American History Road Trip 2016 - Day 3 - Breakfast in Times Square/HighLine/Olive Garden

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index

[B]NYC - DC- Virginia - Tennessee - Kentucky - Indiana - Illinois

Day 3 – Friday 25th March 2016/ Good Friday – We walked for miles & miles & miles and saw a naked cowboy

Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 16 and Louis is 14.



It was another early awakening for Ade and I.
Ade beat me to it by waking at 4.30am. I wasn’t far behind at 5am.
Thankfully the kids slept a little longer.



Louis was 6.30am
And Hollie stirred at 6.45am.

I’d been working during this time whilst waiting for them to wake.

Showers and sorted.



Sleepy Hollie was not a happy bunny this morning. She was feeling very tired. Look at that face!

One gripe we did have about the apartment was lack of mirrors.
There was one in the bathroom (where the hair dryer was….still can’t get used to that in the US)
But there was only 1 other mirror which was this one where Hollie was in the entrance space. We could have really done with at least one other in the bedroom.

Louis watched Brooklyn 99 from the tv in the lounge whilst we got ready.






And the view from our room where we walk down to in a few minutes.



We were ready to leave at 8.20am.

I tried to capture mirror selfies…



But kind of failed miserably. Some were just too impatient….and some just weren’t ready as usual!



The plan was today to explore around this area, the Empire State, Shake Shack in Madison Square Park and possibly to the High Line, weather permitting. The rain was due to start around 11am for the afternoon.

We left the hotel via the right rather than the left like we had so far and went down the walk way on the right that we could see from our room.
It was nice and quiet here.



We looked up and could see our room (on the 5th floor at the end nearest to us).
The nice thing about staying here, we never heard any road noises from our room. I’ve heard so many people say how noisy it was staying in NYC. We never heard a thing.



It was really a cool walkway.



This was 48th street now and by turning right took us straight into Times Square.



It was soooooo quiet.



There was no one around.



There was someone from security over by the red steps, so Ade went over to see when they’d be open.



And low and behold…..she opened up the red steps for us…..how cool!







We were the first and only ones on the Times Square red steps!
This felt crazy when all the other times that we’d been around here they were totally crammed.







So naturally we made the most of this time and took loads of photos.
(spot the kids up there behind us!)









Soon other people started to venture on to ‘our’ red steps. How dare they! So rude!

We decided to grab some breakfast.
I’d been looking online for somewhere nearby to grab something to eat. There were plenty of places but nowhere made me think…’we must dine there’.
There were plenty of places if we wanted to spend $100+ for a sit down breakie, which we did not. Too many places to go and see. So we thought we’d just find somewhere to grab something quick.
We popped in to Starbucks at the top of Times Square near the red steps, but it was so busy and there were hardly any seats inside.
So we decided to go down the other end of Times Square where we’d bought our ‘I am Here’ mugs on our first night.





We passed where they were filming ‘Good Morning America’.





Lots of people were wearing bunny ears as it was Good Friday and they were trying to get in view to be on TV.



8.43am and we were in the other Starbucks.

The good thing about this Starbucks was that there was plenty of seating outside. So we left the kids out there and we went inside.



It was complete chaos.
It was full of very unhappy regulars. Everyone was moaning to one another.
The lady who took our order was the most unhelpful person that we met during the whole trip. She made ordering very difficult and she was always looking elsewhere whilst talking to us and just not listening to anything we were saying. It was really hardwork as she couldn’t understand us and kept asking us to say it again, but wasn’t listening to us.
We paid and went and stood with everyone else and listened to everyone else moan about the wait and the wrong items they were being given out as names were being called.



15mins later and we finally had our breakfast. (the correct order)





9am and we were sat in Times Square having breakfast.
How cool is that?!



We could not have chosen a better place to have breakfast as it happens.


Hollie’s snapchat







Hollie had a blueberry muffin and an iced latte.



I just had a medium latte.
This was so relaxing and really great watching the busy world of New York go by.
One of the surreal moments when you think ‘I’m in New York’.



Louis had a cinnamon bun which came out hot which was a lovely surprise. It smelt so good. He soon scoffed that up and declared as he does with every cinnamon bun, that it was the best.



Ade had a medium latte with a slice of lemon cake.



Near us was the New York Police Depot, so Louis being a little mad about the comedy New York police series ‘Brooklyn 99’ built up the courage to have a quick photo taken.



It was now 9.20am and we were ready to head off.
I’m including all the times today that show on my photos as it’s a good way to see how close everything is and how far we walked today.





We walked in the direction of the Empire State, but with the plan of stopping at Urban Outfitters for Hollie.



Hollie loves to shop. We however didn’t want this trip being turned in to a shopping trip as we were just here for 2 full days.
The girl was on a mission. She’d made notes of the items that she wanted already and we’d given her 30 mins to spend in Urban Outfitters. (She spent over an hour in the Florida branch…and yes I know they also have this store in the UK, we have one in Guildford, not far from where we live! )





So here we are at 9.28am entering the said store on Fifth Avenue.



And here she is at 9.58am paying. She did good!

Ade and I bought a book whilst we were in there and Hollie bought some culottes that you will see later - $69 and a top for $24.

Cont...

[miss_mouse]

Cont...

We walked from here to Grand Central Station.
Again like yesterday, we had already saved all our points on to Google Maps. So everywhere we wanted to go had a little gold star on. Not only was this really easy to find places, it also told you how long it would take to get there.



Chrysler Building.

We reached Grand Central Station at 10.03am. So it was really close by.



It was really busy in here. We were really aware of locals actually using the station. So many tourists were just standing in the way taking photos and blocking areas. It was so unfair on those who were rushing for trains. It must get very frustrating.







It’s such a beautiful building.



The people at the top of the stairway are all just standing taking photos.



(As we also did…but trying to keep out of the way)
Then outside we crossed over the road to take a few more pics of the station.







It was 10.12 am now and we walked to The New York Public Library next. It was just at the end of the road.



Arriving at 10.19am



We had to clear security and then had a teeny nosey inside.







It really was a teeny nose. This was taken back on the steps outside again at 10.23am.

We were heading to Madison Square Park next to grab an early lunch at Shake Shack. But on the way we wanted to stop at the Empire State Building. Not to go up as we’d decided that we’d only go up the TOTR, but we wanted to just step inside.

On the way, Hollie’s supersonic shopping eyes spotted a Nars Set in a department store that she’d had her eye on. How she spotted that I’ll never know. So we both popped in to Taylor & Lord department store and she bought her powder set for $37.

We were trying to figure out which entrance to go in to see the prettiness. This big guy stopped up and asked if we wanted to buy tickets to go up the Empire State. He said he was official and worked for them. I said sorry but we went up the TOTR only last night and smiled sweetly. He came down to me and whispered ‘’I shouldn’t be saying this, but you get a Much better view from the TOTR’. He laughed and wished us a good day.
He was so sweet. Another super friendly New Yorker.



10.57am and we were where we wanted to be.





We were giggling thinking of the movie Elf in here.



We wandered on…

And arrived at Madison Square Park at 11.05am

We were really looking forward to Shake Shack…



Although this Street Meat Truck was really tempting us….with the ‘goat over rice’.
When I think of New York and think of food, I always think ‘mmmmm I fancy ‘goat over rice’!



We resisted and headed on through to Shake Shack. Saving ‘Goat over Rice’ for next time.


Cont...

[miss_mouse]

Cont...

This park was really nice. It wasn’t very big. There was a sweet fenced off doggie area inside.


Teen tiredness


The Flat Iron Building infront

We joined the very short queue at 11.08am.



Now this did temp me. How good does this look?



We loved all the seating area outside.
Hollie and Louis had chosen what they wanted and they sat down trying to log on to wifi from somewhere.



There are no seats inside, you go up to the counter and place your order. Then take a seat in the park.





Then you wait with one of these.



Until you get buzzed.
We had our food at 11.20am.



The food was so good and it was such a great feeling sat out here in New York eating lunch.
Ade had a regular burger and choccie shake.
I had a chicken burger and a vanilla shake and between us all we shared 2 portions of fries.



At night all the twinkly lights are on in the trees.





The Empire State one side



And The Flat Iron Building the other.



This lunch was another one of those highlight ‘perfect’ moments from the trip for all of us. We loved this so much.



Louis had the chicken sandwich with a Salted Caramel Shake, which was flavor of the month.



Figuring out our next plan of action.
It still hadn’t rained so we were hoping it was going to hold off.



Hollie was still full from breakie so only had a vanilla shake which she now really regrets as she’s the burger queen.
It all came to $43.25. We loved the food and can’t wait to eat at the Shake Shack in Orlando next year.


We were ready to leave at 12 midday and realise that we’d hit this place at the right time. The queue was now huge. Can’t even see the end of it properly here.



We’d decided to brave it and walk to Chelsea Market and the High Line. Despite there still being rain forecast and knowing it was a 30 min walk.



We passed this yummy looking Nutella Café.



Lots of filming going on here.

We stopped at a Starbucks for a wee and bought some water. I stayed outside waiting. It made realise how safe I felt. It was a very ‘locals’ area. Not touristy at all where we were now.

The weather suddenly changed.
Literally 2 spots of rain and then it poured.



