Like a Dream or a Nightmare?

Well we have arrived in New York and its bloody well hot, apparently the North East of the United States is having some kind of heatwave and I can see us all getting teasey with each other over the next three weeks. This holiday is going to be a benchmark for future holidays we are either going to get along like a dream, or its going to be one hell of a nightmare couped up in a car together for three long weeks.

Last year we didn't have a family holiday as such, Claire had some time off, I had some time off and the remaining time the kids went to Cornwall, it was actually quite miserable we never did anything of note just little things, I think this inspired us, Claire especially to make sure we had a big holiday adventure every year. Thats' how we find ourselves in New York with a partial plan Jasper in Chicago and Uncle Len in Iowa, dates to be confirmed.

The flight went OK, although the in flight entertainment didn't work at one of the seats, so we had to have a shift around and yours truely had the bum seat. I was expecting longer queues at JFK considering what I had read about their new imigration controls, Everyone went through passport control easily although he seemed to pause at mine, which would become a bit of an occurance.

We rode into New York in a big yellow cab, the children seemed excited but a bit overwhelmed, heat, skyscrapers, no idea where we were going. The hotel was one block down two across from the corner of central park, so while Claire rested up, me and the kids strolled upto the park had a hot dog and looked at the fountain.

In the evening we travelled to downtown on the subway, and if it was hot during the day the subway was seriously hot and dragging Darcey round in her pushchair, carrying her up and down the stairs.
At the end of the line we did the cheapskates harbour tour by taking the Staten Island ferry out pass the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island, where else. I was slightly disappointed with the night skyline of New York, I was expecting it to be more lit up another knock on from the terrorist threat I suppose. After coming back on the ferry we walked up through Wall Street and on to Ground Zero.

Ground Zero was eerie, there where lots of people around even at midnight just looking at the pictures and lists of the dead. The site was much smaller than I imagined but I suppose skyscrapers dont take up much ground area.

Claire suggested that Chinatown is the place to visit so at midnight we set off on foot and could we find anything open, could we bollocks. We walked around for about an hour and nothing we ended up walking up the Bowery for some distance. By now I think we had all had enough Claire because she had been raving that Chinatown is a happening place to be which at that moment in time was anything but, poor Piper was just knackered as was I, but I also had the hinderance of pushing Darcey. Also it was still hot.

We flagged a taxi down and returned to our hotel.