New York Baby!

I was awoken this morning by the radio singing 'Got to get up'. He he very funny. However, to me, 6:30am is not a laughing matter. Never have I been a fan of getting up early. We got ourselves together, crept into Smalls room and said goodbye. Smallest had already got up while we were getting ready. We crept up to Moo in the loft, woke her, said our goodbyes and drove away. It was -8 as we left. brrrr.

The roads weren't too bad. Although we did take a wrong turn twice but we left with plenty of time so it wasn't a problem. We parked the car (not too many spaces left, the car park was very very busy). We didn't need to check in as we had done it online. We needn't have bothered though as we had forgotten (or were not prompted) to fill in our Customs Form (useless piece of paper). We queued like children waiting for an exciting ride at Alton Towers, following the person in front like little ants. Eventually we got to the USA Immigration desk (still in Canada Airport). We answered the obligatory questions, gave up our fingerprints and had our photos taken (the immigration officer laughed when Huffle had his photo taken!) Then we carried on to baggage check. No problems there. No beeps, no checks, no bag checks.

Off to find somewhere for breakfast, the best thing there was a slightly warmed bagel and a coffee (someone might call it coffee!!). On to the plane. A teeny tiny plane. One aisle, two seats each side. The wings had to be de-iced before we could take off so there was a slight delay.

Up, up and away, through the lovely fluffy clouds. Perfect take-off. Two episodes of New Girl, half a can of coke and a couple of Murray Mints and we were there. We circled over New York and the view was amazing. We saw the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge (Huffle thinks we don't need to see them properly now - ha, we'll see!). We landed and as we came out of the plane tunnel, we were instantly inside the airport lounge. Through a door and we were outside of the airport. No waiting, no baggage collection, just out. Brilliant. We attempted to get a bus and decided to get a yellow cab instead. It was fast, it moved through the traffic like a hot knife in butter. A few beeps, but the driver stayed calm. He didn't actually speak to us all the way and wasn't overly friendly but we got to our Hotel in quick time.

Now, the Hotel. Huffle had already warned me it was very dated and needed decorating. Inside it seemed okay. Big. lots of people milling about, a huge queue for the check-in. We got our key and went up fifteen floors (did I mention Huffle doesn't like heights?). The door to our room was like something I would expect to see on a Nuclear Bunker (apparently it is a genuine vintage door from the 1900's ). Paint peeling from the bottom, I wondered if the room had any windows. We opened the door. We were met by a lovely smell. Like wet carpets not quite dried. (Huffle thinks it smells of feet)I tried to open the window and realised how high we were. Eeeeuuuuuu. Don't look Huffle!

We grabbed a few essentials and set off to view the sights. We were really hungry so we searched for food. We found a small Irish pub. We asked if there was a table and were lead right to the back. The place seemed to go back so far. We sat at a high corner squashed (but deceptively comfortable) table. We had dinner with a free pint of Coors Light (anyone who knows Huffle, knows he doesn't drink Beer - well apparently he does if it's free and he's thirsty). CHEERS.

Full of food and beer, we worked our way towards the Flat Iron. We passed the Empire State (the queue to go up it was enormous - 4 hours someone said - I did want to go up it but was not prepared to wait that long), Madison Square Park, some gorgeous buildings, a man with THE most eccentric moustache we have ever seen (and believe me, Rome used to have some great ones!), and then we saw the Flat Iron. A beautiful building. Amazing architecture. Now houses small businesses but once the tenants leave willingly, it will be made into a five star hotel. The sun was out, it was still cold but the sun glinting off the buildings was amazing.

We saw a place called 'Eataly'. It was an amazing place. (Sorry for all the amazings but.......). We had an Italian gelato. Huffle had Coconut and I had salted Caramel - ahhhhhhhhh. Then I had an Espresso. Then we walked around the place. Pasta being made. Bread and pizzas being created. People sitting and eating lovely food and drinking wine. People buying their groceries. There was everything from jams and honeys to pestos and tomatoes. It was huge. We ate Ice Cream in New York in December. Wow!

We found Macy's - free wifi. We posted a quick picture to Instagram and left. Too busy. We were going to attempt Skype but too noisy. We looked at the lovely window displays and made our way to Times Square.

Even in the day it is all lit up and lots of lights and videos and people. We were asked about five or six times if we wanted to see a comedy show. We didn't! Times Square was more than I had imagined.

Our boys' favourite film is Elf. When they heard we were coming to New York, they wanted to make sure that we did all the things Buddy did while he was there. We saw the tunnel he walked through. We went through the revolving doors (Huffle got some funny looks) We looked for gum on the railing but didn't find any. We still have to walk strangely up the escalators and press all the buttons on the Lift. (Although Huffle wanted to but I wouldn't let him).

Weary from all the walking, we stopped at The Bread Factory and had cake and coffee/coke. I blogged offline while Huffle watched a funny little hobo/man smooth out tin foil, steal napkins and keep going upto the counter, coming back with all sorts of things he didn't seem to be paying for.

We popped back into Macy's to see if we could SKYPE the boys and Moo but they weren't on. We walked back to our Hotel (incidentally our Hotel is right next to wifi free Macy's), rested our feet and worked out what we wanted to do for the evening.

 

Internet is hard to use and photos not loading well ...............

 

 

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