Epic East Coast Trip | NYC
We left Boston on Tuesday to head to New York City for a few days. We took the Amtrak train from Boston to NYC in order to get there. Josh and I had never been on an Amtrak train and of course Levi hadn’t, so it was a fun first time experience for all of us! And can anyone guess that Levi LOVED it?! He loved everything about the experience from watching the train come into the station to riding on the train itself to looking out the window to seeing the other trains pass by to seeing the big cities to seeing the water- everything! I loved seeing how much he enjoyed his ride! He even took a nap in my lap for an hour or so of the trip.
When we got the NYC, we checked into our hotel, went and got some pizza, and got dressed up for anniversary pictures in the city. I hired a photographer to do pictures for us for our 10 year anniversary (I’ll post them in a different post later). We did our session in Boston with my friend Allie.Photo and then this one in NYC. I had my good friend in DC take a picture or two of us (literally) and I am going to print off all 3 and put them on the wall in our house. I can’t wait to get them up!
We spent our one full day in NYC being tourists to the max. We took Levi to see the Statue of Liberty (or the Liberty of Statue as he said). I was pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed visiting! Between the boat ride over and getting to look in the museum and looking at the statue itself, he really loved it. I love seeing how much he enjoys stuff like that!
We spent most of the morning down on the end of Manhattan at the statue and then looking at the 9/11 Memorial. It was such a somber thing to be where it all happened and see the amazing memorial they had set up. It broke my heart to see all of the names listed. One in particular that made me tear up was the name of a woman “and her unborn child.” The whole place was a beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to let Levi (and Mama and Daddy) take a nap. We got up and went to the Lego store to allow Levi to pick out a toy. Check out below in the pictures what he chose! Afterwards, we met some old friends of mine for dinner at a yummy Italian place. Cindy and Lee and their kids Alicia and Maria are longtime friends of mine from when I grew up in Tyrone. Cindy was in the Navy for many years and moved around after living in Atlanta, but our family has kept in touch with theirs. I enjoyed getting to see them and catch up! We ended up taking a quick trip to the M&M’s store afterwards and got Levi to bed! He was so tired! Josh and I sat outside in the hallway to read and work on the computer. We didn’t want to keep him up in the hotel room! Any other parents out there relate??
The next morning, we headed over to Central Park for a couple hours of playtime for Levi. He loved running around and climbing up the “big mountain” in the park. There was a splash pad, and while I didn’t bring his swimsuit with me to the splash pad, I did let him run around without his shirt on to play in the water. Eventually, I took his shorts off to get them to dry while he played in his briefs… haha! Super prepared Mama there, right? No change of clothes with us at the park! But he had a BLAST playing and running around. We went to a yummy lunch place called Juniors where I got some yummy cheesecake to-go to eat on the train ride to DC.
Penn Station was CRAZY y’all. We rode into the station and it was pretty easy to get out, but finding where to ride the Amtrak train to leave the station… wow. That was a little NUTS. Luckily we had some kind New Yorkers see our lost faces and help guide us in the right direction! When we were on the train and off to our next city- Washington DC!
Loving the train ride to NYC!
First taste of NYC pizza!
I think he enjoyed it to say the least.
Y’all, he still talks about the Statue of Liberty. He will stop whatever he’s doing sometimes to stand like the Statue of Liberty. It makes me laugh so hard when he does it!
Fun afternoon at the Lego store! We had originally thought to go to FAO Swartz, but then discovered it closed down! SO Lego store it was! He loved it and had a blast.
We gave him the choice to pick out something and instead of a box set of Lightening McQueen or Mickey (like I thought he would do), he asked to pick out Legos from the Lego wall and put them in a bucket you can fill up.
AMAZING replica of Rockefeller Center. The Lego store is off of the center, so it makes sense that it would be here at the store.
Time Square at night!
And a special trip to M&M store. He loved getting to choose the colors. Pink and black are currently his favorite colors, so he wanted a lot of pink M&M’s!
Our last morning we debated on going to the Children’s Museum, but decided to go to Central Park to play and it was the right decision! He had a blast climbing the “mountain” (aka big stone) in the park and playing in the water.
Always loves a good swing and playing with Daddy
