Exploring The Big Apple
Guest Author Sam Jones
Hi everyone, Sam here. Mum has stepped aside today and I’ll finally be writing the blog myself.
Today was our first day in New York and we planned to just explore. We had some Corn Flakes for breakfast after a well needed sleep in. Dad has a handbook called “New York With Kids”. He was studying it carefully whilst he planned out a list of the places we would visit. Times Square seemed like a good place to start.
We set off on the two-block expedition to Times Square. I noticed that there are high-rises everywhere you look. It’s so cool. We arrived in awe of all the flashing signs and the huge colourful shops and the huge amount of people clogging the sidewalk. Cisco, a man in a yellow raincoat from “Citysightseeing NY” greeted Dad, armed with a brochure providing simple information of a double decker roofless bus, in detailed and complicated ways. Us kids were itching to explore this awesome place and we eventually shook off this keen salesman and continued down the street. We were swooped upon by Wayne, a “Gray Line Tours” salesman who was offering an offer that was pretty much the exact same as Cisco’s offer.
We got on the bus at West 46th and Broadway and headed south. As we slowly travelled through the New York traffic we got a good look at the New York culture. The sidewalks are always packed with people, all the cars are parked in these elevated garages, the roads are full of impatient horn-honkers who run the red lights every time. There are also heaps of smoking man-holes in the road that look like something from the Ninja Turtles .I love it. We have noticed that a lot of people smoke here, and with the pedestrians being so close together, it’s often hard to escape it. Anyway, we got off the bus at the 9/11 Memorial plan. There is a plan to build a new memorial waterfall/pool thing to remember the tragedies of the attack. There were videos of survivors recounting the attack and telling of their fear and their bravery. It was really interesting and moving.
We then got back on the bus and headed to Wall St. We checked out the New York Stock Exchange, then we set out for some lunch. We discovered a great cafe in search of cream cheese on a bagel. I thought that everyone wanted one but it turned out that only me and Mum were keen. There was one bagel left and Mum kindly donated it to me. It was delicious. I gave Mum a bit and she loved it too. It was heaps filling though. For dessert, we had a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. It was so nice.
After lunch we hopped back on the Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus and headed back to the apartment. We had a bit of a rest and unwound, before getting ready to see “Promises Promises”, a Broadway show. It was such a great experience! While the subject matter was little dodgy, the show was full of energy, great dancing and singing and we all had heaps of fun.
I think we’ll need a sleep-in tomorrow though…
