Winning New York! Feb 2015

This was a whirlwind trip with lots of thrills!  There's nothing quite like New York City. Prior to this trip, I had been to Manhattan twice before, so I felt comfortable heading there with my two oldest kids in tow.  Anna was 8 and Paul was 6 and we had the time of our lives!

It all started when an amazing deal for airfare showed up from Spirit Airlines.  The three of us were able to fly round-trip from Detroit to NYC-LaGuardia for $75/ea!  We had one backpack each as a carry-on but that's all we would need since we would be in NYC for about 44 hours total!  The flight left Detroit at 6:00 am  and we were fortunate to stay with Aunt Katey and Uncle Rich the night before.  The flight was on time and we were on our way!

We touched down at LaGuardia at 7:30 am and hopped a cab to our hotel near Times Square.  We were staying at Staybridge Suites Times Square and were able to check our luggage for the day.  This hotel was perfect for us - and the receptionist even offered for us to hit the breakfast buffet before we headed out.  We had a quick snack, added some apples, bananas, and water to my day backpack and headed off.  Our first stop was to head north to 42nd street and purchase a HopOn-HopOff ticket for a bus tour.  This time I chose Gray Line Tours but I've also used Big Bus Tours before.  They are both pretty similar, offer a lot of the same stops, and are worth every penny for getting around the city and seeing the sights!

We "hopped-on" and headed east toward the Empire State Building, south past the Flat Iron building, and then "hopped-off" at the Wall Street area.  It was February 3rd and the high temp that day was only 17 degrees!  It was cold be we braved the elements and walked around a bit.  We walked down Wall Street, saw the NYSE, and the Bull, before heading down to Trinity Church.

 

We then made our way over to the World Trade Center site.  Freedom Tower had not been completed yet (although my wife Susan and I went to the top a year later).  We saw the memorial and also visited St. Paul's Chapel.  It was a very moving experience.  We had some NY-style pizza at a local place and bundled back up for a short walk to Battery Park and Castle Clinton National Monument where we bought our tickets for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  If you want to go to the pedestal or to the crown, you need to buy your tickets way in advance so we just settle for a trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island for a walking/visual tour.  

We spent about 30 minutes on Liberty Island and about an hour at Ellis.  You could probably spend a lot longer there, but on this trip we were getting pretty tired out since being up at 4:00 am.  We ferried back to Manhattan and started heading uptown to our hotel.  We drove by Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Chrysler Building to name a few sights.  After arriving in Times Square, we were able to see it lit up at night before walking to the hotel.  The Staybridge Suites was great because on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays they offer an evening meal for guests!  Tonight it was hot dogs, sausages, chips, and drinks - even a beer for dad!  It was only 6:00 pm and we were pretty tuckered out, but we had one more adventure.  We contacted our friends at The Ticket Machine and acquired tickets to the Knicks-Celtics game at Madison Square Garden!  The kids only made it to the half before we headed back to the hotel for bedtime.

We woke up early the next day for breakfast and on a last-minute whim (and some motivational advice from Grandma Vicki) we decided to head on over to the Today Show area and see if we could get on TV to wave to our friends back home in Michigan.  It was so cold that morning that very few people had ventured out.  There were no crowds and we had a front row spot.  Carson Daly and Natalie Morales came over and said hi before going live - pretty cool!

Right after this, a Today Show employee asked us if we'd like to stick around and be on Kathie Lee Gifford's trivia game that she does every Wednesday.  We jumped on that offer and were excited to call our friends back home and let them know to be sure to watch at 10:30 am!  We still had time for some stops prior to the trivia game, so we checked out the Rockefeller Ice Rink and also Radio City Music Hall before heading back over to the NBC Studio Store at Rockefeller Center.  Once again, we were on live national TV and were the first group that was asked a question.  Check out this Facebook link for the video Today Show Trivia !  We won $100!!!

What a thrill!  We used the winnings to go to the Top of the Rock for a final view of the city.  We had a quick lunch at Shake Shack before picking up our things at the hotel and cabbing to the airport.

We flew out of LaGuardia at 5:00 pm and touched down in Detroit at 7:00 ready for a long 3 hour drive home.  We had conquered the big city with an amazing sight-seeing tour and memories to last a life time!