trip update

Day 4 and we are driving south towards Washington DC. So far it as been nothing but 4 hours of rain and traffic. We got stuck for about an hour on the NJ Turnpike and maybe went 10 miles. That has been the worst of it so far. We have had a good trip so far.I already updated on Mon and Tues, well a brief description so I will start with Wednesday.

I am not sure what time we left the house but we reached the ferry easily and headed over to NYC. We had plans to meet up with one of Donna's friends so I checked in with her and made plans to meet around noon. Dave and I talked about it and decided we would head over to Times Square and then if there was time head down to World Trade Center and then back up for lunch. It was crazy insane at Times Square! Packed full of people and they were starting to set up for New Year's Eve. We decided to head to FAO instead since we only had an hour before lunch. It was there I realized our cell phone was an hour off and it was noon right then. We were late to meet Beth but it worked out. After lunch we headed to see St Patrick's Cathedral at 5th Ave and 51st Street.

We ended up having to stop at Gap to get Emma a new pair of pants since she soaked through the pair she was wearing. After that we hopped on the Subway and headed down to World Trade Center. It was eerie and strange to see where the two towers had stood. Buildings around it still have windows bordered up where debris hit. Dave told me there was a nice display set up in World Financial Center Building 2. We did not have a chance to go up because Emma had just fallen asleep and it was a choice of stairs or escalator (and no strollers allowed on escalators) so we ended up leaving. I really would have liked to spend some time there but it was not worth waking Emma up.We started enjoying walking around more after that. There were no crowds but the energy of NYC was still there. I started taking more pictures of the buildings at that point.

We started heading down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. It was around 3:30 when we got there and Emma was just waking up. We were too late to catch a ferry ride there so we just walked around. The sky was pretty hazy so she was hard to see. I should mention that my camera battery died here after only 50 pictures. I had fully charged it that morning.We then walked towards the Brooklyn bridge and took a glimpse of it. It was starting to cool off and the wind was strong. Then headed down to Wall Street and caught the subway to Penn Station. I wanted to stop by B&H camera store to see what it was like. They are a major photography and video store online. I also wanted to pick up a spare battery for my camera so I don't have a repeat experience of it dying in DC.

We then walked our way towards Rockefeller Center to see the lights and that was even more insane. We tried to miss Times Square but managed to hit it and all its crowds. Rockefeller Center was nice but too many people. Emma saw a character dressed as Elmo and was excited. We rested for a while a block or two away and then made our way back towards the ferry.I did a quick charge on my battery at the car and went back to the little park by the ferry to get some night shots of Manhattan across the Hudson. They did not come out good due to the fact it was handheld but small they look ok.

We have now arrived in VA... took an extra 2 hours to get here due to traffic and weather but...we are here and that is what counts. Not sure what the plan is. We need to rest a little and let Emma just be a kid and then it is back to being a tourist. Towards the end of our visit, we have the wedding of my cousin Matt, the reason behind the trip!

Until later....