Whirlwind Trip Report-Part 2-NYC, Niagara Falls & Virginia Beach

[Tink#64]

The second leg of our trip was New York City! We made the drive from Niagara Falls on Sunday & arrived at our hotel, LaQuinta Inn & Suites in Secaucus, NJ around dinner time. We had planned to head over to the city & visit Times Square but the most helpful lady at our hotel desk informed us that most of the stores closed early on Sunday (which we've now heard disputed) so we opted to have dinner, unpack & settle in early to begin our touring of the city bright & early on Monday. First this hotel was perfect for us! Not fancy mind you, but nice & clean, it did have an indoor pool & small fitness center. An all suite hotel, with seperate living area & bedroom areas, both with flat screen tv's, an awesome benefit with having 2 teen DS's in tow, plenty of room to spread out, also a mini fride, microwave & coffee pot! The hotel also provided a fantastic breakfast buffet, hot & cold foods, fresh fruit, all very tasty & filling! Oh & we had a view of NYC from our room! We could see so many of the huge skyscrapers and could definitely pick out the Empire State Building, which was so pretty when it was illuminated each night! Another plus, the New Jersey Transit bus stop (a motor coach) was directly across the street, for just under $8.00 each round trip (they accepted cash), we were able to leave our vehicle parked in the hotel's free parking lot & travel to & from the city via NJT/ Port Authority.

I was pleasantly surprised just how easy it was to navigate our way around the PA & just how friendly & helpful all the New Yorkers were! And we really appreciated to ease & speed of the subway travel!

Over the course of two days NYC thrilled us with the experiences of the 911 Memorial, the adjacent museum/gift shop was also very moving. We were able to see so many of the landmark buildings, all so beautiful, The Woolworth Bldg, The Free Public Libarary, Old St. Patrick Cathredral, The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Bldg, & so many others! We really enjoyed exploring Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center & visiting Top of The Rock was incredible with amzaing panoramic views, with virtually no wait to reach the top! (verses what I've read of 2 hour+ waits to visit the observation levels of the ESB! We made a great choice there! We explored The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( I could've stayed all day!), the Museum of Natural History & Central Park all in one day! WOW!

Now the stores & shopping! OMG! My teen DS's were thrilled with all the shoe stores, they are both sneakerheads! We were in awe of the famous stores we passed by & took pictures of! We really enjoyed shopping/bargaining in Chinatown! Man that was lots of fun! So many great deals on sunglasses, jewelry, etc.

We enjoyed one of the best pizza's we've ever had at Lombardi's, touted as the first pizzeria in the USA, all I know is that we all said it was one of the best we've ever had! We also had a very yummy dinner at Juniors in Grand Central Terminal, we enjoyed hot dogs from a vendor & ate on the steps of the MNHS like locals, and our last meal in NYC was in a deli I never even caught the name of en route to Times Square from Rockefeller Center, oh my gosh, so many choices & everything was sooo good! I'll have to sift through my receipts to find the name & location for our next trip! And last but not least for our tasty NYC experiences was Crumbs Bakery at 43 W. 42nd Street! So many tasty treats, my only regret was not stopping there before 11:00 at night as so many of the options that we'd read on the menu prior to our trip were long gone for the day! But we all found something that tickled our taste buds!

The last part of our NYC trip was a visit to the Statue of Liberty via Liberty State Park in NJ. We took the ferry to Ellis Island, which was such an incredible place when you stopped to read so many of the personal narratives and the history of the Island and the buildings there. Then of course we ferried out to Liberty Island for a visit with our lady which was absolutely beautiful! We were so glad that we made that trek from the NJ side, the wait lines for the ferries to & from NJ were a fraction of the size of those travelling to & from the NY side!

I can't begin to say how much we enjoyed our NYC trip! I planned this trip forever & it paid off! We were able to see & experience everything on our list plus so much more! This proved to be our favorite part of this trip! We're already planning a return trip, staying a full week, in a couple of years! Thanks to so many of you for your helpful tips & advice in planning this trip!

[MizMissy]

I'm so glad you enjoyed NYC with your family. We did an NYC trip a couple years ago (kids were 8 and 11 at the time) and it was such a fabulous family vacation. DH and I had been to NYC before and didn't really have a big desire to return (not sure why), but my DS who says he wants to be an "architect engineer" had to see Empire State Building and other big buildings in NYC and my DD had to see a Broadway play.
I'm so glad we took the trip, it really is a great trip with kids because there is so much to do. Also, I knew my daughter would enjoy the LIon KIng but my son had no idea what to expect ... he was blown away and I think I watched his face more than I watched the play because he was so into it.

Also, we loved Statue of Liberty. My kids and husband teased me because I went in "disney mode" ... it was Sunday morning, our last opportunity to see it (weather had not been great first couple of days), I was determined to be on the first ferry over because I knew it would get crowded. I had everything timed perfectly. We were able to explore the island with relatively few people, go up to the top (or base, inside but did not have the required advance tickets all the way up). While we were there, someone left a camera bag unattended ... even though we went through 2 airport security type checks before ... they shut everything down, made us leave and closed it to have bomb squad and dogs inspect and remove the bag. When we went downstairs, the line was out of the tent and growing. Everyone looked at me and I just smiled my "see, listen to momma" smile.

Thanks for the report .... it brought back great memories for me.

[NJGIRL]

Glad you got to do so many things in NYC and that you got to spend some time in the great state of NJ. lol

I should have given you my address so that you could drop off a couple of muffins at my house on the way down to VA. I still dream about those muffins.

[Katzateer]

Sounds like you had a great time!

How did you get to all the museums and landmarks?? We haven't made it past the Times/Square Broadway area. We take Amtrak to Madison Square Gardens and have not made it up any further than St. Patricks walking.

[Tink#64]

NJGIRL I would have brought you muffins gladly! It would have been great to meet you after all our discussions on here! You were a huge help to me in planning this trip! That bakery was awesome, thanks for the tip!

Katzateer, we were able to do so much because I'm completely neurotic! My DH calls me Vacation Hitler! JK, but I planned & planned that trip, much like I used to plan our WDW trips in the early years! I had our route planned & we carried great maps to help us find everything. We made plenty of time for visiting all the stores everyone wanted, and we took short breaks, but we did go for about 12 hours each day! I know that I had alot planned for us, but not knowing if we would ever go back, I wanted everyone to at least see the landmarks & get to enjoy what THEY wanted to do so that everyone would be satisfied with our vacation. It helps that my DS's are teens now & do enjoy sight seeing & of course shopping & eating! It was fantastic & well worth it, but man we were tired when it was over. That's why I planned a couple of days at the beach to relax afterwards. But wow, so many things we didn't get to experience, a little more off the beaten path & more than just the landmarks buildings, so we're already planning a return trip in 2 years. We plan on staying a full week to have plenty of time to do alot more & shouldn't have to push ourselves so hard!

[NJGIRL]

It was fun to help you plan and put in my two cents.