New York City Day 1

My brother came into town from Utah and said he wanted to go to New York. Well, we only live 4 hours away, yet I had never been. We decided to go. My dad fronted the bill and my brother, husband, daughter and I tagged along.

We left on Friday July 23rd at about 8:30 am. The drive wasn't too bad until we got into New Jersey right outside of New York. We drove into Manhattan toward our hotel. We see a sign that says there is a fine for honking. We got a good laugh at that and then we sat in traffic... not moving... we were just blocks from our hotel yet it took us 20 minutes to get there. Finally we got in and unloaded our stuff into our room. We packed just what we would need on our first day adventure and set out to explore the city.

We started toward Time Square. I took some pictures we stood around and took it all in. So busy, so many people, so many other tourists like ourselves. We thought about going to a show, but it was hot and the tickets line was an hour and a half wait, in the sun. We changed our minds and headed toward the Empire State building. We got stopped by one of the many staff trying to sell you tickets to the Empire State building. We decided to buy the tickets to the Empire show and the view.

The show was stupid. It was worth it only because we didn't have to wait outside in the heat for regular observatory tickets. Dad and I went to the show while Jonathan and Josh waited in the gift shop with Abby. We make it to the top and... it is overcast and grey. I still got pictures and we enjoyed it.

Abby loved it, she was looking down at all of the buildings, totally fascinated. All of that walking made us hungry so we decided to take the subway into Chinatown and Little Italy. On the subway, not more than a few minutes into our subway ride we saw a fight. Some punk kid was picking on another kid and started beating him up. An older gentleman yelled at them to sit down and the bully kid sat down and stayed quiet. Hahaha, he was not so tough anymore. We wanted to get a purse for me from Chinatown. So many people told me about getting knock off purses for really cheap. Well, we must have looked rich because they wanted me to pay $100. Nevermind. Not for a knock off Coach bag.

So, we set out to Little Italy where we ate delicious food then went to the bakery across the street and ate delicious pastries. Little Italy was nicer than Chinatown. We set off again to the subway and went back to the hotel. By the time we got in it was after 8:00 pm. I put Abby to bed with much resisting on her part and we all showered. Jon and Josh went back to Time Square to go to the comic book store and I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before turning in for the night.