New York, Smith Style!

Okay, so we arrived at 1.30pm on Friday afternoon, with Benjamin falling asleep on the plane as soon as we began our descent into La Guardia Airport (typical!). We managed to disembark the plane with toddler still sleeping and just as our luggage arrived he decided he had had his 40 minute nap and was ready to hit the big apple. Collecting our bags and getting us into a taxi was a doddle, despite our worries about space....as we drove out of the airport I felt uneasy and counted our bags....you guessed it, we were missing one!!! Thankfully the taxi driver was a lovely man who didn't mind circling and waiting whilst Ken ran in to collect the 'extra bag' (bought to accomodate our shopping!), he was tipped according to his easygoing attitude!!

The hotel - The Intercontinental, Times Square, is beautiful. We are on the 16th floor and whilst the room isn't the most spacious we have stayed in it is certainly the most luxurious....with a gourmet coffee maker, super large shower cubicle with drench and normal showers, 44 inch plasma tv and touch screen computer. Jakey is suitably impressed and Benjamin loved the leather swivel chair and pressing the buttons for the lift!!

After settling in at the hotel we hit the streets and headed for Toys'R'Us in Times Square for a ride on the in-store ferris wheel. Then dinner at Virgils BBQ house before walking to the Rockefeller Center and up to the 'Top of the Rock' to take a proper look at the New York skyline.

Jakey proved that he could handle the big city with ease...

Then the boys went to sleep, holding hands and sharing their cuddly toys!

Next morning we have a little lay-in and it is 9am before we leave the hotel. Across one block and up 2 blocks we pop into a little diner for breakfast before jumping a taxi up to Jakey's choice of entertainment for the morning - The American Museum of Natural History. Now I could bore you with all of the 165 pictures that we took in there, mostly of old bones, but I will limit it to 4! One of the obligatory T-Rex:

One of the lucky boy who got his wish:

One of Jakey digging up some bones:

And one of Jakey proving that his head isn't THAT much bigger than the average human brain after all!!!

From there we had a walk through Central Park, and then a 15 block walk back to our hotel (total approx 33 blocks!) poor Jake is shattered!!!

Back at the hotel Benjamin napped and Jakey and I took the opportunity to escape to the Harry Potter exhibition, which I hadn't known when booking the hotel but was just 100 yards from our hotel! Lots of HP excitement, sitting on Hagrid's armchair, planting mandrakes, and scoring quaffles through quidditch hoops later we emerged to join the sleepy ones for an hour of quiet before dinner.

We went for dinner at Lucilles bar and grill, BB King's restaurant on 42nd street, with the hope that we could string out our 6.30pm dinner to see some live music.

 
The band came on at 8pm and Benjamin (who we worried wouldn't like it) was in his element clapping, dancing and singing along, even getting involved with the guys on the next table high fiving and giving them the thumbs up at every opportunity!!
The day had caught up with Jakey and he was shattered, but he lasted an hour or so listening to the music and playing with Benjamin's dinosaur toys!!

Tomorrow we leave to come home, but not until 8pm tomorrow evening (our time) so we have a fair bit planned to keep us busy until then!!! We are sad to go home but Jakey's mum will be desperate to have him back, we have enjoyed him for far too long...it is probably a good job we don't have another big trip planned for a few years now!!!