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! ;)

Days 22, 23, 24 and 25

Day 22, Do you like seafood? ;)

Waking up, breakfast and then outside. We took a bus and a subway near to Quincy Market, saw the Old State House and walked around Quincy. Mom was looking for a t-shirt but unfortunately didn’t find any. I bought some souvenirs and postcards ;)

We walked to the harbor and found a nice-looking restaurant, Tia’s. We went in and ordered seafood; dad and Aleksi got lobsters, I took a salmon Caesar salad, mom got lobster roll and Aku ate swordfish tacos. After eating Aku said: “Well, we aren’t really seafood people.” ;P I thought the salad was excellent but I think the lobsters weren’t as good as they say they are…

Anyway, we walked around the harbor and got ice creams for dessert. Aleksi was a bit disappointed because he couldn’t see the fish at the Aquarium :( We walked all the way to Boston Common and I bought a sweatshirt I had been looking for for a while already. Then we walked to Prudential, took an elevator to the 50th floor and saw just amazing views of Boston. You’ll see the pictures ;)

We bought cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory and then got back to the hotel. Mom and dad went to buy some food from the grocery store and after they got back we ate chicken and the delicious cheesecakes. We watched tv before going to sleep :)

Day 23, Picnic in the park

After normal morning stuff we left to the park. We played ball and frisbee and just sat there under shade under a big maple tree. I think it was maple, but I didn’t pay that much attention ;D It was pretty hot but we, me, Aku, Aleksi and mom, found a big area filled with water. It was just full of small kids since its deepest part was probably like 50 cm ;) We walked around in the water and watched the kids play their own games.

We got back to where dad was and played card for a while until Aleksi got hungry. He wanted to go to eat at Burger King but we couldn’t find one so we just went to grab sandwiches from City Place. We walked back to Boston Common and sat near a pond. We ate the sandwiches as we listened to a guy playing guitar just next to us. It was very nice and comfortable.

Aku, mom and dad played cards as Aleksi and I played ball. A couple times I threw the ball too far and it went to the pond. Luckily the wind was so strong that it led the ball back to us :D A group of guys walked behind us and as they saw Aku, mom and dad playing card one of them said: “Hey, no betting!” We had a little laugh ;D

Later in the evening we drove to a place with restaurants. We were planning to go eat at Olive Garden but they were so busy we would’ve had to wait for an hour before getting in… Instead we ate at Applebee’s. The food was alright and very filling so we certainly didn’t need desserts ;P We went back to the hotel and not much later went to sleep :)

Day 24, Boston – Newark

Again, after normal morning stuff we packed our bags and got in the car. Yay, the last day of driving! ;) We drove for a couple of hours until Aleksi started wining about how he’s not feeling good and he’s hungry. Mom saw a sign saying “Public Beach 1 mile” and we drove there. We changed on our swimming suits and packed some bread, sodas and cheese with us on a backpack.

We went to the beach, ate our food and went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean ;) The water was a lot colder than on Erie Lake, and the waves weren’t as big but we still had a nice time! After enjoying the sun we went to have ice creams and then continued our drive.

A couple of hours later I woke up to mom’s voice saying (very loud) “That there is New York!” And yep, there it was, I could recognize the Empire State Building ;D We continued driving to Newark to our motel. We arrived and went swimming and tanning ourselves. Then we took showers and went out for a dinner.

We drove for a while until we found Burger King, we ate Whoppers and then we went to do some laundry. Later we came back to our motel and now we’re playing Merkki which is a card game. Tomorrow we’ll go shopping at an outlet mall! Woohoo :D

Day 25, Shirts, tops, t-shirts, bags, shoes, dresses, shorts…

Today we woke up around 9, ate breakfast and drove a few miles to an outlet center called Jersey Gardens. The place was just huge; two floors and hundreds of stores! Tommy Hilfiger, Claire’s, Papaya, Forever 21, Converse, Reebok, Adidas, Nike, Guess, Lids and sooo many more I’m not mentioning…

We bought lots of things: Aleksi got two hoodies, college pants and 2 t-shirts, Aku got socks, 5 shirts, 2 belts and shorts, I got three pairs of shoes, a pyjama, 3 tops and a bag (I also bought a souvenir for Wilma ;) Hope you like it!), dad bought 2 shirts and shorts and mom got 6 shirts, shorts, a bag and she also bought some things for her sister and friends at work ;)

When we got home (the boys had left already a couple of hours earlier than me and mom) we went to clear the car from all our stuff. We got back to our room and started packing all the stuff we won’t need during these last days into a HUGE suitcase that dad had bought earlier from the mall. We filled it with souvenirs, shoes, hoodies, books… Since the next time we’ll open it will be at Finland it’s a closed case now ;)

We went to check the exercise/gym room and after a while went to eat. Now we’re about to go to sleep! Good nighty! :)

(Sorry no pictures for today ‘cause I didn’t take any :D)