Our Ithaca Adventure: The Amazing Weekend in New York City

April 3-5 Easter weekend

It's almost hard to start writing about our Easter weekend in New York. It was so overwhelming that Chad and I still have difficulty just listing the things that we did. I'll do what I can, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

On Good Friday, we got up early and started driving to New York. We arrived shortly after noon and were able to check into our hotel in New Jersey. The hotel was right on a bus route to the Port Authority. We took the bus into the city and walked to the Macy's Flower Show. After walking around Macy's for a bit, we walked to Grand Central Station. While we were upstairs looking down at the main hall of Grand Central Station, Benjamin noted that most people were dressed in black.

At the Macy's flower show

Grand Central Station...watching all the people dressed in black

From there we went over to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Good Friday service with Cardinal Dolan. The whole altar area is under renovation, so we really just watched it on TV screens, but it was packed and we had seats right up front on the side. After that, we walked over to MoMA because it is free on Friday afternoon. We stood in line with every other tourist in NYC that day. We actually walked around the entire block in a line and entered the building. It was crazy packed with people, but we were still able to see lots of great art. It was a late night back to New Jersey on the bus, and we were due for an early morning. I warned the children as they went to bed, and reminded them that they could sleep on Monday.

It was a little crowded around Starry Night. I actually got elbowed away from the family right after this shot.

Knishes while waiting to get into MoMA

As promised, we rolled everyone out of bed early on Saturday morning so that we could drive and catch the ferry to Ellis Island. The first ferry was a little bit late, so we were pretty rushed at Ellis Island. We had done a lot of research ahead of time so that the kids would be able to get their Junior Ranger badges, but we were still feeling rushed to catch the next ferry to Liberty Island. We had a comfortable amount of time at the Statue of Liberty and we all enjoyed climbing up to the pedestal.

Taking the junior ranger oath

Unfortunately, when it was time to head to the ferry to New York, Chad had a little trouble retrieving our backpacks and we missed the ferry we had planned on. This put us twenty minutes behind on a tightly planned day. Chad quickly researched taking a Uber car to our next destination, since we wouldn't have time to subway or walk. It would only take about 10 minutes by car, so we wouldn't miss our next tour. BUT, our Uber driver got confused and ended up driving across the Brooklyn Bridge. With our surprise trip to Brooklyn, we were five minutes late for our Tenement Museum tour, and paid three times what we should have. (A good word for Uber: Chad complained, and Uber refunded the extra fare.)

We joined our tour at the Tenement Museum in the lower east side a little late, but we didn't miss much. Again, I had done a lot of preparatory work with the kids, so they had a lot of the background information about the early immigrants and their living situation. It was a fascinating museum because you are always interacting with an actor who is portraying a resident of the tenement. We couldn't take any pictures there, but I think it is something that even Isla will remember when she is older.

From the Tenement Museum, we started walking to the big surprise. We had told the kids there would be two surprises and this was the first. We walked to Washington Square Park to participate in National Pillow Fight day. Thousands of people brought pillows and had an official, huge pillow fight. I'm afraid that this has led Benjamin and Isla to believe that New York is the absolute coolest city in the entire world!

All the white in the middle is pillows

After donating our pillows to the homeless shelter, we walked to the next surprise, an event called Full Bunny Contact -- by far the strangest Easter related event I will ever see. It was bizarre, weird, and a little creepy, but oddly fascinating. I have memories and a few pictures, but it sort of defies description. You'll have to call me if you want to know more about this one!

Full Bunny Contact -- The Cage

Riding a bucking bunny bull

Since we hadn't actually collapsed yet, we walked to an interesting Asian, pork-themed restaurant and ate a big meal of tasty, but fatty, pork dishes. It was getting late, but Chad ordered dessert as well. When we finally collapsed into a Subway car, Isla asked if we had to hurry to our next thing, or if we could walk. I said that we could finally relax and take our time. Then, Chad sheepishly informed me that we were in danger of missing the last ferry returning to New Jersey...we should not have had dessert! I don't think that I often brag about my kids, but this moment warrants some serious credit to them. After telling them the situation, we all RAN about a mile from the subway to the ferry and we just made it onto the last ferry to New Jersey. Little Isla's legs should have fallen off, but she was amazing. Brag-fest complete. Thank you.

The ferry ride back to New Jersey deserves its own paragraph. It may have been partially due to the fact that we had a somewhat stressful run to catch it, and we were pumped up on adrenaline, but Benjamin said it best. "This is the best ferry ride EVER!!!" The sun was just setting on Manhatten, the Statue of Liberty was lit up, and the ferry driver was in a hurry to be done for the day. It was fast and beautiful.

Best Ferry Ever!!

Finally, it was Easter Sunday, and we were on our way back to St. Patrick's for Easter Mass. On the bus, we met a family from Montreal who was also going to Mass, but didn't quite know their way. We ended up showing them how to use the Subway, which was stressful for Chad, but they really appreciated the help. After Mass, we donned our Easter bonnets and strolled up and down Fifth Avenue for a few hours. Lots of people took Isla's picture, which she thought was the most fabulous thing to ever happen. Oliver was morose about the whole event, the crowds, the picture taking, the attention. He perked up a little when someone asked how he made his bonnet, but for the most part he was mopey. We had brunch at the Rock Center Cafe and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking in Central Park.