The Rundown: What an exciting day! We got up and got ready to catch our train full of anticipation. None of us, except David, who wouldn't be joining us, had ever been to New York City! We got to the Amtrak train station thinking we were running late, but unlike the airport, you don't have to be very early. David just dropped us off and went to get gas. We let the car get so low it was sputtering! Not too smart! He made it back before we left, so I got to say goodbye, anyway.
We got on our train and then it felt like our trip was really beginning. We sat on the wrong side of the car to see much of the Hudson River on our trip, but we did follow it all the way down. The girls were excited about checking out the train and, of course, the bathrooms on the train. It was a really fun trip!
We got to Penn Station right on time with no idea where to go. We finally figured it out and were headed to our subway when Katie started crying. She had forgotten her Nintendo DS on the train. Great... I took her and went to the lost and found department, but they weren't very helpful at all. They gave me a phone number to call, and that was it. We did call the number but just got an answering machine telling us to leave a message with our information and they would call us if they found anything. Needless to say, no phone call came. Katie was devastated and I was frustrated. She had been told NUMEROUS times to keep up with it. Oh well! It's gone now!
We hopped on our subway and headed for the PATH station at the World Trade Center. There were a couple of things we didn't realize about riding the subway:
1. Our suitcase didn't fit through the subway turnstiles. You had to turn it sideways to slide it through. Not an easy task!
2. Every New York subway station has 1000 stairs. You have to drag your suitcase up and down the stairs to get to the trains. The elevators are few and far between.
3. After the first 1000 stairs ANY suitcase gets too heavy to manage easily.
It didn't take us very long to get there after we found the correct subway, but it did take us forever to figure out what kind of ticket we needed for the PATH train, which was different from the subway. It turned out we could use a regular metro card, but we couldn't use the unlimited metro cards we'd bought at Penn Station. We bought ANOTHER card and we were good to go. We got on the PATH train and headed to our hotel in Jersey City.
Our hotel was great! The PATH station was immediately outside the front door of our hotel, so that made things so easy! We were checked into a fabulous room quickly and efficiently. Our desk clerk, Alyssa, was a sweetie. We were upgraded to a deluxe room, so that meant that we had a great view of the Manhattan skyline and a couch in addition to our two double beds. That was so nice! We hadn't been in the room long when we decided we were all starving. I had read on Trip Advisor that there was a great little diner not far from the hotel. We struck out for the Flamingo Diner and were very pleasantly surprised! The food was cheap and it was actually good! Our meal would have been great if not for the kids' behavior. They were ridiculous! I was so glad the diner was pretty much empty because they both acted like they'd never been out to eat. Needless to say, we skipped dessert and headed back to the hotel for some rest. We wanted to get in a full day the next day!
High Points of the Day:
Katie: Riding the Amtrak train.
Reese: Riding the Amtrak train.
Shannon: Getting to NYC!
Low Points of the Day:
Katie: Losing her Nintendo DS.
Reese: Not getting ice cream at dinner.
Shannon: The kids behavior at dinner.
Photos of the Day:
Katie on the Amtrak train.
Nana and Reese are ready to roll! All aboard!
View of the Jersey city pier from our room.
Reese was so tired after dinner!
Jersey City pier at night.Miles: 195
Total miles: 2754
I'm still working on getting receipts together. Will post later!
0 comments:
Post a Comment