Ni Nok 2

Saturday (23rd) morning we caught a cab down to the wharf for a harbour cruise to the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Katrina, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were closed while they did repairs. We were pretty bummed to find this out when we were planning our trip but we still thought a cruise would be fun.

It was so so cold. We got a hot chocolate when we got on the boat and tried to warm up a bit while we waited to leave. Pete got a hot pretzel and it was really ordinary. It's just salty bread and we weren't impressed. I remember having one in Vienna when I was 16 and I enjoyed it but maybe I'm just more sensitive to salt these days. 

We got good seats inside the boat and spent most of the cruise indoors. It was a beautiful sunny day and the views were great.

Ellis Island

We did go outside for a few photos but it was seriously so cold because of the wind and being on the water that we didn't last very long out there. 

Somewhere Pete really wanted to go while we were in New York was the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum. The Intrepid is the amazing Aircraft Carrier in the photo below. It has been converted into the coolest looking museum. It was a 5 minute walk from the pier we caught the harbour cruise from so it was perfect doing both things in the one day. We got to the Museum about 11:15am and spent a few hours there. We could have stayed even longer - especially as Will absolutely loved it but we just didn't have that much time to spare and Will was needing a nap.

The deck is filled with different aircraft and Will enjoyed looking at all the planes. 

It was the stuff inside that Will really loved though. The museum was packed with interactive displays. Will was in his element climbing into helicopters, fighter planes, rockets, boats and all sorts of things. We all enjoyed this museum way more than the Smithsonium in DC we attended a few days later. That may be a big call, but for little kids I think the Intrepid kicked butt over the Smithsonium - especially for toddler aged kids. 

We were so impressed that Will laid down like he really was injured and stayed there for a good minute or so. 

Will loved getting in the "Space Rocket." I didn't feel like crawling in there but Pete was happy to oblige. 

This boat sat on an inflatable raft that moved from side to side. Will couldn't get enough of it

This is as close as we could get to the Space Shuttle Pavillion. It just wasn't good luck for us with things being closed. They were doing repairs on her also due to Hurricane Katrina so we couldn't go in unfortunately. I guess we'll just have to go back to New York someday. I really really hope we get there again. It is the best place!

Pete and Sim did a tour of the USS Growler (submarine) while I continued to entertain Will inside. We didn't think a tour in a sub would be suitable for a 2 year old and there wasn't really anywhere to keep the pram. Sim and Pete took ages but I was still able to entertain Will inside the museum for another hour which is pretty phenomenal. Sim then took Will home for a nap and Pete and I stayed on at the museum for a bit.

I was a bit grumpy while we were waiting to go in the sub. We queued for about 40 mins and I was so hungry by that point as it was 1:30pm. I am one of those people who get grumpy when hungry and being pregnant probably exaccerbated my grumpiness. Pete is so patient with me though and kept saying it'll be worth it and we'll not be coming back. My dad also served in the Navy as a radio operator in a Submarine so I really wanted to see what it was like to be inside one.

I imagine Dad would have been sitting in a similar room to this. I think he told me it was smaller on the sub he was on!

Pete and I had planned to go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum but I was just so tired and hungry I wasn't really keen to go anywhere after our busy morning. We stopped to get lunch at a place Peter picked. A very American looking greasy burger/rib joint right near Madame Tussauds. Well, to put it bluntly it was revolting and remains the worst meal we had in the USA. Pete got ribs and they were average. I ordered some crispy hot wings and they were bland and just greasy. I barely ate one. I ate Pete's cornbread which was actually nice and ordered a corn on the cob. What was really poor was the service. We just could not get a waiter to attend us and then trying to pay the bill was a nightmare. They didn't seem to accept cash for some reason. I didn't even tip them I was so unimpressed!

Here is my meal. It looks like it'll be tasty but it wasn't... the face is because I wasn't expecting the wings to be that enormous!


Of course this did nothing to help my moodiness but we pressed on to Madame Tussauds. I really didn't enjoy it. Pete reckons if I was in a better mood it would have been more fun but I still think it was a bit boring. Other than standing next to the mannequins there was nothing interesting to do. We were lucky to have stayed there for more than 45 mins.

I still don't think I'd go back there if we're ever in New York again. We still took a few photos and tried to get into the spirit of things.

