Whirlwind Trip Report-Part 2-NYC, Niagara Falls & Virginia Beach
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! :tiphat: And we really appreciated to ease & speed of the subway travel! :thumbsup:
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! :woohoo: 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! :tasty:
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! :thanks: