Good Morning from Jersey City, NJ! Got a backpack packed for a day out in the Big Apple and walked from Liberty Harbour RV Park (saying good morning to Antoine) and walked up Marin the few blocks to Columbus Avenue where we peeked into the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Factory to see if we could watch the donuts being made, but they were just cleaning the machine between flavours.
Hopped onto the "PATH" New Jersey rail system and for $2.75 per adult ticket we were on our way across the Hudson River to Manhattan, New York... popping up at the One World Trade Centre. It was quite a stunning new building (1776ft tall representing the year the Declaration of Independence was signed).
We found our way out of the WTC transit hub and marvelled at the bustle of NYC. We managed to figure out walking directions to the nearest TopView bus tour stop at City Hall (Stop 10) only to find out that we missed the bus by mere minutes and would have to wait another 20+ minutes for another to roll by. We walked around the grounds of City Hall. Not much happening except a few dog owners letting their dogs in the "no pets allowed" section of the shrubbery gardens to pee.
When the next double decker came by, we hopped on and climbed up to the top deck and got "plugged in" with our complimentary headphones so we could hear the tour. This was our big splurge for the tourist side of things... the double decker hop-on hop-off tour with open air seating. Pricey but we hoped to take advantage of it to make the most of seeing the NYC sights without having to make our kids wear out their little legs. They are strong walkers, but the city takes a lot more energy out of them.
Hopped off the tour at the HighLine... a public park on the West side of Manhattan that was built on a historic elevated rail line. We visited Little Island first at this stop... at Hudson River Park, a cool little oasis of greenery built out over old pilings in the river. Sculptural and winding layout of paths, clean public washrooms, little container cafe and loads of tables with a small stage (where Slappy and Monday the clowns were performing). They also had neat interactive music making objects/art around the walk.
After enjoying the beginning of Slappy and Monday's show, we carried on with our walk to climb up the stairs to the High Line. Super cool walkway several flights up and along an old raised rail line. Beautiful gardens, cool sculptures and public art. A nice respite from the busy-ness of the city! Kids liked the rolling benches that you could configure as you liked by rolling along the old train tracks.
Super cool "Lantern Building"... crazy windows! Loved all the different architecture here in the city and particularly along this High Line route. Pretty amazing works of art/architecture.
This was also super intriguing! We could NOT figure out how they got the cars five levels up.
Chose a spot to walk down off the HighLine (could have kept walking all afternoon!) where we could hop back on the bus and take it into Times Square. I loved how when you looked down each street, the buildings were so tall and different and unique. Super cool.
One of our favourite experiences in NYC were these two guys who had just finished a street performance and were picked up their pylons off the sidewalk. They had such a great vibe about them and when they saw that we were disappointed we missed it (they looked like breakdancers), they welcomed us over and did a couple cool tricks for us. They said they would be setting up again in a few minutes and would be moving along in front of the Old Navy store. We walked a bit further and looked around and then went back to see them. They were super pumped we were back and got the crowd worked up for their show. The guy with the nose-to-ear chain was a contortionist and did some crazy stuff. I got pulled over to the middle to be a "volunteer" to be jumped over! They added several more people and had a fun banter to build up to the flip. Very fun.
After the awesome show wandered Times Square and had a look inside the M&M's store. Jonathan found a fun pillow perfect for Amelia "Don't Trip Over My Awesome. It's Everywhere"... if you looked at our dinette at any point of this trip, you'd see Amelia's awesome (art), haha.
Hopped off at the Flatiron District and walked along Fifth Avenue to find the Lego Store (as you do)... super cool store to walk around in. Very beautifully crafted mosaics in lego dots. Fun to look at all the big kits and we walked out empty-handed. Sure helps living in a tiny space, haha. Kiddos have been pretty amazing at not asking for stuff on this trip, knowing we are on a budget of sorts and have very little space to haul things around.
Hungry, we looked up a few restaurants close by and found the Veggie Grill around the corner. It was super yummy, fresh fish tacos and crispy cauliflower "wings". The perfect meal for us with a large, clean and fresh environment with lots of space away from the crowded busy streets.
After food we RAN to catch the next HopOn bus (we had to run to catch the bus a couple of times) and managed to get a ride to the City Hall stop again so we could get back to the World Trade Centre stop and catch the PATH back over to Jersey. Caught the train back to the Columbus/Marin station and walked past the Krispie Kreme down Marin and "home". Antoine still working! By the time we got back to the rig it was almost 7:30pm.
Dragged the kids to the shower block (Amelia rated them 8/10)... they were super clean and hot/good power.
Jonathan researched (shazam'd) the music from the street performers and found DJ Cobra Monterray Perrreo Mix on Spotify. Then he made popcorn for the family and we tucked in to watch the rest of BIG on the laptop. Jonathan and I sat on the turned around driver and passenger seats, and kids up in the "balcony" seating in their bunk. Perfect end to a busy day.
By 8:40pm there was a massive thunder and lighting and heavy rain storm rolling through. My weather warning app alerted me to a severe weather warning for Manhattan and Jersey City. Crazy weather.
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