Oh your countdown is at the point of no sleep. I hope you have the most magical holiday.

Already a hit, Abby.

I promise a proper response when
Poot and I are back from
America and I can get to a real keyboard.

This is a brilliant tip. I do have some of these that I could take! Why on earth did I not think of this?

Oh you're here! Hope you are having a good time. It's all your fault!

Great start (apart from the Bloody Mary) as a fellow insomniac I'm loving the chair in the bathroom tip!

Monday 24th July 2017 - Breakfast in hotel, coffee on a ferry, coffee in a Starbucks, hotdog on a street, pizza in Brooklyn, sandwich in Katz deli, ice cream in the shape of a rose, cocktails in the lounge

Oh my goodness, just writing that title makes me think maybe we overspent! We did share some of the food. Right, lets get into it...

I woke up at about 5am. See I knew we wouldn't need the alarm. My notes say '5.30am coffee machine VERY leaky'. No need to recount that story, if you missed it (which wouldn't be the biggest shock in the world) it's because it's hidden in one of the replies I wrote when I was excited to find another Dibber had stayed at our hotel!

DH and the kids ate their breakfast.



I'm told they were as tasty as they look



It had been raining during the night and we felt somewhat underdressed leaving the hotel at 7am in our shorts and t shirts while everyone else was suited up. We were heading to the metro in Times Square.



When we got on the train I explained to DH and the kids about South Ferry station having a small platform, it went something like this...

Me 'We have to move forward along the train so that we are in the front few carriages'
Him 'What?'
Me 'The platform at South Ferry is very small'
Him 'What?'
Me 'We won't be able to get off the train if we are in the back as the platform isn't long enough'
Him 'Are you joking?'
Me 'No, honestly, at the next station we have to jump off the train and run forward to the next carriage'
Him 'Hmmph'

Well, DS took me at my word and ran for it. As the doors began to close he stuck his leg out and managed to get his foot on the carriage in front, but not the rest of his body. At this point I'm thinking this is fine the doors will open and we'll all hop on. Oh dear, those doors do not have a sensor that tells them there is something in them and they were shut like a vice. I had to pull his leg (that is not a joke! I was actually tugging on his leg), I was worried he might lose a shoe. :angry: Well, fortunately we extricated him from the train. DH was not the happiest and we may have had a few words (which I will let you imagine rather than recount here). We walked further up the platform got on the next train and arrived safely at South Ferry.

We exited the station and found...the heavens had opened...oh I hadn't planned for this......why is everyone conspiring to try and ruin my holiday? So, we ran for the Statue of Liberty ferry check in, we passed through Battery Park which I am sure is lovely but we saw it at a sprint. (I'm not going to recount the check in style security and everything, this is food trippie don't you know if you want that information then read the report written by Fuellady).

We made it on the ferry and bought 2 coffees and 2 hot chocolates, it was that chilly. They were very tasty, but the kids weren't able to drink their hot chocolates as they were the temperature of molten lava and the ferry crossing was not long enough for them to cool down. I don't appear to have photos of the drinks. I do have a photo of Lady Liberty, can you see it's a bit wet?



Well, we landed on Liberty Island, we ran to get inside quickly. We climbed to the top. My children counted each step and according to them there are actually 372 steps and not 377. On the return trip I made DS go outside so I could take a photo of him, bit mean of me really, but he obliged.



We made it back to dry-ish land, it was still raining and made a dash for the nearest Starbucks. DH and myself had a cappuccino. His was basically just froth, mine was lovely though, oh dear, fail again on the photo front. We had a very short debate about what to do next, it went something like this...

All of them 'We're wet and cold can we go back to the hotel?'
Me 'NO. THERE. IS. AN. ITINERARY.'
All of them 'But '
Me 'We will wait here in the warm and dry, it will stop raining soon'

Ok, it wasn't warm in there, cos you know how the Americans like to wack the air con up high, but it was dry. We waited about half an hour and then we were bored so we just carried on.

We were heading around for the 9/11 memorial fountains. On the way we found the Westfield Shopping Centre. We went into H&M and bought cardies, hoodies and some new trainer socks. We went into the toilets and did our best impressions of a hobo drying our feet (and shoes) under the hand dryers and putting on nice dry socks and shoes. Ahh, much better and the rain had stopped by the time we made it outside.

We passed a street vendor selling hotdogs and bought 2 to share between us. I've written down that they were $4 each. Will this food report actually contain some photos of food? Not this time oopsy. I'm running out of patience with this epic fail on photos of coffee and hotdogs.

After the 9/11 fountains we wandered Wall Street, then to the east coast of the island and up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, the start of the Brooklyn Bridge is a bit further inland than I had realised, but we made it and we walked across it and we were now a bit hungry (some of us were starting to feel a bit faint with the hunger pangs).

We stopped in Front Street Pizza in Dumbo. This was a real locals place and we loved the pizza. The kids had a slice of pepperoni and DH and I had a slice of sausage pizza. It was less than $15 for the four of us. AT LAST A PHOTO OF FOOD



Feeling much better we went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park.



We decided to walk back across the Manhattan Bridge, which has a train line running on it so that was, well, noisy. We walked through Little Italy and Chinatown and it was about 4pm and we were feeling hungry again.

Dinner was planned for the one and only thing that DH had requested in the planning stages. I had tried to instigate a few discussions about what he might like to do in NYC and the only thing he could think of was a visit to Katz Deli (you know, the one from When Harry Met Sally). He's not really into the planning part of the holiday.

So, given our confusion at the very small deli opposite our hotel we asked for a table so we could have waiter service. DH and myself both ordered Budweiser



The kids ordered cokes



They both wanted to take a photo of their drinks so, you lucky people, you have 2 photos of a can of coke!



I tried to take photos of the menu...



I'm not sure if this is legible, but after the lack of photos earlier I feel the need to overload now.



I tried to take some photos of the all pictures of famous people on the wall but the kids kept sticking their heads in the way. We were sitting next to Al Gore and Thor.



We were brought a plate of pickles, which the kids didn't like, and I forgot to photograph. DH ordered a pastrami on rye and I ordered a Reubens and said we should share half each. I don't think the photos do justice to the size of these sandwiches and how much meat was in them.







The kids both ordered kids cheeseburgers. They both took a photo of their burgers. First is Max's burger.



And here is Kate's. She went for a close up shot.



Well that was tasty, and I could NOT finish the sandwich. I barely ate half but it wasn't because it wasn't good, it was delicious just way too much meat. During the meal the kids asked DH how far we'd walked (he had dug out his fitbit before the holiday so we could see if we beat our best Disney walking day). Well, at this point we had walked 29,000 steps so we agreed we would get the metro back to the hotel and have a little break. The kids wanted a pudding but I said we could get ice cream later.

Now, I do have the receipt in my hand right now. I will have to add it later...

We all had a bath back in the hotel to try to ease our aching bones. The kids watched a bit of TV and then remembered they had been promised ice cream. So we put our shoes back on, ouchy, and went out in the direction of Times Square. We wandered about a bit and then crossed over to 8th Avenue. We spotted Amorino's and went in. This was a bit of a faff with the ordering Kate had a salted caramel cone. They were very pretty as they shape the ice cream into a flower on top of the cone.



I do have photos but they appear to all be a bit blurry, Max had chocolate and salted caramel.



These were $11. The kids said they were worth it, Kate couldn't finish hers though it was a lot of ice cream.

We headed back to the hotel lounge as we didn't have the energy to walk far. DH had 2 bottles of Stella (no photo, I think he may have said, they know what a bottle of beer looks like), the kids both had cokes, oops I think I forgot to put the flash on



I had a rather yummy Southern Peach cocktail. Ooh it was nice.



We were sat in the window seat and had a couple of games of cards. The drinks bill was put on our room, but came to $55.

We went up to bed a little after 10pm having walked 35,000 steps (which is over 16 miles).

Tomorrow you have the following delights to look forward to bagels, burritos, and dinner in Juniors (there will be cheesecake!)

I'm glad to have helped.

Brilliant! The shoe in the door part had me roaring I can just imagine as its the sort of thing that happens to us

Love how the children are taking pics too. Mine just put me under the hurry up, MUM just hurry up... MUM pressure to let them eat!

Shame about the weather but great day all the same.

Looking forward to more.

😂brilliant! Love your photo fails, that would be something I would do 😂😂

Hey there.
Sorry it was a soggy start to NY and wowsers, a bit scary on the subway there . Where to start on the food though.
Firstly , travel day, that not to be named drink with breakfast ... Bleurgh...
But deffo picks up after that. Those sandwiches at Katzs are amazing, you think the meat is going to be a bit dry. But it's so moist and so much of it , we were fed up we chose hot dogs !
And you can't beat some Brooklyn pizza .

You must Have been dead on your feet by the end of this day after being sat in the armchair in the bathroom before travelling and then travel day. But the chair, That's genius on your part , I must remember that if supersnorer starts !

Well, this has made me laugh out loud. I can relate to it so much. After years of practice though at least my lot are well trained enough to push their plates towards me now for piccies before they start eating ... Only taken 5 years and now we leave them at home , haha .

Thanks for the name check, that's really sweet. I think my trips are bad for my bank and waistline. I am on the pre holiday diet and therefore living nice food vicariously through trippies. It's like virtual food torture.

So bring on the next day , ta very much.