20170801 - No Kong, Shop, Park, Stomp

20170801 - Up in the am and all on the subway to seach for King Kong. We took the elevator WAY UP to the top of the Empire State Building and the view was amazing! L was a bit weak in the knees especially when we put our phones out through the cage to take great pictures, and she wouldn't get close to the edge. We enjoyed the sights for a bit and then headed down to stroll up 5th Avenue and check out the stores.

We stopped at the 3 level Adidas store where J was in heaven and got a cool hat. The NBA store had some supper cool memorabilia. The 3rd floor of the Microsoft store gave J a chance to strap on a VR headset and blow some stuff up and D got to do a 3 screen driving game on a supercomputer, G was too young :-( A bit further uptown on 5th and we strolled into the Trump tower that had a 5 story Nike store in it.  The boys loved that and we spent a ton of time in there. We tried to get some Trump ice cream but there was only 1 super slow dude working there so we bailed and found a street vendor for a cool treat. We came to Tiffany's and went in to the amazing diamond sparkling show room to look around. We saw the 128 carat Tiffany Diamond and I looked for something less expensive to get for L and a dainty little silver and diamond bracelet. We got a hold of a salesperson and the $2000 bracelet got to stay in its nice case. No little blue box for L :-( however JG&I did get to use the drinking fountain that had a person stationed there to operate it for you. There were 2 other floors to Tiffany's but we weren't invited to visit those. On to the Apple store, which was huge, but not much neater than the one at Easton.

We crossed the street into Central Park for some hiking, climbing and sight seeing. We saw many of the movie sights and cool things, along with some performers by the pond. 

We caught the train and headed back downtown to the Broadway district where we got some pizza in a corner cafe before heading to Stomp. The sow was really loud but the boys really enjoyed the show. Another day done in the big city and we headed below to catch our ride back to NJ for the night. G got his special reserved seat :-)

20170731 - Statue and Grand Arenas

20170731 - Up in the am and we jumped a train to Liberty National park where we had quite a hike to get to the ferry. We noticed at Liberty park a black line running through the park, same same kind of black line we saw at the PA 911 memorial, and this one pointed across the Hudson river towards where the Twin Towers use to stand, it was another flight path... From the ferry we had a great view of the city as we approached Ellis Island.

We didn't get off and continued on to Liberty Island where we walked around the awesome statue. What a sight it must have been coming into the country as an immigrant. We had a nice lunch on the patio and then headed back to the ferry to go to Battery park From there we walked to Wall St and on to the Grand Central Station. We toured the beautiful station for a bit before jumping on the train to the Bronx. Our destination fr the evening, Yankee Stadium.

Once inside the door the boys got their a special treat, their picture taken with the World Series trophy. We stopped at the fan appreciation booth and got certificates for our first game in the stadium, we got Aaron Judge's too.  Up to our seats in the front row of club level for a spectacular view of the grand arena. What a place! DG&I walked around the entire place searching for the perfect hat. We found one and headed back to our seats to finish the game. The Yankees won!

Back on the subway, through WTC Station, pretty much empty at this hour, and to our hotel.  We saw some great things today!

20170730 - PA all the way to NYC

20170730 - Up and had bfast at the hotel then more time on the road in PA. We stopped in Shartlesville to see Roadside America to see the huge building full of a model train display. It was awesome and the boys loved looking at all the different scenes and cool stuff they did with this. Definitely worth a stop.

On to the Peeps Factory in Bethlehem, they were closed but you could still smell the sugar in the air. We drove through a Burger King for lunch and kept on moving. Next stop was the Crayola Experience. We didn't take the tour but went through the huge gift shop and saw a wall of crayons.

That was the last stop for a while as we got in to traffic the closer we got to NYC. We drove through some pretty rough neighborhoods to get to the hotel in Newark NJ. We got settled in and then headed down to the lobby, through the tube and to the NJ PATH station to catch our first train to NYC. We made it to the World Trade Center Train Station which was AMAZING.

We came up through the bottom of the new World Trade Center and through a line that wrapped around the building  of people waiting to pay $50 a pop to go to the top. We went outside and walked around the 911 memorial fountains and talked to the boys about it. Pretty amazing and moving to be standing there. We then headed back down to the subways and made our way to Times Square.

The boys thought it was pretty awesome and we saw all the sights we see on TV. There were street artists making cool paintings, performers dancing and playing music and every language on the globe around us. What a cool place. We went into the M&M store and got a couple bags full of all the different M&Ms from the 3 floors of chocolate. We stopped in the Disney store, and got a snack from a street vendor. We took a hike and found a nice little place to eat and sit for a bit and then walked past Macy's and the Empire Sate Building. Back on the subway and the boys found the perfect seats. We made it back to the hotel and crashed.

20170729 - Day One in PA

20170729 - Up in the am, everything packed and we headed out.  The odometer started at 11,755 and we started the trip as my mentor would by listening to Holiday Road by Lindsay Buckingham. Before we knew it we were in West Virgina.  State seems a bit more empty with aunt Martha gone...  Didn't take us long until we hit Pennsylvania and G was very confused as to how we got through WV so fast.  We swung through Somerset to see a giant elephant and a globe tower on the way to our lunch destination the Castle Restaurant in Stoystown for an awesome meal.  G&I chatted with the owner and learned all about the place he grew up in.  After we filled ourselves up we headed on down the road to the Flight 93 National Memorial.  

The memorial was truly amazing and much more moving for me than I thought it would be. The black line that marked the glide path through the memorial was amazing. The displays in the memorial were very educational and there was no way I would be able to listen to the phone messages left by the passengers to their loved ones... We walked the path and read everything trying to explain to the boys what all happened and why the site was important.

Back on the road and we passed what once was Storyland in Schellsburg and a coffee pot shaped building in Bedford.  Then for dessert we stopped at a ice cream sundae shaped ice cream place we have been to before for a treat before seeing the world's largest quarter.

Our day was far from over as we headed through the Amish lands to Port Royal to meet up with our good buddy Marko we lived next door to in Wilmington NC when D was born. Marko is a huge sprint car race fan and just happened to be in our neck of the woods so we joined him for the first sprint car race for all of us. I have never seen anything like this; a dirt track, cars sliding around at 120 mph and crashing and flying into the air and the thunderous noise was incredible.  We stayed for nearly all the races, but it was getting very late and we were freezing. We got to our hotel in Harrisbug very late. What a great day with loads of awesome experiences and sights.

20170728 - Lined Up

20170728 - Up in the am and in to work trying to finalizing everything up. Stayed a bit late to make sure everything would run smooth while I was out.  Home and L had everything backed up and we had semi relaxing evening preparing for the big vacation starting tomorrow.

20170727 + College Visit

20170727 + Up in the am and in to work. VERY busy day and stayed late to help Mary Ellen get ready for the QBR in San Francisco next week. Home and chatted with L&D about the college visit to Columbus State. They said it was great and really liked campus and tour. LG&I headed to Meijer to get supplies for the trip. D&J headed to their buddy's houses for the night. LG&I watched 'Ghost in the Machine'. It had great special effects but the movie was not good. All to bed and I looked at NYC sightseeing stuff until late.