big apple awesomeness

the one thing that the teen really wanted to see in NYC was the statue of liberty.  so as soon as we got up and out of the hotel, we headed straight to the nearest subway station to make our way down to battery park.

while the hub and the bean went to buy our day passes, the teen and i studied the map.  after all, we didn't have my cousin r to guide us this time around.

the hub carried the bean on his back, and she played hide-and-seek with me and the teen as we found seats on the train.

at battery park, the teen and i went to join the line for ferry tickets inside castle clinton.

sadly, with crown tickets sold out for the day and a 1.5-hour wait in line to board the ferry, this is the closest we got to visiting lady liberty.  boo.

slightly dejected, we decided to climb aboard the subway again in search of lunch.  since we'd just had italian grub the night before, i thought it would be good to head to chinatown and yelp for a good recommendation.  there were lots of interesting sights along the way.

 
and this sign made me think of my good friend.

man, if only asparagus were this cheap at home.  it's my favorite vegetable, but i rarely buy it because it usually costs about four times this much!

after lunch, we took a nice, long walk up towards central park and the metropolitan museum of art.

the bean, who'd fallen asleep, woke up and decided she was hungry.  so we followed the signs to one of the eateries inside the museum.

she decided to hitch a ride with her sister to go check out the sights.

yes, i am 8.  and so is the teen, as we both giggled our asses off at some of the statues.

the hub was awed by this - a giant gate which was part of a super old cathedral in europe somewhere.  yeah, i didn't pay much attention.  i'm really not very artsy-fartsy.

picasso was one weird mofo.

after that last one, it was time to get the heck outta dodge.

last time, we'd just taken a quick carriage ride through central park.  this time around, we took some time to walk through a bit of it.

we were a little pooped, so after a quick break at the café near the alice in wonderland statue, we hopped aboard one of those horse-drawn carriages. 

it let us out right in front of the posh plaza hotel.

this, of course, led us right to all the sch-wankay shopping on 5th avenue. 

we'd just read an article online about the giant hollister store being closed temporarily due to a bedbugs infestation.  ewwwww.

because the bean had been cooped up in the carrier quite a bit, we decided to head to the american girl store and let her run around a little. 

the teen pointed out this doll-sized chaise lounge.  "i want one of those in my room, mom," she said.  heh.  too bad i couldn't get away with THIS one, rather than a people-sized version that'll likely cost about six times as much.

passing rockefeller center, we reminisced again about our last trip, when we'd done a little ice skating.

i thought of our cupcake/food tour with my cousin r as we sashayed past magnolia bakery.

after our dinner at carnegie deli, we stopped in times square one last time and were in awe at the sheer number of people milling about.

the teen and i drooled over the ginormous forever 21 store.  sadly for us, we were stopped by security as we attempted to take a few pictures inside.  it was the biggest freaking one we'd ever seen, with three floors of cheapy fabulousness.

ah, we love new york.