The Big Apple!

We decided to enjoy Daddy's long weekend off by heading to New York City! We left when Daddy got off from work and had two full days to explore the city.

On the ferry at Ellis Island

We started off our visit by taking the ferry to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island had a great audio tour for kids, and the girls were fascinated by whole process of interviews, medical, and mental health exams. We got to go up into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, but the girls were disappointed to find out they were too short to go up into the crown. They did enjoy the little museum exhibit about the process of building her though.

The girls with the original torch

Up close and personal with Lady Liberty!

That afternoon we headed to the Empire State Building.

The view from the top

The wait to go up to the observatory was made easier by the handheld audio/visual devices: the girls watched videos of light shows the Building has done and of the construction of the Building (including original footage), played with interactive virtual tours about the building materials and the art deco influence in its design, and browsed various photo galleries about the building. Once out on the observation deck we saw two weddings happening, and I'm pretty sure I overheard a boyfriend and a photographer scheming a proposal that was about to go down. (This is what happens when you visit on Valentine's Day!) The girls loved the view from the top! We couldn't actually see very far because of the snow, but it was pretty cool to look down on an increasingly white city.

Before heading back to our hotel we visited the 9/11 Memorial. We had explained this event to the girls before. It originally came up when Bug was looking through her skyscraper book over a year ago and said she really wanted to see the Twin Towers in person some day. She did get to see the new World Trade Center, and we got to see the "footprints" of the Towers (reflecting pools) and visit the survivor tree. (Let's be honest though--at this stop the girls had more fun playing in the snow than anything else.)

At the end of the day, the girls were pretty excited about experiencing four different methods of transporation: a car, boats, trains, and feet.

Everybody loves a Lego Hulk!

Day two was another wonderfully full one! We headed to Times Square mid-morning and stood in line (in 0 degree weather according to the CNN marquee!) to get half-price tickets to STOMP for that evening (totally worth it). The entourage proved themselves great little New Englanders! We had them fully bundled up and they hardly complained at all! (Seriously, all you could see was their bright little eyes peeking out from between the top of their scarves and the bottom of their tobbogans.) To warm ourselves up a bit we dashed into the Times Square Toys 'R Us. The girls were most impressed by the indoor ferris wheel and the huge Lego structures (things like a 12 foot tall rendition of the Empire State Building).


We took the afternoon to explore Central Park. It was still crazy cold outside, but at least the girls could run around and keep warm that way. We checked out the Belvedere Castle (sadly the tower was closed), the Bow Bridge, and the Bethesda Terrace (the tile ceiling in there is gorgeous--the girls were very impressed). Along the way, we saw iced over ponds, a flock of ducks ("Why haven't they migrated south?!" the girls asked. "It's cold here!"), and some ice sculptures.

At Belvedere Castle in Central Park

That evening we went to STOMP! We managed to get some of the last available seats, and they happened to be on the very first row! The girls were enthralled, and I think the performers seemed to enjoy having them up there too--the girls got winks, grins, and even a wave throughout the show. Goose particularly enjoyed the audience participation parts (mimicking the clapping patterns), and Monkey was making up her own shuffle and stomp patterns in the subway stations on the way home (and talked about all the things she bangs on at home to make her own music).

We didn't visit any art museums, but we happened across a lot of artwork along the way: the Statue of Liberty herself, art deco in the Empire State Building, ice sculptures, painted tiles, and other statuary in Central Park, subway stations full of mosaics, a series of huge bird statues made of sticks and found materials like plastic shopping bags and caution tape, and a massive green stick figure statue that appears to be running through a courtyard in the East Village.

Thanks to a quiet holiday Monday, we decided to take a detour on the way home and took the girls through the Holland Tunnel and across the Brooklyn Bridge. In the process we managed to pass through four of the five boroughs.