Day 5 - Hello, New York City - Part I

I've wanted to see New York City for forever, so when Emilee picked NYC as her pick for our summer trip, I was thrilled!  Scott had planned the trip for us to take Amtrak into the city, so we loaded up the van and we were off to find the train station.

Getting ready to board Amtrak to NYC

At Penn Station in NYC

After a quick and relaxing 90-minute train ride, we "landed" in NYC and headed above ground into the city streets.  There were people EVERYWHERE!  Emilee grabbed Daddy's hand and hung on for dear life!. 

Still hanging on to Daddy!

We have arrived!

 

Literally... people everywhere!

NYC Taxicabs

We were like ducks in a row following our leader to find our hotel.

Grand Central Station beside our hotel.



We stayed at the Hyatt Regency at Grand Central Station

We found our hotel and were able to check in early so we could drop off our backpacks and head back out to tour the city.  Emilee had a list of things she wanted to do, which included shopping, shopping, and more shopping.  Ashlee just wanted to see the sites.  I had a list of things that I wanted to see as well.  We had four days and a schedule to keep.  So once we unloaded, we were off and running!

We headed straight to find 5th Avenue for Emilee so she could do some "window" shopping.  Then she spotted the Sephora store and had to check it out. 

Found Sephora... I'm going in!

So much makeup... so little time!

Daddy found a window seat in Sephora!

We walked by St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was under construction, but we were still able to go inside.  It felt a bit strange being all touristy and taking pictures while people were inside praying, but the church was so pretty inside that I couldn't resist. 

Ashlee would love to get her fingers on this organ.

More shopping

Radio City Music Hall in the background

 



They were posting "with" the FDNY
(Fire Department New York)



Ash is reading Karen Kingsbury's Redemption Series, which talks
a lot about NY's Fire Dept, so Ash was a bit excited to see this.

And Em was a bit excited to see this! :-)

When one of my buddies found out I was headed to NYC, she said we must eat at Ellen's Stardust Diner for a genuine NYC experience.  Oh my goodness... was she ever right!  They had singing waiters/waitresses!  The story behind the restaurant is that aspiring Broadway actors/actresses work at Ellen's so they can afford to live in NYC and attend college, acting/dancing classes, etc. in hopes of getting "discovered" while they perform in between waiting on tables.  Our waitress told us that they lose 12-14 waiters/waitresses to Broadway every year.  Judging from some of the talent we heard at lunch, I can see why.  Although the food was underwhelming and overpriced, I thought it was well worth it for the entertainment and the experience!  It was so cool!

This particular couple was really, really good!

Standing on the half wall while performing for the restaurant.

My $14 cheeseburger & fries

Glad we weren't sitting by the half wall, a.k.a. the stage.
The guy to the left turned around and looked up
at one point when the singer was directly behind him.
He turned back around pretty fast. The surprised look on his
face made us realize he could see right up her tiny little skirt. :-0

"Mary Poppins" on Broadway. We had just seen
Broadway's "Wicked" at a theater in Raleigh, so we
didn't feel like we needed to see a play while we were in NYC.
But it was fun seeing all the advertisements for them.

Another thing on my list of must-see places was Times Square, so with our fearless leader in charge of the map, the ducks in a row followed along to our next destination.

 

Sitting on the bleachers in the middle of the street
looking out into Times Square. So cool!

In Times Square


There were tons of characters in Times Square who would pose with you for a picture... for tips.  I'm too cheap for that, so I tried to grab snapshots of them as we walked past. :-)




Papa Smurf! La-la-lala-lala la-lala-lala!
(Can't you just hear the Smurf theme song in your head?)

Mickey & Minnie!



ALVIN!

Just like Philly, it was really, really hot here.  We hadn't wanted to take a cab yet to get to our destinations, so by this time we had done a ton of walking.  We were hot and sweaty and tired, so we decided to stroll back to our hotel to take a break and clean up a bit before heading back out for dinner.  We had wandered quite a ways from our hotel, and at this point in the afternoon, it was scorching hot, and we needed a place to cool down before the trek back.  Daddy found us a quiet spot in an air-conditioned building, and we took a load off! 



Stopped to take a rest here, but it wasn't cool enough!

Daddy spotted a building...

...looked public and air-conditioned, so we followed him in

Nice and quiet and cool!

After our quick cool-down, we started back to our hotel and spotted some more fun photo opps along the way.

I felt underdressed!

You should have seen Ashlee's face as she turned
around to look at us when this girl
walked past her. Looks like Julia Roberts
in "Pretty Woman." I'm thinking she was off
for a dance audition. :-)

Finally back at the hotel for some R&R before heading back out for dinner.

Day 4 - Philadelphia, PA

When we were planning our trip, we originally had a hard time finding a hotel in Philadelphia, mostly because the reviews weren't that great or the prices were outrageous. We knew we wanted to stay downtown because we were only going to be touring the downtown sites, and we didn't want to have to figure out parking. We found a hotel called The Independent, and the reviews were pretty good. It was a stylish 24-room residential boutique hotel located in Philadelphia’s Midtown Village. I was nervous when we arrived because I had chosen it, but I need not have worried. It was definitely one of the most unique rooms we had ever stayed in and definitely one of the best. Emilee's favorite part was the zebra throw rug on the floor! The only negative was the bar on the first level, and the noise from the partying kept me awake for a good part of the night on the first night. The second night, however, I was so exhausted from the heat and all the walking we did that I crashed hard and didn't hear a thing.

