NYC Trip: Arrival & part one of first day: Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty

It's taken me a while to get to my photos from my camera. Still not through them all but I am through the first half of the first day :) Can't get much done these days as the tiredness has returned and I'd rather rest while Isaac is napping than to sit at my computer.

We had a good flight, the security check-in was super easy at MSP. It's nice to get to go through the family line. Isaac enjoyed the airport and flying.

Isaac playing with his new Cat in the Hat ("at at the at") book waiting to board the plane.


Leaving snowy Minneapolis (you can see the chain of lakes in the first photo, downtown Minneapolis in second photo)




On the plane:




Nice shot of Isaac's snotty nose :-P




Blurry photo of going over Manhattan:


We landed! Isaac's first taxi ride and a quick shot of the Chrysler building as we crossed a bridge.




We took the taxi to the hotel and my brother was also getting into the city about the same time. He was in the city visiting from Rhode Island. Great timing because his girlfriend was also visiting from LA for business. He stopped by for a quick visit, Kyle and him walked to grab us some pizza for dinner. We had a nice visit then he walked back to his hotel about a 15 minute walk from ours.

Saturday morning we got up and headed downtown to get off near World Trade Center One and head to meet my brother.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square. Here's Isaac looking out before we left.




Isaac's first subway ride:




Getting off the subway near WTC 1 (aka Freedom Tower but this is not the name they are using anymore)


We went for a frozen walk south toward the Staten Island ferry to meet my brother. Searching for a Starbucks along the way only to find two that were closed down. Passing Trinity Church


We finally made it to a Starbucks and Josh & Stephanie caught up with us shortly after. We took some time to thaw out and then headed toward the ferry. You can tell by Isaac's poor red cheeks that he was pretty cold. Not the best weather to be walking the streets of New York. And with my pace (which was VERY slow) it just made it seem that much colder.

We made it to the ferry just in time. The Statue of Liberty side had filled up pretty quickly so we decided to continue to thaw out on the other side where we could sit down, not as crowded as the view wasn't anything exciting. Unless you count the Verrazano Bridge


We got some pictures in and Isaac got some run around time.





Uncle Josh bringing Isaac back after he had some time to burn some energy








We docked at Staten Island and got off (just to get back on like 97% of the other people riding on a Saturday afternoon). Here's the view from Staten Island:






We got back on and got on the side to view the Statue of Liberty. We were even lucky enough to find an outlet to charge "Ike-ick's own" (Isaac's Phone), which is just my old phone that is now his to play games on and comes in very handy when he's wanting something to do.


 

Gotta get a photo of the Coast Guard's big gun:




Waiting as we approached the Statue of Liberty






You can see the SoL in the background










And as we pulled into dock we got some really nice views of lower manhattan








After we got off the ferry we took a train over into Brooklyn Heights where we had dinner at a quaint little Middle Eastern place called Tutt Cafe before heading to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.