Our Life is a Bowl of Barry's: NYC....getting it all in on the last day

Day 38
Saturday July 2nd

This was our last day in NYC and boy did we cram it full to make sure we saw as much as we possibly could of that amazing city. On the docket? Returning to The Intrepid to collect the camel back Eric had left there the day before. Between his hat and the camel back, NYC was proving to be the place to lose stuff! Thankfully the camel back was found-

And Gregory was happy to have his book back that had been kept in the camel back, can you tell? He found time to read while on the bus later that day-

Next, we headed to Central Park. To say Central Park is huge is a huge understatement! We spent over 2 hours walking the paths and probably only saw half of it. It is truly a beautiful, amazing oasis to visit in the middle of NYC. The forethought those that designed it so many years ago had is just incredible! Our first stop after walking and walking and WALKING (all the walking was being well documented by 6 year olds who wanted to STOP walking) was to a spot for lunch. While we thought is was a scenic spot to stop, we were in for much prettier areas later. The park is full of rolling grassy hills interrupted by outcroppings of this stone, of which NYC is built upon.

When the kids finished eating they went and joined a mom and her son blowing bubbles.....it was funny at the time! As far as the eye could see there were little groups here and there, eating, playing, lounging, sunbathing.....

Next most important thing after eating? Finding the statue of Balto, the Alaskan sled dog.....you know the one! Man, was that statue toasty warm baking in the sun, but the kids clambered on for the group shot and individual shots too. I feel bad for folks that have to wait for us to take pictures at places like this....it takes a while to go through 5 kids and a group shot and sometimes a family shot!

We then followed some more winding paths, under bridges, through small tunnels and out the other side to come into areas like this.....green, green, and more green! There were musicians playing for tips, artists set up to paint your picture-

When Bill and I visited NYC for the first time, it was in January. Freezing cold for one thing, and the park was nearly empty-who would be crazy enough to meander through Central Park when it was 20 degrees outside-aside from tourists? We saw this fountain at the time, but it was empty-no water. This time around it was just what we thought it would be (think the movie Enchanted when they are singing and dancing in this area), filled with lots of people, groups performing for audiences, families grouped up for photo opportunities. It was perfect really.

The water in the lake was unnaturally green I must say though. It kind of glowed-

This area reminded me of where they must have filmed part of the Stuart Little movies-the boat races. I'm just repeating myself in saying this, but it really was a beautiful area! The small lake was dotted with little white sail boats and it was shady around the edges of the water.

Following more paths into the heart of the park, we came to the huge expanse of grass that you might think of when you think of Central Park.......

The kids took the opportunity to 'look the part' and collapsed on the grass, enjoying the shade-who am I kidding, they were just glad to take a load off their feet for a few minutes!

I had one more Living Social coupon left from the ones I had collected before the trip-it worked out well since the ice cream shop was closest to the upper part of Central Park. Emack and Bolio's provided a welcome sweet snack on our last afternoon of living like NYers. The shop was located in an area that was more apartment like. The noise and traffic dropped off and we were able to get a good idea of how 'normal' folks live in NYC. The shop sat directly across from a corner apartment building, which sat atop a grocery store. A grocery store that close to home? It has to be that way, can you imagine having to schlep groceries very far in NYC? No thank you!

Emack and Bolio's....a teeny tiny ice cream shop with a ton of different flavors to choose from!

We went with 4 pints; Trippin' on Espresso-Eric and Jacob shared that one,

Chocolate Moose-Laurel and I,

Grasshopper Pie-Luke, Laurel, me and Bill,

and 1/2 pint of Cookie Monster and Purple Cow ice cream-Gregory and Bill. It's a good thing we've been walking lots!!!

E and J sat outside and people watched while finishing up their flavor of choice.

We finished it all....every spoon lickin', cup lickin' last drop. And then ran to the bus to take us back towards Times Square. But what trip to NYC with kids would be complete without a stop at FAO Schwartz? Realistically, it was a bathroom stop, but of course the kids had lots of fun looking at all the toys. Eric purchased a unique Eeyore for his collection too.

And what trip to NYC for adults...well, of the female gender.....would be complete without a stop in at Tiffany's? Well, plenty of people's trip would be, but Bill surprised me with a trip to Tiffany's in Florida in 2009 and bought me a charm bracelet and charm. He told me I could get another charm while we were in NYC. He wanted to get me a necklace too, but I took one look at the prices and said 'I don't think so'. I'm a pretty simple jewelry kind of girl-always wear the same earrings and necklace, so this charm bracelet means a lot to me, but sheesh, you are paying for the name in that store, that's for sure! I chose a charm that I liked and one of the few that wasn't astronomically priced, and posed with my bag!

The Tiffany's in NYC is 6 stories, has 3 elevators, employees who work IN the elevators and push the buttons for you, an entire floor dedicated to jewelry repair and cleaning, complete with sofas, love seats and chairs.....talk about style!

The one place that we held until the end, in some ways we used it as a bribe...bad us....was the Lego store. All 5 kids could not WAIT to get their grubby mitts on Lego's- all shapes and sizes, mini people, key chains and the smell, look and feel of the store. It was jam packed crazy. I think there were at least 75 people shoulder to shoulder trying to get around!

Everyone was all smiles and showing what they got-immediately after paying, still in the store.....how's that for anxious?!

The Lego store itself looked right out on Rockefeller plaza and the plaza itself was decorated in anticipation of July 4th......very patriotic and I'm so glad we got the chance to see it decorated for a holiday-

As we were walking back towards the NJ transit hub, we came across this huge street flea market type of deal. The roads we closed and there were hundreds of vendors selling food, clothing, trinkets, souvenir stuff-and tons of people!!

The kids got their last opportunity to wheel and deal and came out with an animal craved from stone for each of them. A couple owls, a cat, a turtle, a penguin.......The walk back was easy going and the boys had fun post jumping-thankfully no one missed or got hurt in the attempt!