed some Coffee and Bagels, just like we were at home. We walked a block or 2 over to 5th avenue and much to my surprise we ended up walking right past Rockefeller Center and more important to me the place where Kevin finds his Mom in Home Alone 2!

  

      When we made it to 5th avenue we passed massive Churches that had weddings in progress (really neat).  We were nearly 2 blocks from Central Park and I thought that it was almost time to celebrate our journey was near its end and my feet were sore. I said to my daughters "Lets buy you guys a shirt from a 5th avenue shop!" with all the fancy stores around you might think I am nuts! Well no i am not fully nuts (just a little). We bought "I Love NYC" shirts right on the corner of 5th avenue, off of a street vendor for 10 bucks a shirt! (haha)

Girls Showing off their new Shirts

     When we made our way into the park the Movie scenes started flashing through my head. It was movie geek heaven! The kids who were very good the whole way had become tired of walking,  just in time for the long awaited carriage ride. The price for a Carriage Ride was $50 cash plus tip. It is a very unique thing to do, the weather was perfect and the kids loved it. For me I thought the movies make it look a lot more romantic and was a little dissapointed. However, I was still very happy we went on the ride and I will never forget it.

After the Carriage Ride I spotted an empty cab and paid the driver 25 bucks to get us back to the PATH station. Talk about an adventure! That cab ride was wild! We spotted 3 cool things during the cab ride. 1. Broadway Ave. lit up like a circus. 2. A S.W.A.T. Team running into a building. 3. A NYPD cop directing traffic with Aviator Sunglasses on. (Classic)

Overall we had a great day in NYC. Here is a look at what we spent - What we spent for the day - $20, path tokens Hoboken to NYC. $10, Snow Globe. $10, Tim Hortons. $30, I LOVE NYC kids shirts. $50 plus tip, Horse and Carriage Ride at Central Park. $25 Thrilling Cab Ride from Central Park to Path Station. Overall $150 spent.

If you decide to walk - Tips for Walking distances with kids - A few things you will need are Sense of humor, Patience,  A Plan, A Backup Plan in case of bad weather, Water, food, sunscreen and lots of breaks, dont make it seem like work. Keep them busy by pointing out different things.

A little fun fact - What took us 3 hours to walk took 12 minutes by cab.