One of the things on our list for this summer in Philadelphia was making a side trip up to New York City. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to NYC, and it’s become increasingly clear that the boys love cities, it was time to finally introduce them to one of the greatest ones!
We parked in Trenton, NJ and took NJ Transit up to Penn Station. From there it was a cross-town bus over to the ferry terminal.
And then the ferry to Brooklyn!
In Brooklyn we met up with MJ’s cousin Arielle, her husband, and her 5 month old son. I hadn’t seen his cousin in years, and this was my first time meeting her husband and the baby. It was really nice to catch up and given the environment, the boys even did OK, even if Adam didn’t want to eat.
After lunch they showed us nearby Domino Park which had a bunch of huge factory artifacts from an old Domino Sugar factory that used to operate in that location, but has since turned into a riverside playground and recreation area. I love this. It was a great spot and on a warm summer day it was the perfect spot to let the kids run around for a bit and then stop for ice cream.
We then took the ferry back to Manhattan and a bus over to Grand Central Station. Grand Central has a small annex and transit gift shop, so in addition to showing the boys around the beautiful station, we got to stop and shop at a gift shop I knew they’d enjoy. And let’s be honest, I love that gift shop too. The boys got an articulated bus (slinky bus!) toy, which they are enamored with. Upon our exit I was able to geek out with the cashier a bit who fell in love with my SEPTA t-shirt.
It was then off to a couple subways to go back to Penn Station to get a train home.
At least, that was the plan.
Once we got to Penn Station we found that all the trains going south were shut down due to electrical problems on the tracks that Amtrak maintains. They were re-routing people on buses and other non-rail options, but we were quite restricted in what we could do with the boys and no car seats. We decided to leave the station and grab dinner at a nearby diner, hoping the situation would improve by the time we finished. It didn’t, but we only had to wait another hour before the trains began running around 8:30PM. It made for a very late night for the boys, but I think lack of communication from NJ Transit was the most annoying part. They announced the wrong track for the next train at least three times, causing a mad dash of hundreds of people down to platforms where there were no trains. When they finally announced the correct train and track, we were in a mob of hundreds going to that train, which we almost didn’t get on because the front cars were standing room only and we couldn’t ask our exhausted kiddos to stand for the 90 minute train ride home. Thankfully it was a long train and by going down to almost the end we found a spot with available seats.
It wasn’t an easy day, the summer heat really got to me and I was feeling a little nauseous and light-headed mid-day as we were swiftly walking to catch one of the buses. I was exhausted by the time we all collapsed on the train. It also felt like we didn’t do much, since most of the day was spent on public transit. But I was quick to remind myself that the boys love public transit, and all that time spent on buses, subways, trains, and ferries was The Activity as far as the boys were concerned. I think the next trip we take to the city should be a bit more targeted though: we take the train do to lunch and some tourist spot, then go home. Lack of planning because we wanted to be flexible led to a bit of stress and frustration that I would have loved to avoid. But we enjoyed ourselves enough that there will be a next time!