NYC Trip - Day 1

I didn't really sleep Monday night into Tuesday morning. Every second that I tried to doze off I was afraid I was going to sleep through the alarm, so I tossed and turned and checked the clock until 4:00 a.m. finally lit up the alarm.

We muscled the kids out of bed and, thanks to my wonderfully efficient wife, threw the pre-packed luggage into the car and headed to the airport.

We made our way through security and waited patiently for our delayed flight. We eventually made it onto the plane and about an hour and a half later we were racing through the Atlanta airport, our carry-on luggage flapping about our winded bodies, making it to our connecting flight to New York just in time.

But how did we get here? The idea was simple enough. My wife turns 40 next year... a month before my daughter turns 16. They were going to celebrate by taking a mother/daughter trip to New York City. Then, as fate would have it, the hallowed Yankee Stadium was being torn down after this year and it occurred to me how much fun it would be to take my baseball-nut son to a game there before it is gone forever.

So, I asked the Mrs. if she would move the trip up a year. The stars aligned (school Spring Break, Little League Spring Break, Yankees home opening weekend against the local Rays) and we booked our flight and hotel through my brother John's travel website.

We arrived in Newark, took a limo over to the Hotel Newton on the Upper West Side, quickly settled in and immediately headed down to Times Square. The kids were excited to use the subway and were amazed at all of the lights in Times Square. Tourists, like us, were everywhere, which actually made us feel safer.

The nicely tiled subway stop for Times Square

DC, Me and Gabe in Times Square

People watching at a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Shop

Gabe outside the Yankees Store

Later that night we went on a night bus tour atop a double-decker bus. It took us through Little Italy, Chinatown, the Village and over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn where we saw the Brooklyn Bridge at night.

A couple of buildings on the night tour
including the New York Life
building in the center and the
Empire State Building lit in green.

As the night tour ended, rain started to fall. We took shelter near the ESPN Zone restaurant and eventually took our weary bodies back to the hotel and collapsed in a heap.

Raining in Times Square.

A busy and fun first day in New York City.