Brandon's 28th birthday fell on a Monday and months before hand, he had asked for his birthday off of work. One day we got to talking and just randomly threw out there about visiting his uncle in NY that weekend and I suggested taking off that Tuesday as well so we could have more time, if we actually went.
Our trip slowly became concrete plans and we decided to head up there after a friends wedding that saturday.
The trip from the location of the wedding was about 5.5 hours and the boys did fantastically. James slept most of the way and isaiah either watched a movie or looked at books.
The drive was relatively smooth and we arrived around 10 or 11.
That night we planned out what we would do the following day.
We wanted to see some of the "must sees" and also just wanted to be able to explore. So uncle Stephen gave us some ideas and we all set off. Stephen stayed with us for about half the day and gave us pointers on how to navigate the subway and where to go before leaving us.
Since we started in Brooklyn, we went to Brooklyn park, walked across the Brooklyn bridge and then started to explore Manhattan.
Grand central station was super beautiful and just a buzz with people.
We didn't get toooo close to the Empire State Building but we saw it :)
We took isaiah to the m&m store and the Lego store :)
We wanted to see Central Park before the end of the day so we had an hour or two to spend there :)
Central Park was/is HUGE! We didn't get close to even exploring most of it. But the boys loved all the boulders that were throughout the park.
It was the perfect place to stretch your legs and just relax.
On our trip we only brought the umbrella stroller so that we could easily navigate the subway and the ergo. The kids did great in both. The baby carrier was a life saver and james was able to take several naps whenever he felt like it through out the day :)
Brandons birthday started out with bagels from a local bagel shop and then a ride on the Staton Island Ferry.
We rather like free things and this was such a fun free ride! We got to see the Statue of Liberty from the ferry and it gave us a great view of the Manhattan skyline.
Every time we went down subway steps isaiah would pretend he was a bird and flap his "wings" :)
We walked the Highline trail that used to be a train trellace that went thru the city. It gave us some great views and we were able to find a local coffee place to stop and sit for a bit :)
We had a great view of some construction work going on and the boys thought it was the best thing ever!
After walking around for a bit longer, we met up with brandons cousin Sarah and her two girls to go to the Central Park zoo and then we went and got dessert for brandons birthday!
It was a great way to end the day :)
