Day One: Mid Atlantic Trip 2005

New York, New York: We kicked off our Mid-Atlantic trip today. We decided to revisit New York City and spend a little more time to explore the city. We visited in 2004 but did not have enough time to really explore so we began the trip there. Then we are heading south in Pennsylvania for a trip to Hersheypark before flying back to Florida via Baltimore. A lot to do in a little bit of time, but that’s how we do things.

We boarded an early morning flight from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. We flew Delta from Sarasota to New York La-Guardia with a brief plane change in Atlanta.
At first I didn’t think we would make it off the ground from SRQ. We were currently experiencing heavy rain and thunderstorms over Sarasota from Hurricane Katrina that was made landfall in South Florida. But once we got into the air, the flight was great. What a sight, flying over Manhattan and seeing the skyline from the air. Landing at La-Guardia was an adventure, if felt like we were going to land right there in the middle of the East River. The airport was a lot smaller then what I would have anticipated for a New York City airports but it was worth not having to drive all the way to JFK.

My parents greeted us at the baggage claim and we drove into the city to check into our hotel. Driving in the city is a nightmare, too many one way roads and changing traffic patterns. No wonder so many people use mass transit in the city. After we got into Manhattan, we dumped the car in the garage and checked into the hotel.

After the 2004 trip, we learned that most of what we wanted to do originated from Times Square, so we booked a hotel that was close to there. We booked a room at the Time Square Hilton. We checked into our room on the 32nd floor of the hotel with a sweeping view of mid-town. The hotel room was great and the view was spectacular, couldn’t ask for more.

From there we began to explore the city. Just like the last trip, we chose Gray Line Tours as our tour through the city. There is no better way to see the city then the All-Loops Tour. Since we were going to try and see as much as we can, we added the New York Pass to the tour, giving us free admission to many of the top sites in the city.

We started heading to lower Manhattan and got off at the Empire State Building. The view from the observatory was somewhat limited due to the clouds, but it was still spectacular. After spending some time on the observation deck, we went down to ride the New York Skyride. The 30 minute Skyride show is an aerial look at the Big Apple showing many of the famous sights of the city.

From there we headed back up to Times Square for dinner and shopping. We ate at Red Lobster in Times Square before resuming our exploration of the city. Then we stopped at Toy R Us in Times Square. A three story toy store with a Ferris wheel in the middle, who could ask for more.

After we played around in the toy store, we hopped back aboard a Grey Line tour bus for the night lights tour of the city. The two hour narrated tour took us through Manhattan and Brooklyn as we got a look at the city that never sleeps and how majestic it looks at night when its lit up.

But unlike the city that never sleeps, we were in definite need of some sleep, so we headed back to the hotel after the tour and called it a day.

For photos from the city, visit my New York City photo gallery.