Days Four and Four and a half..

Day Four began like it was supposed to. We woke up and took a walk through upper Manhattan. We walked through Rockefeller Center and along Fifth avenue to Central Park.Rockefeller was not as grand as i thought it would be, but the ice skating rink was not up yet.  We went through the lower part of the park on a quick walk stopping to snap a few pictures of us in the park. On the way back we stopped at a Psychic and had our palms read for fun. Im apparently going to own my own business and my first child will be a boy. It was a funny thing to add to our trip. Afterwards we drove to Brooklyn and went to the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory. It was pretty good ice cream and it was right under the brooklyn bridge and gave a terrific view of lower manhattan. it was amazing. i snapped some pictures while we waited in line for the ice cream.

On the Brooklyn Bridge

The View of Manhattan from the Ice Cream Factory

After we bought the ice cream we ate it on the way to the airport. Everyone knows what comes next.. we were a little behind scheduale.. end up hitting traffic.. and the people at the airport were not helpful in anyway.. New Yorkers are very rude. Sooo me and Hope missed our flight. Having slightly anticipated this Mary and David did not drive too far away so they came back to get us and we had to find something to keep us occupied until our new flight left in the morning out of Newark, New Jersey. We drove through sketchy Brooklyn and found a Chipotle to eat at and then drove around paying a countless number of tolls trying to find a beach to sleep on, a continuation of a couple nights before. We went back and forth between Jersey, Manhattan, and Brooklyn so many times I never wanted to drive through that tunnel or across another Bridge again. We had to pay an 11 dollar toll on one bridge which i think was the Manhattan Bridge and ended up on  a beach somewhere which i think was on Staten Island.

New York at night

Pretty Bridge, i think this is the one we paid $11 on

Hope helping blow up our bed

Our bed for the night, we carried it onto the beach

A deli we stopped to pee at. i like the name

 So we slept on the beach, i tried to sleep most of the time. Even with all the blankets it was freezing cold and i was told that two setchy men watched us most of the time waiting for us to fall  asleep. There was a lot of beach around and they just had to stay by us for the whole night.Hope said they got pretty close to us. But there was always one or two of us awake (usually not me) and we talked loudly and made it safely out of there and to the airport, made our flight on time and made it home.

Day Three

After we got back to the hotel after our Atlantic City adventure, the other three crashed in bed. I wanted to experience New York in the morning. I forgot it was Saturday, so it was less exciting than i hoped. Also it was WINDY!! and freezing. I got some marbled hot chocolate from the starbucks in our hotel and sat in Times Square for about twenty minutes until it froze me out. I went in and fell asleep for two hours until we woke up to start our next day. We woke up and ate lunch at a burger place called Five Napkin Burger. It was delicious. After that we waited in line at the TKTS place to get tickets to a broadway for that night. We ended up getting tickets for West Side Story.

inside Five Napkin

Waiting for tickets

After we purchased the tickets we took the subway back to lower manhattan and found ground zero. Then we walked around the financial district a little bit before heading up to the Empire State building. After that we went back to the hotel to take a short nap before the 8 pm show. I took some pictures of the sunset from our hotel window before falling asleep. We fell asleep hard and ended up waking up at 7:55. Needless to say we did not look good for the show, but we raced down the elevator and across the street and made it before the first number was over. The show was amazing! I absolutely loved it. After the show we got some pizza and then headed to the hotel for bed. I don't remember falling asleep that night that's how fast i passed out.

Ground Zero

On the Street

Empire State Building

Sunset

Taken the next day because we didn't have time on our way to the show

Day Two

On Day two we woke up and took the subway down to the very bottom of Manhattan where we took the free Staten Island Ferry. It took us to the island while passing the Statue of Liberty and Elis Island on the way. We also got to see the city and skyline from Manhattan and Brooklyn from the boat. We met a couple on the ferry that told us a little about the island and that there was nothing to do there. So we got back on the ferry and went back to Manhattan.

Brooklyn Bridge in the background

Our new friends in the back corner

Trying to figure out where to go next

After our boat ride we took the subway up to China Town. We ate lunch there and shopped a little. Then we walked on Canal Street and in Soho before heading to Little Italy where we ate dinner and gelato for dessert.

Asian Food!

In the Italian Restaurant

Mary in front of Ferrara's the Gelato Place

Walking in the Streets on New York

 After getting back to the hotel we decided to drive down to Atlantic City. As it was Hope's 21st birthday she wanted to fit a first time of gambling into our trip. At first i was reluctant for the 2 hour drive down there but after the fact im glad we went. I got to play the slot machines :)

in the car on the way to atlantic city

After we hit Caesars, we decided to sit on the beach for a little bit. By that time it was around 330 in the morning and freezing!! We almost slept there but did not have enough blankets so we drove back to NYC. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes in the car (I tried to keep David up while he drove) but i woke up in time to take some pictures of the Sunrise over NYC. It was beautiful.

After the sun had risen. Manhattan