Big Apple with Cousins!

We left our home yesterday afternoon and arrived in New Jersey last evening; we stopped and had pizza at a restaurant right around the half-way point of our three hour drive. This morning we enjoyed the hotel's free hot buffet breakfast. We had planned to take the free shuttle, but given our group size (9) we hadn't made our reservations early enough. We planned to walk out of the hotel at 9:00 to walk 4 minutes to the bus stop, but we left the hotel almost 20 minutes late, which meant we missed our bus and had to wait at the station another 45 minutes for the next bus. The NJ transit buses are very plush and reasonably priced. An adult fare is $3.50 and the children are only $1.55. We could have taken a subway for most of the next mile to the Intrepid, but in light of how long we waited for the bus we opted to walk. We spent a couple of hours at the Intrepid which includes an aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine used during the Cold War. We ate the lunch we had packed prior to touring the submarine. Then we walked to Times Square. My kids had been there last summer, but today was the first time their kids were ever in

the state of New York or NYC in particular. Susie purchased something at a BTS store (her favorite band). Some of the kids were really complaining about the amount of walking we were doing (their cousins are not as accustomed to long walks like my kids are) so we took the subway for one mile to the National Museum of Mathematics. The subway in NYC is more expensive than in DC. Our one mile trip cost more than the trip from NJ (which was longer). We spent about 75 minutes in the math museum. The kids really enjoyed it. We all got into both the Intrepid and Mo Math for free because of our ASTC membership, and our hotel stay is free thanks to Drayton's credit card points. So our only expenses today were 2 trips on the bus, 2 trips on the Subway, and dinner at the Shake Shack in Madison Square park. Our last stop was the LEGO store. Our timing was off again on the way home as we spent more than 45 minutes waiting in the Port Authority for our bus back to NJ. Aside from our transportation snafus, everything went smoothly. It rained a little bit now and then, but I had brought an umbrella to keep my camera dry. We have two more days in the city, and hopefully we can have more success with our timing of shuttles and public transportation. My kids didn't spend any money today although they certainly saw things they liked at the LEGO store. I expect they will make purchases tomorrow at either FAO Schwartz or Nintendo NY.