New York City - A day in pictures...

The Monkey Family took a day trip down to the big city on Saturday. We left home about 7:30 AM and after stopping for gas and cash we hit the road. We drove two and a half hours to a small town where we parked the car and waited for the train. Monkey Girl has a new habit of asking what road we are on - perhaps I get lost too often - so it was fun to talk to her about the roads we were taking and what the toll booths were all about.Monkey Girl had been on the train in San Fransisco, but was old enough to really enjoy it this time. She giggled every time the announcer said, "platform," for each stop and then would say it a few times quietly herself. She kept saying we were on an airplane and talking about our flights to San Fran. We were lucky to grab the last rows of the train, so there were two seats facing forward and two backward, giving us room and the feel of being in a compartment, instead of the rows of seats in the rest of the train.

The train ride was about 45 minutes, very comfortable, and took us right to Grand Central Station. I was amazed to climb the stairs from the dingy train platform and come out into Grand Central - it was very beautiful and ornate. It seemed like there was a big bustle of people all around us as we worked our way up to the beautiful main floor.

We exited onto 42nd street and started walking toward Time Square. I had expected much heavier crowds of people, but really all day it was never very bad. I noticed that we kept passing people with their cameras out, pointed behind us, so we turned around and saw...
the Chrysler building! You can also see Grand Central and its beautiful exterior in this photo - it is the shortest building in the middle on the left. Monkey Girl was "reading" the train schedule and calling it a map. (Click on the photos for larger, clearer images.)

We walked west on 42nd street toward Times Square, past the New York Public Library with its lions and Bryant park. It was just a beautiful day and it seemed like there were tourists everywhere so we didn't feel strange looking at our map or pulling out the camera. I was glad when we put M.G. in the stroller so that I could focus more on enjoying the sights.

Times Square was probably the most crowed area we visited on Saturday. With the signs, theaters, street vendors, the tour bus salesmen, and other hawkers, it felt like a circus. Papa's keen eye even spotted the Naked Cowboy, but he had a crowd of people, so we didn't get a photo.We turned north when we got to Broadway and followed it to Central Park. We saw the Ed Sullivan theater and Hello Deli, among other fun sites. The road seemed to be filled with taxi after taxi and a few tour buses. We could see why people avoided driving in the city.

We entered Central Park through Columbus Circle (which always reminds me of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) and spent the majority of our day wandering through the southern parts of the park. The park is huge and we could have spent much more time than we had visiting the whole thing.

We paused to share a hot dog from a street vendor to get a taste of the city. Then we explored the walking trails. The information booth guy suggested we check out the Bethesda fountain since we'd see the tree lined Mall and because street musicians usually hung out near the fountain. When we got close to the fountain Monkey Girl heard a quintet playing and said, "I have that song on a CD at home!" Then she ran over to a step, sat down, and started tapping her toes.

We stayed for a few songs before moving on to see Strawberry Fields, the tribute to John Lennon, and then working our way back out of the park.

I think the Sheep Meadow, the large grassy area in these photos, was Monkey Girl's favorite part of the park. (Other than the street performer that was a lady pretending to be a statue, with gold body paint and a baritone. That was something M.G. brought up a lot later, especially because the woman was standing on a box.)

We set out to trek across the open grass when all of a sudden M.G. threw herself onto the grass and started rolling around. She cheerfully shouted, "I'm staying here in this soft grass!" She'd hop up and follow us a while before throwing herself down again and laughing. She enjoyed watching the sun bathers and Frisbee throwers. Eventually we worked our way past the Central Park Zoo and out onto 5th Avenue, on the east side of the park.

We set out to the north, to see the outsides of a couple of the big museums, but the heat was starting to get to this pregnant Mama, so we cut back into the park instead (in search of a bathroom) and saw a little lake where people were sailing remote control boats. Monkey Girl was passed out in her stroller at this point and we headed back out onto 5th Avenue toward the south.

I enjoyed seeing all the big, famous stores on Fifth Avenue, along with the rush of AC that flooded out every time a door was opened. We spent some time wandering around at St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th. It is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the U.S. and the alter was made by Tiffany and Company, so very ornate! There were beautiful marble carvings in all of the small side alters.

There was a wedding in progress while we, and quite a few other tourists, looked around, but the place was so huge that I doubt they noticed us much. As we were leaving we noticed that a crowd forming were the guests for the next wedding of the day. We also saw a couple getting married in Central Park and a few other wedding parties taking photos across the city.

We saw Saks and we peaked our heads into the American Girl doll store, since I have one from my childhood and they are so popular among my cousins. That place was crazy - a pink explosion of tiny clothes and toys.

From 5th Avenue we entered Rockefeller Center, which seemed more compact than I expected, but neat none the less. On our way from Rockefeller Center back to the train station we stopped for a slice of pizza. It didn't seem quite like the stereotypical New York pizza place, but it was still tasty.

We got back to the train station and wandered around it a little more before catching the train home. I thought the entryways to the tracks were so pretty, especially compared to the platforms.The conductor gave Monkey Girl one of the litte tickets he used to keep track of where people were sitting so that he wouldn't ask to punch their tickets more than once. She was an old hand at train riding by this point and was in her seat, ready to go.

Our train ride home was relaxing after our day of walking around. We headed back home once we got to our car, stopping for a snack at Burger King on the way home and a pit stop for a potty break a little later. The automatic flushing toilet kept flushing at random, which a worn out Mama and Money Girl found hilarious. Later, as M.G. started to fall asleep in the car she said, "That was a funny potty Mama."

We got home around 9:30 PM and all had a great day. We're already working on ideas for future trips. We'd like to see southern Manhattan and its sights, maybe take a day to go down and see the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Bronx zoo, and I think it would be fun to try one of the bus tours that takes you to all the big sights. We saw those double decker tour buses all day. In any case, it was fun to wander around the city a little and see how easy it was to get down there and find our way around.