New York City

Our children have been making comments that we need to take time to see some of the local sights in the cities near us.  We decided to take a day to go to New York City.  It is only a 3 hr. drive to Brooklyn and Darryn was the only one of our kids that had ever been there (with the exception of a field trip to the Statue of Liberty once which only Darryn & Ericka remember and that time we took a ferry from the New Jersey side)

There is so much there to see and do if you have the time to stay awhile. We left the house by 5:30 a.m. and got home by 1 a.m.  We all enjoyed the day....not to say that there weren't any stressful moments, but Lyn & I kept reminding ourselves NOT TO STRESS.  (Jolene stressed, Lyn stressed over Jolene stressing...haha)

The first excitement was missing our exit and suddenly going into the tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  All the tall buildings make the gps not work right so it took a bit to find our way back to where we wanted to be and we came back across on the Brooklyn Bridge.  Both the tunnel & bridge were extra toll, but hey, the double decker bridge was neat architecture!

We planned to end up at the Brooklyn Tabernacle for their free Christmas production in the evening so we parked near there. We took the subway over to lower Manhattan where our main destination was the Ground Zero Memorial. The museum was very well done and a memorable experience.

A main support pillar that became a memorial.

A stairway that was preserved.

 The Freedom Tower

(There is a spire on the top that didn't fit in the pic)

Lower Manhattan is home to the New York Stock Exchange

and the famous Wall Street bull.

After a bite to eat, we got on the subway to Upper Manhattan to Times Square area.  We were there just to walk and observe and check out some shops.  The Toys R Us store was cool as well as the M&M store.  The boys got in their heads they wanted to see the Lego store and in the search to find that we missed the part of 5th Ave that we really should have seen.  Guess there is always next time! Ha!

In front of Toys R Us, we really wanted a picture with Olaf, 
but the others jumped in hoping to get some tips...

Times Square

The Flat Iron Bldg.

And finally......we found the Lego store!!

After some hot chocolate and coffee, we took the subway back to Brooklyn, got some supper, and were thankful to sit and wait for the evening service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle.  We were expecting the choir to sing so that was kinda disappointing, but the drama and solo music was VERY well done.  Glad we were able to make this memorable day happen....  Oh yes, and Ericka got her cup of coffee in New York City!!!!