Epic East Coast - Day 6

I'm sure it isn't a news flash to anyone, but New York is packed full of people.  The sidewalks are either full (if you are off the beaten path), super full (if you are on a regular route), or impossibly passable (like Times Square or any other tourist attraction).  It was also hot and humid - it hit 34C today - the only saving grace is that Manhattan is full of tall buildings, so you can always choose to cross the street and walk in the shade.

We let everyone sleep in as long as they wanted this morning, which meant we missed the breakfast provided by the hotel, so once everyone was awake I ran to a next door coffee shop and bought some muffins.  We then headed two blocks to the south to take a ride to the top of the Empire State Building - another fun thing for Evan, who seems to have taken a liking to tall buildings.  This required another long wait in line, though unlike the CN Tower, they keep the lines moving fast here.  Unfortunately Bradley melted down twice before we got to the top and once on the way down, because he kept wanting to take the stairs / escalators by himself, but the moment you put him down, he would start crying and hold up the line, so then you would pick him up and he would lose it.  He must be really exhausted from this trip.

Anyway, another day, another line, though we were lucky this time - at the line to buy tickets, we purchased ours and then they immediately closed the ticket line because they had a large group coming up in a bus, so we dodged a bullet there.  After all the lines and the meltdowns, I didn't have a lot of patience at the top.  We looked at a few things, took some pictures, once again explained to the kids how we couldn't buy something at each and every gift shop we went through and then left.

We ate lunch at a McDonald's near our hotel and then headed out to Broadway and up to Times Square.  It was very very full of people, which made it hard to enjoy.  We went into the Disney store and M&M store, but both were so full of people that keeping track of four kids and moving the stroller out of people's way was more than I could handle.

After leaving Times Square we headed over to Bryant Park for a rest.  The park is home to a children's library which holds the original plush Winnie the Pooh, but it was not on exhibit today, so we just walked around the park.  It had an open air reading area packed with library books, so we stopped and read to the kids for a bit, then we played by a fountain and rode on a carousel.  It was then time to head back to the hotel for some air conditioning and rest.  We hit up a nearby cafe for supper, then let the kids watch a movie to calm them down for bed.  Tomorrow morning we have to get up really early to take another 12 hour train ride to Charlotte.