Downtown Philly

Amazing downtown art

Really want some flower boxes like these!

Our hotel room

Our touristy stops in Philly included touring Independence Hall and, of course, seeing the Liberty Bell. We had reserved a specific time for touring Independence Hall, so we started at the visitor's center where we had to pick up our tickets for our tour.  Even though it was still morning, it was already really hot, and after our walk to the square, we took our time in the air-conditioned visitor's center before heading to see the Liberty Bell.

And we're off to see the city.

 

Ben Franklin was at the Visitor's Center!

"Let's pretend we're looking at the pictures so we don't
have to go back outside in the heat!"

 

We finished up at the visitor center and worked our way in the direction of the bell taking some snapshots along the way as we strolled around town.

 

 

Shift Change!

 

The line to see the bell was incredibly long and wound outside of the building. And did I mention it was sweltering hot? We waited in line for about an hour before we made it inside to the bell. We took our time inside because it was nice and cool! Did I mention it was incredibly hot? There was no structured line for a photo opp in front of the bell, so we kind of jumped in where we could and asked someone to take our pic. 

Loooooong line waiting to see the Liberty Bell

Scott pretending to be interested in looking at the bell so
we wouldn't have to go back out in the heat any time soon! :-)

We still had a bit of time before our scheduled tour, so we strolled around town looking for other touristy sites before heading back to Independence Hall.

This sign does not make me want to park here.

Once we got to Independence Hall for our tour we had to go through a security checkpoint, and then we walked into the square where we strolled around outside before they called our group's tour time...where we stood in line again before getting to go inside. And did I mention it was really hot outside? Once inside, our tour guide led us through the hall, detailing each room along the way.

Emilee: "I think I'm melting."

One of the things I found to be a really cool coincidence, and which was totally unplanned on my part, is that the Declaration of Independence had been first signed on the exact day we were there, August 2nd, (in 1776). Yes, I'm easily amused! 

 

We finished up our tour and headed out to find some lunch. In my research I found some great reviews for Jim's Steaks so we could get a traditional Philly Cheesesteak. We found the restaurant, which was definitely a little hole in the wall, and the line was almost out the door. Once we got inside, we could see that there was a roped line (kind of like what you see at the fair) and not much seating. And the ordering process reminded me of the Soup Nazi episode in "Seinfeld" where you must know what you want when you reach the cook or no food!  :-)  We got the girls orders and left them in charge of grabbing a seat. There was only a line of stools with a bar-like shelf on the main level, and then there were some tables/chairs upstairs, which were all taken. The place was packed, but by the time we got our food, the girls had managed to snatch four stools along the wall. I will have to say, the sandwiches were well worth the wait! YUM!

Once we finished with a late lunch, we did a bit more walking around exploring the city.  We decided to turn in early though because we were heading to the Big Apple tomorrow, Emilee's choice for our vacation.  Since we were taking Amtrak from Philly to NYC, we didn't want to take all of our luggage and try to carry it around the city from the train to the hotel, so I had brought along four backpacks.  We each packed our necessities and three day's worth of clothing in our packs, and then we spent the evening resting up for our big adventure in the big city. New York City, here we come!

I spotted this dog school on our way back to the hotel. The dogs
sitting in the window were real... they were people-watching!
Something about this just cracked me up!

Good night, Philly!

Day 3 - Hershey's Chocolate World

Today was our last day in Amish Country before we took off for Philadelphia.  I had spotted a couple of quilt shops during our drives that I wanted to browse before leaving.  Since the girls and I had started quilts of our own this summer, I thought it would be fun to add some fabric from Amish Country as a reminder of our trip.  So we checked out of our hotel with the girls having some fun on the luggage cart and headed down the road.

We made a few stops at a couple of the local quilt shops, and we each purchased a few fat quarters to match our quilts.  The quilts in these shops were exquisite!

One more item on Ashlee's list of things to do was to get some homemade rootbeer.  I think she read about it in one of her books, and that sparked her interest.  So we found a sign advertising homemade rootbeer, adn we turned down the long driveway toward the farm.  A young girl of about 10-years-old sold the girls a rootbeer.  They took a sip, crinkled their faces in disgust, put the lid back on the still-full bottle, and that was that.  At least they could now say they've had homemade rootbeer!

 

Then we hit the road toward our next destination... Hershey's Chocolate World, which was a stop on our way a two-night stay in Philadelphia.  We had decided we would just do the free tour with the little "train" ride to hear the story of Hershey and how they made their candy.  It was a cute little ride, took less than five minutes, and the girls thought it was fun enough to ride twice.  Of course, I think that was mostly because at the end of the ride you got a free mini Hershey bar! 

Free chocolate at the end of the ride...
Can we ride again, please?

Then we strolled through the huge gift shop where they found some gigantic candy.  Then we found the tower of movie size candy for a pretty good price, so they made their choices, and we hit the road toward Philly.

Does it get any better than giant chocolate?

The bargain rack!

We finished up at the Chocolate Heaven... I mean, Chocolate World, and hit the road toward Philadelphia.  As we were leaving Hershey, Pennsylvania's downtown, we noticed the streetlights.  How cool is that?

The streetlights in Hershey, PA are shaped
like Hershey Kisses... how appropriate!