NYC...continued!

New York City is very diverse, culturally speaking.  Not only were the residents diverse, but so were the tourists.  I would have never imagined that so many people across the world would have vacationed there...pretty neat to think that we were able to go.  When I worked downtown we would usually walk for lunch, so the atmosphere in NYC was very reminiscent of Houston, minus all of the shops and only a small percentage of the people.  Shawn said that it reminded him of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as well.  Speaking of diverse, I think we probably stood out because there were not very many strollers there, and a sit and stand one at that!  LOL!  You did not see very many children there at all.  And Times Square...I thought it was one square of blocks...no it went on for several blocks with huge screens everywhere.  Here are some shots!

This was a little disturbing...National Debt Clicker that went up $10k every second!!

One of the many buildings with huge electronic billboards

Same thing at the other end!

3 Story M&M Store...they had everything inside!

The kids were wore out...especially Ally Kate!

Late Show was at the end of Times Square

Right next door to the Late Show...Dave will have the deli on the show periodically

And this is the owner of Hello Deli...Rupert Jee! I had to go in, of course!

This Church was right in the middle of Times Square...it was awesome to see this sign right in the midst of it all!

Central Park - I was very surprised how hilly (is that a word?) it was.  Crazy to think that is what you would see if the business world had not have taken over.

Waterfall in Central Park

One of the many trails throughout Central Park

While in New York we visited Ground Zero, which was a huge construction site.  Hard to make out what used to be where.  All of the lives that were lost, all of the destruction...awful.  Nearly 9 years later and they are still picking up the pieces.  We also rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty.  We rode it at around 5:30-6:30 pm, so we saw hoards of people running to catch the ferry home for the day.  It was hard to fathom that they either walked, rode the subway or the ferry, or took a taxi and most do not own vehicles.

Construction at Ground Zero

Members of FDNY who made the ultimate sacrifice

On the Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Liberty

While we were walking on Times Square I told Shawn that we really hadn't take a lot of pics of the family, jsut mainly the scenery.  Shawn, say cheese!!

This was Ally's usual position with one leg up!! She might as well be comfortable!

And Jase...ridin' in style, sporting Longhorns, and eating a granola!

We covered a lot of miles on foot while we were there.  Take it from me...do not, and I repeat do not wear a sundress and try to look cute if you're going to walk several miles.  After about 3 miles I bought some $20 spandex and was a new woman!!  What was I thinking?!?!

We had a great time in New York, but we were ready to slow things down a bit and head back home.  On our last days of traveling, the kids were riding so well and we were almost home, so we pushed forward and made it home at 10:30 pm...18 1/2 hours of driving that day!  Nuts yes, but we got to sleep in our own bed!