The Silk Road to Siena: The Big Apple

I know. Another mini vacation? I guess it looks like we travel all the time but we really don't go that much. At least not enough as far as I'm concerned. I love to travel. But for it to "not" be a mini vacation it has to be at least 2 weeks in my book. So this time we went with Mark on one of his work assignments. We've done that a few times or mostly before Siena came home I would go with him on a few trips. This time NYC & it was only a Monday through Friday. See, only 4 days and I don't really count 2 because of travel days ya know.
We had a great time, but boy was it hot. It can get really hot & sticky in the city. While Mark was working Siena & I would play. We set off everyday going somewhere. We even took the subway a few places. Just had to ask the hotel front desk which train to take every time. But we made our way around just fine.
I think our 1st venture was to the National Museum of Natural History. Just like the one in DC, that place was huge. We got lost a few times. So much to see that I know we only saw a fraction of it.
I had made reservations at the American Doll store ahead of time. I had heard it was a really cool store. Even if Siena didn't like dolls, she would still think that it's cool. So we went for lunch. It was okay but not as fancy I thought it was going to be. Siena was given a doll (actually just a loaner) for her to have lunch with when we walked in. Most girls bring their own but she didn't have one. It was a mostly hot pink room & the food was adequate. For a girl that doesn't care for dolls she was happy to eat her lunch with one & liked the tea party atmosphere. She even made friends with a little girl beside her that was visiting from Japan. So all in all it was worth the 65.00 lunch I had with my best girl.
Before we had lunch we ended up going for a bike ride with a pedicab & driver through Central Park. It was a quick tour since we had to get back for our lunch reservations. It really was a beautiful & clean park. So much to see. We stopped at a few of the venues & got the pictures that you see. It was a peaceful place where the John Lennon Memorial was. It just seemed like everyone was sitting around quietly there.

We never did take any other guided tours. Maybe we should have but the cost of everything was getting us in trouble. We only took the free Staten Island ferry out & back so we could see the Statue of Liberty. I had just rained so the sky was hazy & getting dark so our pictures weren't so great. We definitely wanted to get to Chinatown for some good Chinese food. We walked all the way for that trip. Since it wasn't that far from the hotel, no taxi wanted to take us since they wouldn't make much money on the ride. That was the case with many of them around town. We finally made it there & found a pretty good restaurant with some good food that was actually really cheap. Our only problem was getting stuck for over an hour in Chinatown in the rain.

Our last night we went back out all together to Little Italy. I enjoyed it much better especially since the rain stayed away. We found some good food there too. I don't think I had seen so many Italian restaurants in one place even in Italy.

Our little flower is still the prettiest. On the streets of NYC.

We stayed near the Brooklyn Bridge in the Seaport area.

The National Museum of Natural History

Of course she found a playground.

Rebuilding the World Trade Centers

Times Square

See the New Years Ball up there?

On the Streets in Times Square

Taking the Staten Island Ferry out to see Lady Liberty

Coming back in on the Ferry at dusk.

Setting out on our adventure to Chinatown.

Getting ready for our ride through Central Park

The sites riding through the park.

Look up on top of the center window. An eagles nest. We got to look through the Central Park watcher's telescope to see it. Didn't see any eagles though.