Of course everything is supersized in the US. This syrup was in the random candy store in the middle of the wax museum. It was a bit strange if you ask me.

After the wax museum Pete was still keen to go to Ripley's Believe it or Not museum but I thought I should get back and let Sim have some time. Here's a photo of Pete. I felt kinda bad letting him do stuff on his own but he didn't seem to mind and ended up doing a bit more wandering around Times Square which was good. 

One of us took this during a walk. I just love that no matter where you are in NY you just have to look up and you get an amazing sight like this. I love the Chrysler Building. I think it's my fav in NY. 

I got back to the hotel about 4pm so we could let Simeon have a big night on the town. I wanted him to have at least 1 night and a whole day to himself so that was Sat/Sun. Sim did have a VERY big night on Saturday night making friends with locals at a few pubs and some other things.

Sunday: We had a bit of a lie in Sunday morning and went to church around 11am. We caught a cab there even though it was really close. What was cool is that you're just walking down Broadway and you look up and you're like, Oh a church building. It is squeezed right in the heart of a shopping district and is the church temple for New York as well. 

By the way, I took this during a walk to do some shopping on my own one evening. I went right past it and had to remember to look up to notice the statue on the top. 

Most of you reading this would know that we are Mormons. I love that no matter where we are in the world, church is the same and the people are friendly and we get to make Sunday worship part of our holiday experience. We usually just attend the sacrament portion of the meeting but it's still nice to go each week. 
We walked back to the hotel after church and got lunch and let Will have a little nap.

Actually Pete got a hot dog on the way home. I had a bite and it was ok. Definitely nothing special but we can now say we had a NY hot dog :-)

We caught up with Simeon who emerged from his room about 12:30pm just a "touch" hungover. He was trying to remember what he got up to the night before. Gradually things started coming back to him and I was glad he didn't get too crazy on us. Not like his time in the USA last time hey Sim!! Sim did his own thing Sunday which I think involved a lot of shopping. I think he did more than all of us combined and his credit card definitely felt it too ;-)

We then enjoyed a walk through central park. We had really been wanting to get to Central park and have a big walk around but were just so busy with all our other plans and the cold weather probably didn't help. We only got a small taste of the park, especially since we were running late to get to the Museum of Natural History. Central Park is another place with a great vibe though. There were heaps of people running and I felt guilty that I hadn't ventured out for a run even once during our stay. If it was warmer I would have loved to do a run or some yoga or tai chi in the park. Within a few days of being in New York I kept saying to Peter, you realise we are going to HAVE to come back someday! Someday soon!

This is Will and I after he spotted a garbage truck in the park!

Various people do random stuff. These bubbles were pretty cool though.

We made it to the Museum of Natural History at about 3:50pm. It closed at 5pm so we were really pressed for time. Pete and I were really keen to come here but were quite disappointed really. I think it had a lot to do with us being on such a time limit and Will deciding he wanted to run around like a crazy toddler! Still, it was seriously the only day of our holiday when he went a little nuts...and by nuts I mean he was probably just acting like a regular toddler ;-)

Will did enjoy the dinosaurs though

Me no dum-dum. You dum-dum! You bring me gum-gum?! Ha ha

I can't remember much else but I think a trip to a yummy restaurant we'd already been to for their New York cheesecake occurred. We had a relatively early night as we had to get up by 4am to get to the airport for the next leg of the trip - to Buffalo/Palmyra. Our time in New York went so fast but we actually felt like we did the major things on our wish list. It's hard to chose my favourite thing about New York. Everything is great. There is something for everyone in New York and I just loved the vibe of the place. It's hard to describe the atmosphere of a city. I feel the same when I'm in Hiroshima, Japan. I feel like that is a special place, so different to most Japanese cities...probably for obvious reasons. I'd like to go to Nagasaki and see if there are similarities...anyway, I'm getting sidetracked here.

New Yorkers were incredibly friendly in our experience. It is so easy to get around and I think it's a really kid friendly place. Next time we go (I've decided we just have to) we are going to do; MOMA, The Central Park Zoo, Grand Central Station, China Town, Soho, The Highline, The Guggenheim and The Met. They're just the things I can remember right now. We got an awesome taste of New York but you could spend weeks there and still have hundreds of things to experience.

