NYC from the top of a double decker bus

Nothing says tourist like the sight seeing buses in NYC.  BUT….my parents wanted to see and do as much as possible, and these buses are a great way to get around!  We went everywhere you can imagine, and it was actually really interesting to listen to the tour guides and learn fun and interesting facts about the city.  I can’t even begin to list the places we visited.  One day we did the downtown tour.  Next day the uptown tour.  And finally a harbor cruise. 

(We couldn’t get a good pic, but Blake was fast asleep on Papa’s lap)

Funny story about the cruise.  We were running tight on time, and so we asked on of the tour guides what the quickest way to the harbor was.  He said we could wait for a little shuttle that would take us over, or we could just walk.  It would take 6-10 minutes is what he said.  Now….I should have been very suspicious of that because we had to cross 5 Avenues, but I just took his word for it.  It was over 90 degrees and super super humid.  We walked and walked, then we walked a little faster, walked some more, started running…smack into a building.  We were almost at the address we had been given, but there was a very large building in our way.  We went one direction around the building—dead end.  We went the other direction.  After a few more twists and turns, AND running with the stroller across the Hudson River Parkway, we finally made it with about 5 seconds to spare.  We were so hot and so sweaty!  Lucky for us we had stopped at Carnegie Deli (Rudest place on earth) right before this adventure and we had a nice fat slice of cheesecake, and a giant slice of 5th avenue pie to enjoy on the boat.

I have to say, my favorite views of Manhattan are from the water, so it was worth all the running.  The poor kids, their little faces were SO RED. We saw all of downtown, the statue of liberty, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queensboro bridge, South Street Seaport, and everything in between. 

Hanging at the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park. These gardens were BEAUTIFUL!  I can’t believe we’d never been there before now.

We also hit up Grand Central Station and learned that there is something in the pattern and color of the floor that makes it so you could run from end to end and never hit another person, no matter how crowded it was, unless you intentionally ran into them.  Interesting….