NYC

About a week ago, we took a trip to New York City for Josh's medical school graduation.  Josh got to experience New York last February while he did a pediatric rotation, but I had never been.  Ryan, Josh, and I made the 3+ hour drive from MA on Thursday morning and got into the city by lunch time (although it took almost an hour to go the last mile to our hotel)...and I thought LA traffic was bad...sheesh.

Anyway, we met up with many of our California family members who made the flight across the country to be there for Josh's graduation ceremony.  It is always a challenge to coordinate any type of activity with 10 adults and a baby and being in one of the busiest cities on earth only helps to escalate that problem.  But all things considered, the trip went really smoothly and everyone was able to do the things on their NYC bucket list.

New York City is unlike any place I've ever been.  And I've been to some big cities, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona...just to name a few.   It was certainly fun to be there and there is no end to the things that you can do, but man is it overwhelming.  The buildings are massive, the streets are crowded, it's not overly baby friendly, an'd I have to wonder, where do people go to get some peace and solitude?  I guess that's why NYC'ers head to the Hamptons?  I would love to visit again, but I don't think I'd ever want to live there.  It's like Vegas...on super steroids.

So, what did we do?

On Thursday, we did one of those hop on hop off bus tours, which was a great way to see a lot of the city and most of the major attractions, which would be near impossible to do on foot in just a couple of days.

Did you see that Mom?

Freedom Tower

Little Statue of Liberty behind us

On Friday, we walked to Rockefeller Center from our hotel (which was in Times Square).

Then we took a river boat cruise along the Hudson and East Rivers to see a close up view of the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. Oh, and Ryan got to have a few bites of ice cream and she was THRILLED.

Most of the gang!

On Saturday morning, Josh, Ry, and I had a chance to sneak away just the three of us and take a stroll through Central Park and down Broadway.  Since it was Saturday, the streets weren't overly crowded and it was very enjoyable.

On 53rd and Broadway!

Saturday afternoon, Josh graduated and if you missed that post, you can read about it HERE.  We had such a great time in NYC with all of our family and I hope we can make it back again before our time on the East Coast is done.