It was 12.34 now. I had a travel umbrella which I shared with Hollie and Louis had a thin jacket and that was that.
We huddled under a shop shelter for a while then moved on when it eased off a bit but had to take shelter again.
We got to Chelsea Market at 12.45.



I’m guessing due to the weather the market was packed.

It felt good to be inside.

Our first stop was Anthroplogie.



I would love to say ‘Our favourite store’ but Louis would strongly disagree.

We mooched but didn’t buy anything. We pop in to the store in Guildford sometimes and nothing different here caught our eye.



But it’ all so pretty!



The market was very cool to walk around.



And would probably be even nicer when it’s not so full and when you aren’t soaked through.





We left the market and joined the Highline from where we were. There were steps outside going up. It was very easy. It was now 1.06pm.




Cont...

[miss_mouse]

Cont...


We joined on 16th Street. When you think that we started the day on 49th Street, makes you appreciate how much walking we had done already.


Over to the Hudson River.



There was a little stall and we stopped and bought Ade a Highline T Shirt. $30



We stopped here for some pics. This looked right out over the road. Taken from the end here looking out of the glass.



It was warmed up again now and everything was drying off nicely.







We really enjoyed the walk along here.



Lots to see and take in.





Great views



And just great when you think that this was just an old disused railway track. To turn it in to a park is just wonderful.



Can you imagine having an apartment here?



We ended up walking from 16th all the way to 30th Street along the Highline. We did really well.
Our feet were all really hurting now though. We were ready to go back. We had a quick sit down here and planned our route back. It was now 1.51pm.



We got off the highline and walked the very uneventful, nothing to look at walk from 10th-7th Avenue. Going across Manhattan. This seemed to take so long. Then we walked from 30th to 49th Street to our hotel.
Once we got in to the more touristy areas, it didn’t feel so bad.



At 2.15 we passed Madison Square Garden. It was now much busier.



We went from seeing no one when we got off the Highline to being swamped in people.

We were now back in Times Square.



And seeing naked singing cowboys



Crap Mickey…



And where else would you be able to get Crap Elmo, Crap Olfa, crap Elsa, crap Iron Man, crap Hulk and crap Woody all in the one photo? Not bad going!

Being the amazing planner that I am. I had the great idea as we were passing Olive Garden on Times Square to pop in and book a table for later. So that’s what we did. It was just after 2.30pm and we booked a table for 5pm.



We stopped off at Toasties for drinks, a tea and huge muffins for tomorrows breakfast as we would be starting our roadtrip.



That came to $18.

It felt so good to be back in that apartment.
We had the most amazing morning, but we had walked crazy amounts.
Not once did the kids moan though. We felt so proud of them. It did feel like a very long walk back from the Highline after all the walking we had already done.
We needed this downtime now.



The kids had hot baths, we had showers, Louis blocked the loo!
I did work emails. We all just did our own thing.
I was so nice having the space of the apartment to do this.

At 4.50pm we were ready to go back out again. For dinner this time.
And this is how close we were to Times Square.



This photo above was taken from the 4th floor of our hotel at 4.49pm.
Hollie's wearing her new culottes.



And this one in Times Square at 4.54pm.

We were so looking forward to this. It was like a little taste of Florida.

It was great walking past the queue of people waiting for tables...#smug



And this was so needed.



We loved our table. We had such a great view.



We had trouble choosing mains (I did anyway). The server was so helpful helping me choose and telling me all about how the dishes were made. I’m not a big fan of rich creamy sauces. I like more fresh.



I went with the Baked Shrimp Ziti which was so good.



Ade had his Florida fave…spaghetti with meat sauce. It really is tasty.



Hollie had Shrimp Alfredo.

Cont...

[miss_mouse]

Cont...

Louis went with his Olive Garden usual ….Calamari….don’t ask!

We also all shared a Calamari as a starter.

We ended up with another Bud Light each. Hollie & Louis had Raspberry Lemonades.

It came to $150. Much more than in Florida. We knew the prices were more here having researched online. For example Ade’s dish is $9.99 in Orlando and it’s $14.99 in NYC.
But it was such good food and the service was amazing.
He was so friendly and despite being busy still made time to chat and laugh with us.
We just loved this meal.





And our view from our table.

18% service charge had automatically been added on and we also gave him an additional $5 as a thank you telling him how much we enjoyed the meal.

We decided to enjoy Times Square now.

We popped in to American Eagle first. Ade loves this place.

I’m a super light weight and the 2 Buds had gone to my head and I was in such a silly giggly mood.



I found the worlds largest fanny pack... mine was obviously far too small as can be seen here.
Hollie and I had the super giggles. No idea where the boys were but we have a video of us that I had taken in absolute hysterics about something here.



Ade didn’t find what he was looking for.



But we did step back in to Times Square and see this very scary adult baby.



It was getting really busy now.