I had this post up today and Will, without being prompted whatsoever, pointed at the screen and said "Ni Nok mummy!" The city obviously had a great impact on him also and I'm so happy we had such an amazing time. It really was the pinnacle of our holiday and we long to go back there...definitely when it's a bit warmer next time. We didn't feel like we were inhibited too much because of the cold but we will be glad to have less to pack next time that's for sure.

If you have the dream to go to New York, just do it. I think it's a place people should go to once in their life. 

We fell in love with New York. Could you tell?!

Ni Nok

Our time in New York was one of the best experiences in my entire life. I'm going to have to break this week up into separate blog posts otherwise it'll take ages to read. Please bear in mind that our blog was started with the purpose of a family journal so if it bores you, tough titties :-)

On Tuesday(19th) we got up at a ridiculous time in the morning to get our early flight from LAX to New York (JFK). Will was awesome and happy to be going on a plane. We had a great run to the airport and dropping the car off was so easy. They have a very cool system where they just scan a barcode on the car as you drive in and you simply leave it there. We checked in without any problems but had to wait for almost 50 mins just to get through the security gate. We couldn't believe that for such a huge and busy airport they had only 2 people working at the security gate. In Melbourne they have at least 4 at any one time. It was even longer of course because of how strict the system is in the US. Taking shoes on and off and always having to get Will's water bottle tested was a bit annoying but I wasn't going to utter any complaints.

By the time we got through security we had just enough time to buy something for breaky and then we were boarding when we arrived at our gate. We flew United Airlines direct to New York and the flight went by really quickly. We even got in-flight entertainment which I wasn't expecting. We all watched Silver Linings Playbook while Will watched Finding Nemo on the tablet. It was nice watching a movie with all the bad language edited out too. Gotta love that about the US. I think Sim and I enjoyed a lot of knowing laughs at some of the behaviour of the characters with Bi-polar :-)

Because of the time difference between the East and West Coast we arrived in NY about 3:30pm. We managed to get a mini SUV taxi outside the airport and fit our stuff in pretty comfortably. Even though we were trashed we were so excited to be in NY. As we got closer to the city we started seeing iconic buildings and we were all looking out the window excitedly. We  were even more excited when we drove alongside central park and pulled up outside a bunch of fancy hotels! I couldn't wait to get checked in. I was also excited because there was a layer of snow along the ground in Central Park which made everything look so pretty!

We stepped out of the Taxi and got hit with the coldest gust of wind. It really shocked us! We got into the hotel quickly and Pete and Will went to the front desk while Will and I sat in the foyer. They were taking ages and I was thinking "Great, there's a problem with our booking." Sure enough, Pete comes over to me and says that our room isn't ready, but before I got mad the hotel staff had offered us a really great upgrade for a good price. The deal was that we go from our basic room on the 9th floor to a 39th floor room with city and central park views, king size bed and 2 free drinks in the bar every evening. In a much fancier room for an extra 200 for the week. I thought "why not. Let's make this week in NY extra awesome and really treat ourselves. I'm so glad we did because our room was amazing. It was really fancy and big and the views were incredible. I loved getting up each morning and seeing this!!

I'm a bit bummed we didn't take more photos but it was awesome. When we all got up to our room it just made us so much more excited than we already were. Simeon's room was particularly big so we put Will's cot in there :-) 
We sat around chatting excitedly and talked about what we wanted to do over the next couple of days. We decided to venture out for a walk and collect the New York Passes we had ordered online. Stepping outside it was freezing. I had only brought a pair of fingerless gloves for Will and had forgotten mine completely. It was about 4:30pm when we set off so it really was getting icy. We were loving walking along and checking out all the restaurants, cafes etc and just soaking up the atmosphere. It wasn't too hectic either. The demographic was so different to LA. Of course we knew it would be considering we were staying in Midtown but it was mostly 30-40 year old businessmen and women walking along the streets and the obvious tourists. We didn't feel like we stuck out too much as we didn't have backpacks and bumbags. Gotta love having a pram to put all your gear in :-)

