Our trip starts with a few days in New York City. We had the opportunity to spend a few days catching up with some friends and seeing the city before heading out. We managed to squeeze a lot into a few days and, most importantly, tested out the little guy’s walking legs as we logged a LOT of walking miles every day!
Some highlights included…
South Street Seaport – An historic district of Manhattan where Fulton Street meets the East River. This area has some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan, not to mention some very cool renovated boats.
The Brooklyn Bridge – The Brooklyn Bridge connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. Fun fact, it was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. There is a dedicated pedestrian walkway (slightly over 1.1 miles) above the roaring roadway that makes for a wonderful stroll on a nice day. Just make sure you’re staying in the pedestrian lane and clear of the bicycle lane as the cyclists go whizzing by without much patience for the walkers and gawkers! I would allow an hour to get across if you have a gaggle of five kids like we did! You can definitely make it across faster, but who wants to miss out on all those great photo ops! Keep your eyes peeled for a large collection of “love locks” near the Manhattan tower of the bridge. Similar to the Pont de l’Archeveche in Paris, couples leave padlocks on the bridge and throw the key into the water as a show of their everlasting love. Makes me wonder what percentage of the locks have outlasted the couples that put them on there!
We started on the Manhattan side and walked across to Brooklyn, rewarding ourselves with some delicious NY pizza afterward as a reward for our adventurous trek.
Walking, walking and more walking – We walked around 10-12 miles each day while staying in NYC. On our last full day there we walked from Times Square all the way to Battery Park, meandering through the Garment District, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Financial District.
Metropolitan Museum of Art – We got a behind the scenes tour of the Met from the best “tour guide” ever! We checked out the Arts of Oceana first since that area is the first stop on our trip. We got to see some artifacts from Fiji, which the kiddo was pretty excited about since that is one of his most anticipated destinations. He also especially loved the Egyptian art area.
Balto Statue – Also high on the kiddo’s list was navigating us to the Balto statue in Central Park. This was something he added to the agenda as it happens to be one of his favorite books. We didn’t even realize there was a statue of Balto in Central Park until he told us!
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, there was a Diptheria outbreak in the year 1925 in Nome, Alaska that threated the lives of many children. An anti-toxin was needed, but wasn’t available in Nome. The train could only get it to Nenana, which was still 674 miles away. It was determined the best way to transport it the remaining 674 miles was by dog sled, but it was expected to take 13 days, which would not be fast enough to save all the children. Long story short, Balto (who was considered a “scrub dog”) crushed it and helped it get there in only 7 days. The morale of the story here is that you never, ever quit (or underestimate the scrubs)! I love that the plaque in the park hails his “indomitable spirit”…we should all aim to be such a scrub.
I would also be remiss not to mention one of our favorite food stops. We got the recommendation to visit Ess-a-Bagel while in the city (thanks Sue!). We made the trek one morning only to find it was closed for Rosh Hashanah…womp, womp. Jack, the bagel connoisseur, was somewhat deflated. We determined it was worth another shot, so returned the following morning. It was worth the long wait! He got his first real NY bagel and we were all so full we ended up not even eating lunch that day!
It was a quick trip, but a great start to our adventure! We loved getting to catch up with friends and seeing the city never gets old! Next stop…Australia!
The Detour Diary 