{"id":6369,"date":"2014-11-11T08:11:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=6369"},"modified":"2014-11-11T08:11:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T13:11:04","slug":"new-york-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/new-york-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"New York, New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we returned to Florida from Dublin over two years ago, hubby and I agreed that we would not stop traveling and would do more than only visit family as we did before we moved overseas. \u00a0We made the decision to visit at least on new place per year.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately traveling around the states as a family of five is not the easiest nor cheapest task. \u00a0Driving is not a real option since it takes almost 5 hours just to get out of Florida. \u00a0I often check the train option, but the time it takes to get places (usually longer than it would take to drive) usually turns me off and unless we want to sit upright for 20+ hours, it’s too expensive. \u00a0So we usually look at flying but that is often cost prohibitive (cheapest is usually about $100 per person–including the baby<\/a>–each way times 5 people, round-trip which makes a minimum of $1,000!)<\/p>\n

This has left us close to home, only visiting Naples<\/a>, Jacksonville<\/a>, Orlando<\/a>, Savannah <\/a>and Atlanta <\/a>in addition to seeing family. \u00a0BUT last week we finally got to go to a new place that isn’t a drive away: New York City!<\/p>\n

I’ve never been to New York City though hubby has been for work quite a few times. \u00a0So when we got the invite to hubby’s cousin’s wedding in New Jersey AND it was 2 days before my birthday, I made it very clear that if we were going to travel for the wedding we\u00a0were<\/em> going to spend a few days in the city, so we did!<\/p>\n

We flew into Newark airport and rented a car to go down to the wedding. \u00a0The morning after the wedding we returned the car to the airport and took the AirTrain into the city. \u00a0It was super easy and we had looked at the subway maps so knew which subway we could take to get closest to our hotel that also had elevators. The only problem we had once getting to Penn Station on the AirTrain was figuring out whether we wanted the train that went “uptown” or “downtown” but we figured it out and made it to our hotel.<\/p>\n

We went into the city\u00a0on the same day as the TCS New York City Marathon and were worried it would make it difficult to get to our hotel but it actually made it easier because many of the roads were closed and we didn’t have to wait for lights or worry about traffic.<\/p>\n

We stayed at the Salisbury Hotel on 57th St, almost right across the street from Carnegie Hall. \u00a0The hotel was a little dated but clean and the staff was super friendly and helpful. \u00a0At check-in we were asked if we wanted a street view room or one on the backside. \u00a0I immediately said “street view!” thinking the kids would love looking down on the hustle and bustle below, which they did. \u00a0The only problem was with sirens and large trucks rumbling up the street all night.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a>After checking into our hotel we stopped for a giant pastrami sandwich then headed for the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum which was probably not the wisest choice since it was the coldest day of our trip and terribly windy! \u00a0But we really enjoyed the visit, the girls especially loved the interactive ehxhibits\u00a0and Doodle of course loved the airplanes. \u00a0I\u00a0think<\/em> we did the entire thing though it is so large it’s very possible we missed part of the exhibit! \u00a0Hubby did one of the flight simulators but we didn’t do any of the other special exhibits though I wish we had done the Concorde tour.<\/p>\n