It took about 15 mins or so to reach the place to pick up our passes. Pete and Sim lined up while Will and I defrosted near the heater! It was dark by now and we were getting hungry so thought we should get dinner on the way back. I would totally recommend using the YELP app on smartphone etc if you're travelling in the USA. It was so handy. We passed this very traditional looking Italian restaurant and decided to eat there. We knew we'd made a good choice when our waiter welcomed us at the door. He had the thick Italian accent and huge black mustache and he seriously looked like Luigi from Mario Brothers. We nicknamed him that too :-) He went out of his way for us and was so good at accommodating Will with a special plastic cup with a built in straw and arranged for him to get his meal asap. I ordered Will spinach and ricotta cannelloni and he absolutely loved it! I make it at home so thought he'd eat it. I enjoyed a gorgeous bowl of Minestrone soup. I had been craving wholesome food packed with vegies and that combined with fresh crusty bread that didn't taste like sugar was heaven. Pete got a yummy ravioli and Simeon got something so good I knew we'd have to come back so I could order it for myself. I've already forgotten what it was called. 
We left feeling so satisfied and I honestly didn't notice the cold as much. We had fallen in love with New York within minutes of arriving and were so excited to have 6 days to explore this amazing city.

Day 2 (Wed 20th): We had a nice sleep in on Wednesday morning and I hate to say it but the first thing we did was walk to a laundromat with a huge pile of laundry!! We hadn't done any in LA so thought we better get onto it! Sim stayed back at the hotel to do a workout at the gym but Pete, Will and I set off about 9:30am and travelled about 5 blocks to a laundromat. 
I think it was at this time that Will's highlight of New York occurred. As we were approaching the laundromat we saw 2 big garbage trucks collecting rubbish along the street. Will got so excited. Garbage trucks have been his favourite thing for a long time now and he literally shakes with excitement when we watch them down our street in Australia. 

The garbos got out the truck to chuck the rubbish in the back. They saw how excited Will was and chatted away to him for a few minutes. He was absolutely loving it. I love the look of wonder on his little face. I hope he is always so joyous!

We got everything going at the laundromat and then walked to a very closeby Maccas for breaky. I'm not a huge fan of Maccas at the best of times but usually enjoy a breakfast there occasionally. Well, Maccas in the USA is especially disgusting. The hashbrowns were revolting and oily. I can tell they use inferior oil to what we have in Australia and of course the buns tasted like sugar like all American bread. So glad Will and I had already had a bowl of porridge before we left!

Will and I checking out the famous ice-rink at the Rockerfella Centre. 

I've been wanting to go here since seeing Home Alone 2 Lost in New York as a kid. Would love to be here at Christmastime!

Once we were done with laundry we met up with Sim at the Rockerfella centre and lined up to do the 'Top of the Rock.' Sim got a little lost on the way but we eventually got up to the top of the iconic building. It was so cold out on the roof but the view was spectacular. 

I absolutely love this shot of Sim and Will. I love that Will is higher than the Empire State Building (to Sim's left)

We could see our hotel from the Top of the Rock. Upon closer inspection we can actually figure out which window is to Sim's hotel room. Pretty cool!

I just had to include the pic below which I had to scan. When you're lining up to go up to the observation deck everyone passes though a set with the New York Skyline backdrop and photographers. Everyone we saw were being incredibly boring so we decided to really ham things up when it was our turn. We had no intention of buying the shot anyhow. However, we just couldn't resist when we saw it a while later on the top floor display cameras. It's not great quality but the look on Will's face seems like genuine concern. Lol. I love this shot as it sums up how much fun we were having. And Will was ok, I promise. 

Sim was kind enough to take Will back to the hotel for a nap so Pete and I could grab a late lunch and have a wander around together. We visited the Lego and M&M store and ended up in Times Square for a look around. 

Pete reverting to his nerdy ways. Sorry honey, I can't justify 300 bucks on star wars lego! Maybe you'll be lucky one birthday...what a dag :-)

I'm not into gimmicky stuff so we just bought a small bag of dark choc peanut m&ms just because we could!

