Pardon the interuption from the vacation.....

We know you are having a blast reading about our vacation but I just had to post these pictures of Miles. This child, has had more blood come out of his body than both girls put together in their whole lives. He is a true juggernaught. He bounces off the walls like a PONG game while chasing his sisters. He bangs his head on various things when he gets frustrated and there are many more things he does that makes him such a BOY!!

This particular time (I think) he was climbing on something in the bedroom, slipped and fell onto the lid of a plastic bucket that was turned with the sharper edges facing up.

If you blow up the top picture, you can see a dark red thin line in the middle of the cut, that is a VERY deep part but it started to seal back together within a half hour. So glad he didn't need stitches.
He was quite a trooper and only cried for about 5 minutes. Once I got the blood to stop gushing he was fine and off he want to play.

NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOGGING!

Day 3 of 14 - Circle Line Boat Tour

Still on the boat tour. There are about 20 bridges around Manhattan Island. Here are some of the pictures of them.

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

Williamsburg Bridge

59th Street Bridge (above and below). I like the tops of this one, very neat.

There is a railcar just to the left of this bridge.

This one is called a "foot" bridge because you walk across it. The center part between the two tall poll looking things, moves up and down for the larger boats and vessels that have to pass under.There were some guys working on the under side of another bridge, I think it's the Triborough Bridge.





I think the further two in the above picture are the Alexander Hamilton Bridge and the Washington Bridge (not to be confused with the George Washington Bridge).

Henry Hudson Parkway

George Washington Bridge - this is the only BRIDGE that connects Manhattan Island to New Jersey, there are plenty of tunnels, railroads and subway lines but this is the only bridge.

This is the Lincoln Tunnel (connects NY-NJ). I am not sure if there are 3 separate tunnels or if it's just one big one. This map is inconclusive.
This is the other tunnel that connects NY & NJ. Again, I am not sure if there are more than one Holland Tunnels or if it's a big one.

Day 3 of 14 - Circle Line Boat Tour

Still on the tour. As we made our way on the boat, we passed Ellis Island and then the Statue of Liberty. They were fascinating places to see. We were not able to get off on the islands but other tours could take you there. We didn't have much time so we just went by them. I would have like to tour Ellis Island seeing as now it is a museum. I love these historic places especially since we have family that had to come through there at the time of our countrys beginning.

This little island on the bottom of the picture-map is named Governors Island and was home to Fort Jay. The island is unoccupied now. The grounds are maintained but they are trying to decide how to open it up to the public for residence. They did say that you can take a ferry over there and ride bikes or take walks, it's just that no one is allowed to LIVE there right now.

Ellis Island
I love the architecture.

Statue of Liberty - isn't she beautiful!

Day 3 of 14 - Circle Line Boat Tour

Still on day 3. We opted to take the 3.5 hour boat tour around Manhattan Island instead of specifically going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which we still got to see on our tour.

When we woke up this morning we were watching the local news as we were getting ready for the day and they were talking about some new "art" designs that were being showcased in the Hudson River. There were all about the same but in four different spots.

Day 3 of 14 - Walk to the Husdon River

Still on day 3. After we figured out which way we needed to go to get to the boat tours from the Port Authority, we had to just walk down 42nd street all the way to the Hudson River. From the P.A. to the River was .7 miles, so it wasn't a bad walk.We saw some pretty cool things along our way.

I though this was such an iconic building. I absolutly needed a picture of it.
The traffic police really were everywhere directing traffic.
Construction and nice hole in the ground.



Way cool spires.
They really make it a priority to save the trees, even when they are doing construction. This walk way we are in was through a construction site and notice the trees they were saving. In Vegas they would just rip them out and plant new ones.
Police monitoring traffic. This little box, lifted up and down when they needed to change officers inside, it was right there on the sidewalk.

Day 3 of 14 - Port Authority in New York

Any day that we traveled into New York we had to take the bus from our hotel in New Jersey and it took us into the Port Authority (the circle on the map). The bus route we took went through the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River. It was cool, in the tunnel, tiled into the wall was the state line of NY & NJ. If you weren't looking for it or paying attention, you would miss it cause you are going so fast. Those bus drivers, I swear they channel the taxi drivers because they have no fear and are CRAZY most of the time.

The Port Authority is like Grand Central Station wherein it houses EVERY bus route out to New York and to New Jersey. It also can take you to the trains and subway if you like. It is huge but Grand Central Station is so much nicer (you will see later).

Playing around while we figured out where we needed to go to get on our boat tour.

Day 2 of 14 - New York to New Jersey

After we dropped our kids of in Indiana at midnight, we had to be at the airport by 5am. So it was a short night for us all.

This is the best picture I could get of the great state of New York. We flew into Long Island which is that small strip of land down at the very southeasternly end.

Here is what I could see from my window. To the right is the Atlantic Ocean and to the left of the beach is the Long Island Sound, it's an inlet for the ocean. I was taking pictures as we landed so you can see a little closer each time as to what Long Island looks like. It's really pretty and green.

So we landed close to the Ronkonkoma (don't ask me how to say that) train station. We took a shuttle from the Islip Airport and then got on the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) which took us all the way to the X, Penn Station in downtown Manhattan, NY. Our hotel was in New Jersey where it is circled, Passiac. The map didn't list Hackensack, but Passaic was close enough. We were only 4 miles across the river from Manhattan. It looks totally far but everything is super close there.

I just thought this was funny. The Gap is about 1 foot wide, you really can't miss it. But at one of the stops a little boy almost fell through, luckily he caught himself. His mom said, "he cried for 2 minutes, and I cried for 10."
Our tickets to Penn Station. I got some really random pictures so I hope you like them.

Underground in Penn Station where all the railroad lines and subway lines are. Plus, upstairs there are still bus lines for NY and NJ to find. You could get really lost is a place like that. Dude, there is totally a full size K-Mart store inside Penn Station. how cool is that.


The train we were riding in. MTA stands for the Metro Transit Authority of NY.
These are all the pictures I got of this day. From the LIRR we took another railroad to New Jersey where our hotel was. It was wonderful that the transit systems of New Jersey and New York work so closely together. Once we got to Hackensack, NJ we took a taxi to our hotel which wasn't 5 miles away. We slept the rest of the day, we were beat.