Tying Up NYC In A Neat Little Bow

Did you know I’ve got a contest going on right now, to win a little prize package from NYC? Click HERE for more info! And by the way, I’m giving everybody an extra day to catch up with reading/commenting due to the Easter holiday: your comments on any of the NYC posts must be up by 10:00 p.m. Central Time on Monday, April 13 in order to enter!

I have some pictures of a few other NYC sights that didn’t fit in anywhere else, so I am sharing them in this last post.

We visited the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. I have to say that it was my least favorite part of the trip; I guess I’m too girly to care much about ships and planes. When Jim was in the Navy, I went on Day Cruises (Dependents’ Cruises) on each of the ships he was on, so it wasn’t a new thing for me to be on a Navy ship. And planes? Yawn. But it’s not all about me all the time. Or at least I can act like it’s not. Jim really enjoyed the Intrepid, and I’m fairly certain that the kids liked it, too.

There’s alot to see on the Intrepid. They’ve got a bunch of planes and helicopters that have historical significance on the flight deck so you can get up close and personal with them.

You can also go inside the ship and get a look at how they navigated the waters, what the sleeping areas look like, where the Captain would sit, etc.

We also got to see the Concorde up close, and we got to go inside, too.

Seeing the Concorde took me way back to 1985, when Phil Collins performed at Live Aid in London in the morning and then took the Concorde to the U.S. so he could perform at Live Aid in Philly that same day. How awesome was that??? (Big news that day!)

Chinatown was awesome. We walked all over it and had a great time shopping (but didn’t buy much!).
My favorite place on this visit to Chinatown was a shop that sold nothing but chopsticks. I took these photos very stealthily, because the shop owner was NOT thrilled when he saw I had a camera. What did he think I was going to do, take photos so I could open my own chopstick store across the street? Doubtful.

Of course, we also came across lots of faux designer purses, and watches:

New York is home to Macy’s, the same Macy’s that took away my beloved Marshall Fields on State. But I like Macy’s…IN NEW YORK. I remarked to Jim, “See? Macy’s belongs here. This is its home. NOT in Chicago.” And then he rolled his eyes at me, I’m fairly certain.

We walked by Macy’s at Herald Square, where the casts of Broadway’s biggest shows perform during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

It’s much smaller than it looks on tv. Sorry it’s upside down; I took the picture from the Macy’s side of the street!

A visit to Rockefeller Center is always in order. Very fun to see the skating rink, Prometheus, the “Plaza” from the Today Show, the NBC Experience Store, and more!

The older boy even posed for a picture with “Matt Lauer”!!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue is gorgeous on the outside. Next visit I hope to go inside to see it all!

Nintendo World is a thrill for any video gamer.

They even had a display of Nintendo game units from the beginning. Remember this one, folks? Jim and I bought this before we ever had kids and spent HOURS mastering Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros!

We all got to try a Wii for the first time. Now I want one even more…*sigh.*

Well, stick a fork in me, ’cause I’m done. I’m finally at the end of my rope NYC posts. I thought it was such a good idea to do this series of posts about my trip in the beginning, and I still think so…but it has taken a lot of time, which has made me sort of insane for the past twelve days. But you all seem to have enjoyed the posts and they are, after all, a great little record of our fabulous family trip so I guess the time I put in is worth it! And who knew I could post for twelve days about a 3 1/2 day trip? (You DID remember that, right? My family did ALL OF THAT STUFF in 3 1/2 days! I must have been a Cruise Director in my other life.)

Anyway, I want to thank you all for reading my crazy NYC stories. I hope that you connected with something on my trip, especially if you’ve been there before. If you haven’t been, I hope you can go soon, and I hope that the city is as exciting to you as it always is to me. Seeing it in person for the first time is an unforgettable experience, especially rounding that corner into Times Square at night. Total magic.

Now…go forth and comment! You’ve got one extra day!!