New York, New York!

During our stay on the Jersey shore, we took a day trip to New York City with Piper - it was her first time in NYC!  She was very eager to go.  New York has been featured in some of the tv series she watches, like Monster High.

We fit in as much as we could, and Piper got to experience some authentic New York City life!

The first thing we did when we arrived in Penn Station was to take a picture of Piper as she was that day just in case we (God forbid) lost her.  Don't worry.  We didn't.  And actually that was the second thing we did at Penn Station. The first thing we did was get a Dunkin' donut.

One of the things we did while in NYC was take a bus tour of the hot spots.  It rained a bit, so Piper got to sport the cool yellow poncho they give out in inclement weather.

 

Nothing beats walking the city streets (we actually walked quite a ways on them to get to the bus tour pickup location...) but the bus tour did a great job of hitting the biggies:

Piper really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.  Tickets to go to the top of the statue are sold out into September, and we decided not to take the ferry over to the island.  But, as part of the bus tour, we stopped at Battery Park and were able to see the statue from there.  We also got to eat lunch right outside on the pier with the statue of liberty right behind us in the distance :)

 

Since Battery Park was about as far away from our next stop - the Museum of Natural History - as we could get, after lunch we took Piper onto the subway.   That was really fun.  I don't have much experience with the NYC subway system, but the Boston T was a part of my daily life for 5 years and I developed a real fondness for public transportation networks.  It was neat to be able to show Piper how cool it is that an entire city can be connected by underground train.

 

I think the highlight of the day for me was our trip to the museum.  I'd forgotten what incredible displays they have there.  We saw a special mummy exhibit, but my favorite things to see were the old standards:  the elaborate and impressive dioramas, the dinosaur bones, the giant blue whale.  Piper was really interested in the things we saw.

 

 

  

At the end of the day I had racked up over 13,000 steps - even with the bus tour- and Piper's legs are shorter than mine.  That kid was a trooper.  By the time we'd hit the museum she was developing blisters but she powered through the entire trip without complaint!

This was definitely another summer trip highlight.  Now that Piper's had her inaugural visit, we can continue to see new NYC sites every summer and build on her experiences with the city that never sleeps!  Who knows, maybe someday she'll be a city gal!