Hollie now needed a wee.
This is so typical of Hollie.
She was one of those kids. You’d be at Legoland, everyone would do a loo stop as you pass but she would totally refuse to go and insist that she didn’t need a wee.
You’d then join a queue. Queue for 30 mins, get near the front of the queue and she’d be almost wetting herself and desperate to go.

So I said I pop in to McDonalds with her. We left the boys outside the Disney Store.



We ended up being gone for 20 mins. It was the longest loo queue in history.
We started off with smiles.



But by the end of it the girl was in so much pain and could hardly stand.



I guess we could have just gone back to the hotel, but we didn’t expect it to go on like this.
Turned out there were only 2 loos. (for the ladies)

The boys were worried about us as we’d been gone for so long and they were still outside waiting and it was so busy. I couldn’t connect to any wifi so we couldn’t contact each other.



Reunited again and time to enjoy The Disney Store.
Look who we found and for only $8 each. I even asked a staff member if that really was the price as they were so cute and so cheap. They came home with us.

It was still all very silly.



Louis ended up buying a BB8. $12.95. He struggled to choose.



Ade was very excited about the new toys,



I found this hilarious for some reason.



Hollie was just happy to be in Disney again.

Somehow according to my camera we managed to spend over 30 mins in there!

And we left the store finally.



Via the ‘Tangled escalator.
So pretty.











We popped in to M&M World but didn’t stay in there for long.



Went in to Hersheys, got free kisses (of the silver foil wrapped kind).
Louis bought a T Shirt with his money $12.95 and Ade bought the ugliest bright orange T Shirt and cap for $24.95. Bloody hideous it is!
Oddly here, no tax is added on. What is said on the price tag was what you paid at the till.

We walked back to the hotel now.



It was so busy, but there were police everywhere (some also on horse back) guiding people and cars so everyone was safe. It was very well organised.



We walked on the other side so that we could take a photo of our hotel as we realized that we hadn’t really taken one from the outside yet and we were leaving first thing.



We were in out apartment at 8.30pm.

The kids laid on Louis’ sofa bed watching Brooklyn 99.
We packed everything up.
I’d made it very easy packing things separately. (Planning Queen me again!)
We had roadtrip cases and cases for Dad’s. Plus inside the roadtrip bags were packing cubes.
Ade and I showered again (feeling a bit grubby amongst all those people in Times Square) and we watched some of Jurassic Park in our room.

We’d booked a cab for 8am to Newark airport to collect the hire car for the road trip.
We took a card from the reception desk and called up and booked so we had a flat rate sorted.

It was our last night in NYC and we have to say, it was perfect.
Apart from the horrid shuttle bus on arrival, we could not fault a single thing.
We loved our apartment and where it was situated. We loved having the space and the wifi and internet service was excellent.
The kids were fab and totally loved the place. We will return again.

Lights out 10pm ish after a really really good day.

Driving to Washington DC tomorrow…..let the Road trip commence!

[Guest]

Awww great report so far! Brings back happy memories! Disappointed to have missed the highline shop!

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Awww great report so far! Brings back happy memories! Disappointed to have missed the highline shop!

See more...

Thank you

The Highline shop was only very diddy. Just a stall.
I thought Ade wanted a T Shirt as his was soaked from the rain, but he didn't fancy changing out there

Thanks for reading

[JoJo88]

Fantastic day Lisa, I so love reading your trippies. Seeing your photos made me feel so nostalgic for the time Sim & I went there, I loved it so much and can't believe we haven't made it back yet! However, reading your report makes me feel like I was there with you, so thank you

You did well to not buy anything in Anthropologie

Shake Shack sounded nice, might have to add it to the list for the next Florida trip!

Now, did Louis really have a Bud Light in a Olive Garden?

Fab report Lisa, you're such a great writer xx

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by JoJo88

Fantastic day Lisa, I so love reading your trippies. Seeing your photos made me feel so nostalgic for the time Sim & I went there, I loved it so much and can't believe we haven't made it back yet! However, reading your report makes me feel like I was there with you, so thank you

You did well to not buy anything in Anthropologie

Shake Shack sounded nice, might have to add it to the list for the next Florida trip!

Now, did Louis really have a Bud Light in a Olive Garden?

Fab report Lisa, you're such a great writer xx

See more...

I need to get you to proof read for me in future.
Do you know how many times I proof read these?
I never noticed that slip up (no labia slip ups then? )

There's a Shake Shake near the Orlando Eye.
We can't wait.

Thank you my lovely and glad it bought back some happy memories.
Much love xxx

[twinkleshmoo]

Ah such a great day Lisa, your fab photos made me feel like I was there with you. I'll be adding shake shack to the Orlando list too then

Thanks for sharing my lovely xxxx