New York City and New Jersey – Mon 27nd – Tues 28th July 2009

We are really enjoying NYC – Danielle in particular loves it :-) There is just so much energy here. There are more taxi's (who are all honking) than you can imagine - you have to be standing on the streets (in amazement) to really believe it. There is so much noise, so many people. It doesn't sound very pleasant (and we could never live here) but it is a REAL buzz. And even though there are people everywhere and it is impersonal people are still polite and not at all rude. Generally people in Vegas annoyed us a whole lot more! You do still get people trying to sell you stuff and getting in your face - that is probably because it is summer and there are so many tourists here.



The weather has been really good – apparently up until the last week or so it has been a really rainy summer. The thing we can't believe is that humidity. It hasn't been too bad for locals (gets a whole lot worse we have been told) but we never imagined New York to have humid summers. How can it snow in winter and be muggy like you are in the tropics in summer???? We have been so lucky with the weather – no doubt it will all fall apart in northern Wisconsin – for all we know it could even snow, lol.

Monday morning we headed into the city (back on the good old public transport!). We went up to the top of the Rockefeller Centre to the observation deck. It was a wonderful view of the whole city! We also read a lot about the history of the centre and watched a short movie – all very interesting.



After that we walked to Central Park which was a whole lot bigger than we had imagined (so is New York City). It was lovely there. We saw a few things that we have seen before in movies and there were a heap of nannie's sitting on park benches chatting to each other while their charges played, lol. We saw a couple of squirrels but had forgotten to buy nuts to feed them. It is quite peaceful walking around the park – hard to imagine all the hussle and bussle so close by.





After this we bought some lunch from a food stall on the side walk and ate it sitting on a busy street corner. We walked heaps and on the way back to the bus station we walked through Times Square – surely the busiest part of NYC!



We spent our first two nights in Secaucus in New Jersey at the Embassy Suites. Julian's cousin Craig manages this hotel and it was lovely. When we got back out there we walked around the area looking at some of the local shops. We had another Walmart experience – this one was not as good as the San Antonio one. Apparently in this area you can't buy alcohol at the supermarket like we have seen everywhere else – you have to go to a liquor store for it. Also, there is no such thing as a drive through bottle shop in the US.

That evening we went out to Craig's house in a small town in New Jersey – completely different to what most people think of when they think New Jersey out here. It was gorgeous! Trees and lovely homes and a reservation that has deer (we didn't see any) and ground hogs (Danielle spotted one). We saw out first firefly's out in their back yard – so pretty :-) After dinner we went for ice-cream and walked their cute dog (recently adopted) around the streets of the town. Very quaint!

It was SO good to spend time with Julian's cousin – the first time Julian had met the kids and the first time Danielle had met any of them (we have only been together for 20 years, lol). Thanks HEAPS Craig, Caroline, Caitlin and Connor for EVERYTHING!



This morning after packing (again – groan) Craig drove us into our hotel in the city. We did a bit of shopping today (yes kids, smile!) and walked so far again. We also finally found a battery charger to fit our camcorder battery – we lost the charger at some stage during our first stop! Luckily we had bought an additional battery that was huge and we have been able to film heaps. Be ready to be bored to tears when we get home and want to show off our travels, lol.

We came back to the hotel late this afternoon and slept. We are really tired. The trip has been so good but 2 weeks non-stop on the go and we needed to catch our breath! We had a relaxing drink in the hotel before heading out to dinner. The crowds were CRAZY – we think we ran into everyone leaving their shows!





We have a big day planned for tomorrow, a show tomorrow night and our first baseball game the day after. Having a reasonably early night for a change, lol.

I would love to see where Anthony lived while he was in NYC – so if you are reading our blog please email us and let us know so we can have a look (and Tanya, you might need to check your emails if you haven't done so since I left!). I tried sending you a text but it wouldn't work – will try again soon.

The best part of our trip by far has been spending time with people – the CHERUBS families in San Antonio and Craig's family here. We are really looking forward to getting up to the North Woods and spending time with Trista (Danielle' penpal) and her family – if the little plane can take off with all our luggage on board!
More from NY soon :-)

Danielle and Julian xxx