The New York Experience

This is for Abbagirl (and my two other readers) that wanted to know specifically what I did in New York.

Here's what I did in New York. It started out with a real New York experience with the shuttle ride from the airport. Not only did we have to deal with traffic, at our first hotel stop, the driver and a passenger got into a fight. The police were called and we waited there for 45 minutes for the situation to get resolved. The driver asked the passenger how he was going to pay for the ride and the passenger said he prepaid with a credit card. The driver then asked for his confirmation number and the passenger said he didn't have it. The driver wouldn't let him leave with all of his luggage until he got the number and the guy tried to take off. They scuffled and the passenger started yelling that he was being attacked. He called the police and a report was taken. So a trip that should have taken about an hour took 2 1/2 hours. We were starving by then so after checking into the hotel, we walked down to Little Italy and had dinner.

On Saturday we bought metro tickets for the subway and headed to the meatpacking district to visit the Ground Zero museum. We got there early so we wandered over to the Hudson river to walk around a bit and it turns out that we were in the area where the recent helicopter/plane crash happened just an hour later. (We were in the museum at the time.) The museum was really mostly a photo gallery with audio stories but it was truly amazing. I highly recommend it. Then we had lunch at a local pizza place (our cheapest meal at $12), then we took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, then walked over to the WTC site (which was really just construction that we couldn't really see), then we attempted Mexican food in NYC (not quite real Tex-Mex).
On Sunday I went to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, then we went to the Museum of Modern Art (which was o.k. but I'm not artsy in that sense), we then went to see a Broadway Show (Mary Poppins - which was amazing), and had dinner at Planet Hollywood in Times Square and then went to Madam Tusseaud's.
Monday was spent at the American Museum of Natural History, then a brief jaunt to Central Park to view Strawberry Fields (John Lennon memorial). Afterward we went to the NY Public Library, Grand Central Station, and then to the Empire State Building. We had dinner then went to a large used bookstore called The Strand. Josh found two music books he really wanted so I got them for him. It was then I discovered my bank put a hold on my card.

Tuesday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge then took a long subway ride to Coney Island so we could ride the Cyclone. I bought the picture taken on it because it was a great one of me and Josh with our hands up in the air. Then we went to Prospect Park and Greenwood cemetery (since Josh just read 1776 and wanted to go there). Then we headed back towards the hotel. We stopped in Little Italy again for dinner and gelato and did a little bit of souvenir shopping. By then we were thoroughly exhausted. I made arrangements for a car service to pick us up the next morning to take us to the airport. (Had enough of the shuttle experience) We flew back to Albuquerque, had dinner with my aunt and uncle, and then drove back home.