Day 27-NYC

After a day of resting and fishing, we decided to go into NYC-without the RV. We waited until 10am (after peak) and then Tyler & Rachel were $2 and then walked down the hill 2 miles to the metro station. It was a nice ride and we didn't have to worry about navigating the city. 45 minutes later we arrived at Grand Central Terminal.

Grand Central Station was beautiful. Complete with a mall and at least two Starbucks locations.

We walked to Times Square to eat our lunch. I had my chair again because we knew this would be too much walking for me. As expected, the place was a zoo.

And after lunch we got on our hop-on-hop-off bus tour. We knew this would be the best way to see as much of the city as we could in one day. After our trolly tours in DC, we had high expectations for our guides in NYC. Unfortunately, they just didn't have the same charisma.

The Guggenheim was a priority stop for us, but it is closed on Thursdays. We were still glad to see it from the outside and peruse the gift shop. The kids exclaimed..."Dad, this is what you have built out of Legos."

Just a few blocks walking from the Guggenheim is NOGLU, a Gluten Free Bakery. We stopped there for cupcakes to celebrate Rachel's birthday. She chose marble cake, and when the shop owner heard we were celebrating a birthday she supplied a candle.

Although the weather app had said it would be 65 and slightly cloudy, it was actually 55 and drizzly. We were all freezing on the upper deck of our tour bus. We did see the Statue of Liberty from afar, but because of the rain, we decided not to walk through the park and risk not getting on the return shuttle since it was near the end of the day.

We also passed by other famous buildings including the Empire State Building, The Freedom Tower, The Flatiron building the brand new $2B Train hub by Santiago Calatrava (my favorite architect) and Central Park, just to name a few.

We took the tour bus back close to the Chrysler Building. There, I found a diner that served hamburgers on GF buns and sandwiches on GF bread. The hamburgers were huge so Rachel and I shared. Tyler had one too, and couldn't finish it. Luke had a pizza burger. That's just what you imagine, an open face burger with pizza sauce, pepperoni, and mozzarella. Mike had a Ruben and sampled the pickle and cole slaw bar. We got back to Grand Central in time for the 9:15pm train out of the city and we arrived back at Croton-on-the-Hudson at 10:15. Luckily the taxi service was quick and we were back at our campsite and getting ready for bed by 10:30. It was a long day...but a wonderful way to celebrate Rachel turning 11!

#NewYork #NYC #TimesSquare #EmpireStateBuilding #CentralPark #Noglu #RachelsBirthday #StatueofLiberty