A few years ago we took Andrew to Germany to visit my brother. We told the other kids that we would take them on a trip when they were junior high age trying to make it somewhat fair that we left them at home. It was Jared's turn and with my brother now living near Albany, New York we decided to go visit him for a week and spend Memorial Day weekend in New York City. We arrived in New York and stayed overnight before heading to the city. It was great to see my brother and his wife again and see the beautiful house they own. We met their beautiful but very large dogs but found them to be some of the gentlest dogs I've ever seen. Once they get over the excitement of guests arriving that is. If you weren't prepared you could actually think a small bear was running up to you. Jared was delighted to try out Ethan's tractor before we left his house.
We tried to leave for the city early enough we could avoid rush hour traffic but either it's always rush hour in New York City or everyone was trying to get in and out of the city for the holiday weekend. The drive in was a nightmare and for some reason Jared thought it was a great time to become the world's best (or I might say worst) back seat driver. Needless to say I was thrilled to hand over the car keys to the valet and not touch them again until we left the city. I think Jason was thrilled to drive Cecilia's "butterfly mobile" through New York City.
We had just enough time to take a walk through Times Square before heading to the Yankees game.
We arrived back at the hotel late then Jason and I were up early to go for a run in Central Park. We were surprised to find so many people out and about at all times of day and night. It really is a city that never sleeps. We felt a bit out of place running through Times Square to get to the park but as soon as we arrived at Central Park there were lots of other runners. We enjoyed the views of the massive park and the city. Once back at the hotel after a quick breakfast and shower we were off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We were finding quickly that lines were long everywhere and a lot of tourists were there for the holiday weekend. We were glad we had bought our tickets in advance. The Statue and grounds were incredible and we enjoyed the history on Ellis Island.
Later in the afternoon we made a quick stop at the 9/11 Memorial. It was touching and a somber place to visit. We would like to have visited the museum but were running out of time. We walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge and found it as crowded as everywhere else. We walked our legs off that afternoon since the subway didn't go a lot of the places we were going. We finally just headed back to the hotel and found a nice little Italian place around the corner for dinner and were glad to be off our feet for a bit.
After dinner we walked over to the Lion King. The show was fantastic and we all enjoyed it. And Times Square all lit up at night was incredible.
It was close to midnight after the play but knowing that we would be leaving the next day we had to fit everything in. Since nothing was closing down anytime soon we headed to the M&M and Hershey stores and then to the Emipire State Building. Finally at the Empire State building we were late enough that a lot of the crowd had dispersed and the wait wasn't too long. And the view of the city at night was pretty spectacular.
Before leaving the city Sunday we attended church in the same building as the Manhattan Temple. Then we made a quick stop at Grand Central Station. That was something I never would have thought to do that my sister in law suggested. I was glad we did because it was quite impressive. Then we took a quick walk down 5th Avenue and stopped for a bite to eat in Little Brazil.
We spent the rest of the week at my brother's house and planned on spending the time exploring the beautiful countryside but the weather didn't want to cooperate. It rained the rest of the week. We were starting to go a bit stir crazy and finally went to a movie one afternoon. We enjoyed the time we got to spend with Ethan and Cecilia although they were under a lot of stress at the time and I felt like house guests weren't helping the situation. We attempted to take them fishing one night but didn't have any luck. Cecilia was quite happy the next day when it cleared up enough for Jason and Jared to try a stream and they brought home a nice trout to eat. We were able to drive to the Catskill mountains the last day we were there and enjoy a hike to a waterfall. We also just enjoyed the beautiful property my brother lives on. Eight acres with a forest and stream. Along with driving the tractor Jared learned to drive and ATV, played fetch with the dogs in the river, caught frogs in the pond and identified maple trees in the forest.
