Here we are in the big apple. This was Saturday night in Times Square. To our left they are setting up staging for Monday night. Below are the big screens. We are actually on the big screen in the middle (you can spot John's blue coat towards the middle left!) The city felt so alive! Something big brewing....
Of course we had to try some New York style Pizza. It's always a cool thing to see which famous people have also eaten in the same place! We were not disappointed by the photos on the walls.
Walking down 6th avenue was a spectacle of lights and glitter. I loved this giant Christmas ornament display near Rockefeller Center. The Rockefeller Tree was gi-normous and beautiful. The outdoor skating rink was a hit too... The weather was perfectly suited for the evening.
Can you guess where Finn is? Here's a hint: Remember Tom Hanks playing the floor Piano in the movie Big? This is the actual piano! It is located in the infamous FAO Schwarz toy store. This store is a hit for all ages! We all lost ourselves in this playground!
The boys found Candy-land...
Johnny fell in love with this black rhino.
Back on 5th avenue...the window fronts were adorned with every designer possible. This is for Cate: Oscar de la Renta.
Oh, and John had a lovely visit with the Donald.
We strolled down to Battery Park to catch a view of Lady Liberty. Known best as a symbol of Freedom, it somehow seemed very fitting after being at Ground Zero. Sadly, due to Hurricane Sandy, we were unable to climb the Statue of liberty but we did soak in all that she represents.
From there, we hit Wall Street. Here is John in front of the NY stock exchange.
From Wall street we glimpsed the Empire State building and then took the subway all the way to 72nd street where we grabbed some lunch and went for a stroll through Central Park. Strawberry Fields was an extremely busy part of the park, with a tribute to John Lennon going on. We then came across a flurry of activity where to my excitement a 4 mile road race was being set up for midnight! Oh, how I would have loved to take part...
Instead, we kept strolling, which was lovely too. We caught up with an artist in the Park who was keen to sketch our 3 boys. They managed to sit still for the duration. Phew! The end product is rather cute. He drew them playing football. Surprised?
Below, they conquered more climbs in the park!
Look who else we spotted in the park?! Big Bird was very happy to have us shouting out to him and gave us a great big wave. Elmo looked exhausted and shared zippo energy our way. Guess he's working on some personal issues.
As we made our way out of the park, we walked straight into the 7th avenue frenzy! We came across hundreds of Police officers getting their assignments! Very slowly we made our way as far up 7th avenue towards Times Square. It was now only 4 o'clock.
Streets were already being closed to car traffic. Here we are 5 blocks from the heart of the New Year's Eve activities.
This is as close as we could get... we were 4 blocks away and people were crammed in like sardines. " This is crazy" said Finn. It was 4h15, almost 8 hours from midnight! We were told that in order to get a spot in front of the stage, you needed to be there by 8am. Police expected the crowds to fill 20 blocks deep!
At this point, we decided to say goodnight to this great, electric city and we ventured away from the congestion. Along the way to our hotel, we crossed endless tv cameras. Here are the boys in front of Fox News. Charlie was desperate to be interviewed but just couldn't get in there.
Happy New year everyone!
Carolyn xo
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