We took the photo below for Will. It had 3 of his very favourite things. Including a Ni Nok Taxi. During our holiday we always told Will what we were doing and where we were going next. When we told him about New York he started calling it "Ni Nok" straight away and the name just stuck. Everything in New York was prefixed with Ni Nok - Ni Nok Garbage Truck, Ni Nok Taxi, Ni Nok Plese Car, Ni Nok bus! There were always plenty of these things around which provided constant stimulation for our little man :-)
Will still talks about New York all the time. We bought him some cheap souvenirs before we left and he plays with his Ni Nok taxi, police car, firetruck and bus all the time! He also has the silly photo taken at the Rockerfella Centre in his room and I swear he remembers a lot of our time there as he still talks about it.



There is a stand up in Times Square and right at the top there is an ongoing video screen where they film the people at the top of the stand. Pete and I caught ourselves on camera. 





Day 3 (Thurs 21st): Because I've left blogging about our holiday so long I've forgotten what we did on certain days but I think it was Thursday morning we all went shopping. I had been telling Peter for months that I wanted at least 3-4 hours of dedicated shopping. I had heard about a store called Century 21 from a few people and it was close to the World Trade Centre Memorial site so we decided to do all of that in one go. 
I spent hours shopping - though the first hour was spent in the kids department buying stuff for Will. I was in love with the variety of stuff - especially kids shoes in the US and got Will some pretty great stuff. You should see him in the nice black shoes I got him for church! Will lasted pretty well for that time and then had a bit of a run around with Peter while I spent the next few hours looking for myself. A crazy amount of money was spent but it was pretty awesome to do that much splurging in one hit. Pete wasn't interested at all in shopping which was a bummer as he could really do with a wardrobe update. Pete hardly reads our blog so it'll be interesting to see if he notices that comment ;-)
Will was so good. He spent a lot of time waiting around with Peter, looking at videos on Pete's phone etc. I can't believe what an amazing toddler he is. Sim had a great time shopping too but spent half as long as I did. He left his goodies with us so that he could check out the WTC himself. We met him a couple hours later and Sim took Will back to the hotel for his nap and a bit of our gear with him in the pram too. He is champ for managing Will, a pram and a bit of gear on the subway. Glad he didn't get lost!!

Sim had warned us that it was a very emotional thing to do but well worth it. You start off in a museum where a lot of information is displayed in a timeline and there are heaps of photos and  items that were found. It was very tough to read everything and reminded me a lot of the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, which is amazing. 
What got to me the most was a wall dedicated to missing person notices and pictures - most handwritten by their families. I read a couple of these and ended up just breaking down. Pete and I sat down and had a bit of a cry together. I still remember the day of the attack so clearly. I'd arrived at work at 7am and the worker from the night shift was sitting in the lounge balling. I spent a while glued to the TV and then had to get going at work (I was working in a group home with 4 intellectually disabled people and they didn't understand what was happening). As much as I was in shock and it was a terrible tragedy it was very surreal and didn't really effect me personally. By being in the museum and reading about just a handful of the thousands affected I felt so much grief. It was nice to leave the museum and then enter the site where the memorial centre is being built. There are two gorgeous water features at the site and it was lovely to see the spirit of resilience so strong in New York. I'm glad we went. 

Pete and I booked tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. So dutiful Uncle Sim had babysitting duties for the evening. We walked down to the theatre and I was wishing I had dressed warmer. Stockings just weren't cutting it! I had been wanting to see Wicked for years so was really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed the story. I thought the acting and singing was excellent but wasn't that crazy about the music overall. The major hit "defying gravity" was awesome but the rest of the songs were a bit blah for me. I knew it wasn't a typical big show with stirring music but was still expecting awesome music. I felt particularly bad for Peter as he would have preferred to see The Lion King. We only budgeted to do 1 show as it's so expensive but thought we could possibly squeeze in another show if we got cheap last minute tickets at Times Square. We didn't end up getting time to do another show so we'll have to make sure we see Lion King the next available opportunity. Pete enjoyed Wicked too but we both agreed that we should have seen the Lion King or Phantom. Our very favourite musical is Les Mis but it wasn't running yet!

