New York/Philadelphia Trip

Okay, we got up at 4am on Sunday, and headed to New York to catch a NY Yankee game for Kyle's birthday. I know, I know, it was on a Sunday, but get over it...We got to lower Manhattan at about 9:30a.m. and instead of riding a train into the game, we just decided to drive through Manhattan. It was early on a Sunday, so there really wasn't much traffic. Troy was driving, and I was navigating. Yep, we should never appear on Amazing Race. If we ever happen to, I will be the driver and Troy the navigator. I know when I was moving, I told a few of my friends that moving isn't good on a marriage...well...neither is driving through Manhattan. That said...we got to Yankee Stadium at 10:40am. The kids were so excited. We were going to stop and see a few things before the game, but they begged to go straight to Yankee Stadium. Even Kristin was saying "Yankee Stadium" plain as day. We found a parking lot right next to the stadium and paid $13 to park. We walked to the stadium and waited a few minutes until the gate opened. When we had purchased our tickets, we thought that we should probably sit in the bleacher seats outfield with the kids, so they wouldn't bug people who paid for expensive seats, and who were WAY into the game and a big bonus was it was also the non-alchohol section. (After our experience at the Mariner game, we thought that was a big bonus). BIG MISTAKE!!!! Apparently (for those of you ever planning on taking a trip to Yankee Stadium) if you sit in the bleacher seats, you have no access to the rest of the Stadium. Or shade of any kind. We wanted to get there early to watch the Yankee's take their batting practice. Well, they must have done it before they opened the gates, because we didn't see it. So, we sat in the hot sun for 2 hours before the game started. (If any of you heard, there was a MAJOR heat wave across the east the past few days, and with the humidity, it was pretty much unbearable!) Before the game started, my kids were sobbing (literally) to leave. Troy and I kept looking at each other, wondering what to do. Halfway through the third inning, (once I started having contractions cause I was probably so dehydrated) we called it a game! We saw a homerun by Jeter and A-Rod in Yankee Stadium, and I got good pics, so we called it a good game, and headed to the car.

At this point, we thought we might as well go see some things in Manhattan so we didn't have to come into the city on a Monday. We parked ($20) and went to Times Square. We took the kids into Toys R Us in Times Square and walked around. No, we didn't buy them a thing...I know, we're mean...then we took a Subway to Grand Central Station. We just thought it would be cool to see. Then we hopped on another Subway to Central Park. Okay, Central Park has got to be the coolest thing in New York City, or it's just the suburbanite in me. They had this awesome kids park. It was fenced in, too, so your kids couldn't just run off. They had a huge rock slide that Kyle couldn't get enough of, and a little fountain that Jake and Kristin kept playing in. I would have given almost anything to jump in with them, but I held back. Troy gave Jake a water bottle and had him fill it up and then pour it over Troy's head. They both enjoyed that! After sitting at the ball park for 3 hours, we were all so sweaty, hot, and tired! After we let them play in the park for about an hour, we headed back to the car and to the hotel which was in Newark, NJ. It was a 4 star Doubletree with white bedding for $60(Thank heavens for priceline!). We found a little diner to eat dinner at, that I'm sure once we left, they posted our picture so that if they saw us again, they could turn us away...then we went to bed. It had been a long day!

The next morning, we got up and headed to The Statue of Liberty. On the way there, we were trying to use our brand new 3 week old laptop. It would not work...(it had to get a new hard drive, so now I have to wait for Troy to reinstall my camera software...so no pics for a bit). Anyways, it is still a heat wave...we got on the Ferry at 11:15. I was hot and nauxious (never can figure out the right way to spell that), but we made it to the Statue. We bypassed Ellis Island...maybe next time...our kids were being so bad at this point, we almost stayed on the ferry and just saw Liberty from the boat. I hate to be too hard on them(Kyle), it was so hot I wanted to die too. We got off, walked around the Statue, got a popsicle, and got back on the ferry. The whole time, Kyle kept telling us, it's too bad nobody knows if the Statue of Liberty is a boy or a girl. We kept telling him that it was a girl...he did not believe us, told us we didn't know anything...Troy was so irritated with him. We finally told him to learn how to read, so that he could read all the plaques and find out for himself. I still don't think he believes us that she's a girl. I asked this person to take our pic in front of the Statue...people are such morons...they didn't even get the Statue in the picture...so, since I realized that, we had someone on the ferry take our pic with the statue in the back. I will post pics soon to prove my point...We got to the car, and headed to our next stop, Philadelphia.

