Days 26, 27 and 28

Day 26, Welcome to New York!

This morning we packed all our things and then drove just a few miles to New York. It seemed surreal at first ‘cause the buildings here are veeeery TALL! :D We drove to our hotel, which btw, is pretty much in the middle of Times Square, and left our luggage there. We still had to wait for three hours before getting our rooms, so me, my brothers and mom stayed at the hotel playing cards as dad went to return our car to Newark Airport.

We went to walk around Times Square, saw M&M’s world (among lots of other stores) and ate some lunch. We went in the M&M’s world and found out it has 3 floors! It had a lot of M&M’s stuff that I’m not even going to write down here, sorry :P

We went back to the hotel, got our rooms and went to watch some tv. We soon left for the lounge in 46th floor (our rooms are in the 43th), it offers free snacks and has amazing views to the city. Dad came back from his adventure from the airport to the hotel and we showed him our rooms. I updated my (our!) blog for you guys and at 5 pm we went back to the lounge ‘cause it now was full of different kinds of cheeses, fruits, berries, cookies and brownies.

Then we left out to the city! We walked to Radio City building, Rockefeller Plaza, Bryant Park (the place where the final two from Project Runway, “Muodin huipulle”, have their fashion show) and from there to Empire State Building. There we bought tickets to a Skyride and city view. The skyride didn’t leave us feeling good but then we took the elevator to the 83rd floor and saw amazing skyline of New York City. We could see the Rockefeller Center, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park…

We waited for it to get dark and got pretty nice-looking pictures ;) After the sunset, in 20 minutes it got from blue-ish to black and all the lights went on. Wow. What else can I say? It’s a thing that doesn’t look near as good in pictures than in real life and you should see it yourself to understand. Just… wow.

We walked back to Times Square, bought some t-shirts and stuff from Hard Rock Café, ate some supper and got back to the hotel. Soon we’ll go to sleep. We still have some days left of this amazing trip, and what’s a better way to end our holidays than having two beautiful rooms on the 43th floor of Crowne Plaza, in the city of New York? ;)

Day 27, Sightseeing

After waking up we took an elevator to the 46th floor where we had breakfast at the lounge. It was the best breakfast of this trip, gotta say. Then we came back to our rooms, mom and dad planned our day schedule and we left the hotel. We took a subway to World Trade Center.

When walking around the big place where those incredibly tall buildings existed 9 years ago before the unbelievably shocking and horrible plane crashes happened, I had a feeling that I quite can’t describe. It was a mix of feeling sad, shocked and angry at the same time. When walking by the golden memorial mark I felt tears in my eyes. We walked into World Financial Center and heard a woman’s voice. We went to listen her story and own experience during the horrifying 9/11. I was close to cry as I listened her telling about his son who worked at the North Tower. The morning of 9/11 was the last time this woman ever saw her son…

With still a sad feeling we walked through Wall Street to the harbor. There we bought tickets to a Water Taxi. We went to grab something to eat before getting in. The Taxi went to the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge. We got great photos ;) The tour took about an hour.

Then we went to eat and after that walked to China Town and Little Italy! The atmosphere was just lovely :D We walked to a subway and got back to the hotel. We went to get some snack from the lounge and I went back to the hotel room because my head had started to hurt a lot. Yay headaches ;) At the while mom and dad went to buy me and mom Broadway tickets to Lion King! :D Wohoo, we’ll have an unforgettable night on Saturday! ;)

Me, mom, dad and Aleksi went out trying to find a place where the boys could buy tickets to a baseball game. The place was closed so we just went to a grocery store to buy something for the evening. Now we’re at the hotel rooms and soon we’ll have our 2nd night at New York! ;)

Day 28, Day at the Museum

After breakfast we took a subway to Central Park. We walked through it watching some group of friends playing baseball, people jogging and walking their dogs… While the boys were sitting on the grass a dog ran to them. He was adorable, a very cute dog named Sam :)

We walked to American Museum of Natural History, the exact same that many people remember from Ben Stiller’s movie the Night at the Museum. The place was very big and had 46 different halls. There was African, Asian and Southern American peoples’ halls, a hall of space and planets, lots of animals, fish and dinosaurs… Pretty much like something for everyone.

After walking through all the 4 floors we took a subway back to our hotel. The boys took showers and then we left out for a dinner at Olive Garden. It’s a very nice Italian restaurant, so the food was expectedly really good. After eating pastas we got back to the hotel, watched a little tv and soon we’re about to go to sleep! Good night again! ;)