Day 13 – Leaving Rhode Island and heading to New York

We left Rhode Island and drove back to Newark Airport as we needed to return the hire car before taking a taxi into New York. We arrived at our hotel – the Hilton Times Square which we had chosen so as to be able to see the Times Square lights at night. On arrival we were offered an upgrade to a higher floor which we took. The upgraded room meant we had views over the skyline and Tom was the first to spot the Statue of Liberty out of the window!

At this point it was late afternoon and we decided to head straight to the Empire State Building to try and catch sunset. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel and when we arrived there were no queues at all. We stayed for sunset and then waited for it to get dark so we could see New York all lit up.

^{Sunset from top of the Empire State Building}

We went to Ruby Tuesdays for tea and then headed back to the hotel as it had been a long day and we were tired!

Day 14 – Statue of Liberty

We were up super early as we had tickets to go up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty – and I’d booked the first time slot of the day. I had reserved these tickets months in advance. We took the metro from the hotel and then the ferry over to Liberty Island

^{Views from the ferry}

We headed straight to the Crown where we had to climb the narrowest spiral staircase to reach it. We were the first people of the day there (apart from the ranger)!

^{Inside the Crown}

We explored the grounds for a bit and then sailed back to Manhattan as we wanted to go and find all the touristy spots.

We began by visiting the Ghostbusters firehouse. Unfortunately the building was being renovated but we did see the Ghostbusters mural on the ground. We wandered to Bryant Park where Tom and Izzy ordered chocolate waffles for lunch and then visited the public Library. We wanted to see the Rose Room but it was closed.

We then explored Grand Central Station, The Rockefeller Centre and Radio City Hall before having an early tea at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. It had been recommended by a friend and all the serving staff are amazing singers an perform whilst you eat. We ordered burgers and the kids had hotdogs – it was expensive for not the best food but we all really enjoyed ourselves.

^{Ellen’s Stardust Diner}

We went back to the hotel to chill out for a bit before going to see Times Square at night and visit the M&M’s and Hershey’s shop.

^{Late night shopping on Times Square!}

Day 15 – Central Park

Today we were going to explore the Central Park area so we began with the Zoo as Tom & Izzy had seen it in the Madagascar films. We then headed to the Natural History Museum which they loved due to ‘Night at the Museum’. We returned to Times Square for lunch and ate at Bubba Gumps – our first ever visit and we were given an amazing table by the window overlooking Times Square.

^{Bubba Gumps – overlooking Times Square}

We then visited the 9/11 memorial before returning to the hotel for a rest. As we arrived a kind family gave us a gift voucher that they no longer needed for Cold Stone Creamery (an ice cream company we don’t have in England) so we bought ice creams and they were so good.

It was our final night in New York and we had booked tickets to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. The theatres in NY seemed so different to London – much more modern! They had escalators and you could have drinks in your seat which we were not used to.

^{Waiting for the show to start!}

Day 16 – Going home

Our flight wasn’t until the evening so we returned to Central Park to explore the grounds. Tom and Izzy found a playground which they spent ages in and we just walked round the lakes looking at the turtles. By the afternoon the weather changed and there was a huge storm so we literally stood under a tree for half an hour trying to stay dry. We felt quite sorry for the people who had rented boats and were in the middle of the lake.

^{Exploring Central Park}