Day 4 (Friday): When I was first planning the trip to New York I really wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge and had also heard that Brooklyn is a great place for foodies. Pete and I thought we could take the subway and then wonder around Brooklyn, get something Italian for lunch and then walk back over the Bridge and catch a subway on the other side. When we booked Will to come I spent a bit of time looking at kid friendly activities in most of the cities we were visiting. There was a fantastic write up in our New York pass guides about the Brooklyn Children's museum so we decided that it would really nice if we could focus at least half a day purely on Will. We gave Sim the option to do his own thing or tag along with us for the day. I'm glad he came with us as we had an excellent time despite an initial mishap. I left Pete to do all the guiding on public transport and he did a fantastic job. However, he got a little muddled about where we needed to get off the subway and when we did get off we were about 4 kms from the museum. We thought it'd be silly to arrange a cab or wait for another train so we all walked. It felt like it took us forever but we did get to see a lot of Brooklyn this way. Walking down one of the main streets I honestly think there was a barber shop every 200 metres or less. Parts of Brooklyn were very rough looking but it had a cool vibe. I enjoyed walking down the residential sidewalks and seeing the town houses with the typical steps to the front door. This will sound so daggy but it reminded me of Sesame Street :-)

We didn't feel unsafe at all and enjoyed our walk. The day was gorgeous. Sunny but still very cold.

Will enjoyed seeing the big yellow school buses as we arrived at the museum. We didn't get there until about 11am and were happy to see about 4 bus loads of school kids leaving :-)

The museum was so good. I can't speak highly enough about it and would recommend it to any family visiting New York. There was a section particularly devoted to toddlers which we went to first. It had a huge sandpit, indoor playground, story reading nook and this awesome water play area where Will spent most of his time.

There was a little section with a bus and motorbike etc and Will loved that. I think the bus window needs a good clean though :-)

There was a kitchen and garden area where kids could really let their imaginations go wild. It wasn't quite age appropriate for Will but there was plenty of other things to keep him amused; including a display on crustaceans with other things to play with. 

This young guy was VERY enthusiastic. It was great to see that he really loved his job. I can't remember what this strange creature was but it was a little freaky!

We were getting pretty hungry by 1pm and ordered a cab to pick us up and take us to where we were having lunch. I have a lovely friend Dani, who I met through my gym. She told me that her Great Uncle Joe owns an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn and if we were going there we should check it out and he'd look after us. We got the cab to take us there and I mentioned to the waiter about the vague connection, not sure what kind of response I'd get. We were seated at a nice table and very quickly Dani's Uncle Joe greeted us and made us feel right at home. Dani wasn't kidding when she said he'd look after us. We ordered our lunch but on top of that we had a platter of various bruschetta arrive and Will had a lovely little pizza come just for him. I was just planning to share my lunch with him as I had been doing a lot. Everything was absolutely delicious. We loved that the other Italian place we'd fallen in love with was very traditional and now we were eating very modern Italian and enjoying it just as much. We were absolutely stuffed once we'd finished our lunch. Joe really did spoil us and we made sure we gave them a nice tip :-) 

Thanks for the recommendation Dani! I would definitely recommend it if you ever go to Brooklyn. It's called Marco Polo Ristorante! 

We then set off to find the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a pretty big walk to get to that point from the restaurant but we were glad to be walking off our enormous lunch. Will ended up nodding off in the pram. He'd had a very big morning and was no doubt exhausted. He was asleep until almost all the way across. 

I remember talking to Pete and Sim and agreeing that we had chosen the warmest day so far for all this walking we were doing. We worked out later we had walked about 8kms. I was glad we were doing lots of walking in NY as I was missing the gym big time!

Here we are about to start our walk across. 

It is a very cool looking bridge and the views were just as amazing as I'd imagined.

Pete and I did a few silly shots. Sorry to gross you out Sim ;-)

We did a bit more walking once we made it across the bridge but managed to find a subway to take us back to near our hotel. We had an awesome day in Brooklyn and I'd defintiely recommend people go there when in New York. Next time I'd love to do a walking food tour!

A bit later that night, once Will was asleep and Sim had returned from a shopping trip to Times Square, Pete and I went to the top of the Empire State Building. We wanted to see the city at night. Because it was about 9:30pm the lines weren't too bad. I wouldn't have wanted to come at a busier time though. It would be crazy in peak season. Our point and shoot camera just doesn't do the view justice but here are a couple of shots so you get the idea. 

We only lasted about 15 minutes outside on the observation deck as it was unbearably cold. So glad we went though despite being exhausted from our big day in Brooklyn. 

Stay tuned for the last 2 days of our New York adventure...