By the time we got to our hotel (another fantastic priceline deal, Hilton Garden Inn $60) it was 3:00 and we hadn't eaten anything since our popsicle. We decided to walk the streets, and the only place we found that looked edible to eat (I know, I know, I'm picky...just ask my father-in-law...he took me to this horrible part of town to eat Mexican in Vegas one time...I almost didn't dare sit down, and then lucky me found a hair in my taco...so...I have a reason to be picky!) was Hard Rock Cafe. Of course, no one told the waitress we were sitting there, so we sat there for 15 minutes before we even got water. We all ate, and then went back to the hotel and went swimming until bedtime. (This was when we realized our laptop was totally screwed up and called HP who sent us a replacement hard drive that got here today.) The next day, we went to Independence Hall (fyi for future visitors: you have to have a ticket (it's free) to go in, and can get it the day of at the Visitor's center or you can call up to 21 days ahead and pay $1.50 for them to reserve you one). I thought it was awesome. It's just amazing the things that had to have gone on in that room. The kids were amazingly well-behaved too! Then we went and saw the Liberty Bell. Once again, moron photographers...hopefully I can zoom it in enough to tell that it's our family standing by the bell without it looking too bad...Troy and I didn't get to read all that we wanted to read in these historical places, but it was still fun being there. A few other places we went to was: Carpenter's Hall, Ben Franklin Court, Betsy Ross Home, and the Philadelphia Mint. The one thing that was so crazy about everything we did, was the amount of security we had to go through. Stinking Osama! I can't tell you how many times Troy had to remove his belt this weekend! We walked more in Philadelphia than ever. Yes, it was still this heat wave, but every building we went into was air conditioned, and with it being in the city, we had buildings to block direct sunlight, so it wasn't so bad. After all of this, we headed to a famous Philly Steak place. It was really good. I swear it was like the episode of Seinfeld with the soup Nazi. People would walk up and say: wizout (cheese wiz without onions) or wiz, or provolone without) and then walk aside and pay. Troy said a guy in front of him told the guy to "give him whatever he thinks he would like" the guy looked at him like he was crazy, and told him the menu...I wish he would have said: no sandwich for you! That would have been classic. Around this podunk restaurant, there were pics of tons of famous people who had eaten there. It was pretty cool. Expensive though! It almost cost as much as Hard Rock! Then, we headed home. Vowing never to take our children to anymore historical sites...at least until they're a lot older! That was our exciting trip.

Sorry about the pics...I promise I will get them on next week. I just had to write everything now, before I forgot. Troy's sis Allisun is flying in tomorrow. I am headed to Chicago tomorrow night to meet Erin and go to a Scrapbook Convention...I have an awesome job!...we got tickets to see Wicked on Saturday night! Allisun is watching the kids while Troy works, and then Kyle's Birthday is on Sunday! We went and picked out his birthday cake tonight! He picked a Superman cake. Then he was so excited afterwards, he was dancing around the grocery store, and bumping into people...I had to threaten to cancel his cake order unless he calmed down! Thank you Great Grandma Peterson for sending a card with $10. Kyle was so excited to think that someone would "send me a dollar in the mail". We discussed how he should pick out something he really wants and save his money to be able to buy it...he thinks I'm crazy...

Kyle-ism:
Kyle was explaining to Troy and me about popularity. We asked him what it meant (acting completely ignorant, of course) and he told us that you had to be rich to be popular. We asked him if he was popular, and he said, "no, I'm not rich. You also have to be fancy." (He has previously gotten mad at me for being "fancy" when I wanted him to pick up his toys...) I told him, you called me fancy, does that mean I'm popular? He said, "Heck no! You're not rich!" Troy and I stifled our laugh, and went on with dinner...