Day 38 - 23 Oct: New York, NY, to London, UK

So the last day of our US adventure. It's been incredible, a truly amazing experience, with nothing disappointing, and everything exceeding our expectations. 

As I've mentioned, we've been lucky with the weather right through, narrowly missing the tail end of a hurricane in Zion and tornadoes in the south-east, seeing very little rain and being able to walk our way around the country.

We can hardly complain, then, that our last couple of days have been a bit wet. It was a shame that we weren't able to hire the bikes to see Central Park from that vantage point, and we didn't manage to walk the Highline, but otherwise we ticked off pretty much everything on the list.

With the rain persisting we spent this morning packing up our stuff and taking it pretty easy - after Ruth and the boys had walked Nate to school and come back via a costume shop for Hallowe'en supplies.

It was looking a bit brighter by lunchtime and we had a couple of things to pick up before we left the States, so we ventured out and did those errands, and checked out some of the local shops. 

After delicious and substantial sandwiches from Lenny's we walked down to 50th to visit the Lego shop, which was really cool, and then stumbled upon Nintendo World, which was even more so.

By the time the boys had tried out the numerous consoles and games - and there was a hot chocolate stop somewhere, too, at Bon Bon's in the Rockefeller complex - it was time for Top of the Rock.

This had been sold to us by a number of people, and sunset recommended as the best time, so having rescheduled from yesterday morning to 5:30 today and with the skies clearing during the afternoon, we were really looking forward to it.

And it did not disappoint. The view was always going to be great, the Empire State Building front and centre, but to get up there just before the city began lighting up was really special. 

A fitting end to an amazing few days, an awesome few weeks.

Walked our way back to the apartment and had a last hour and meal with the Cohens, then said our goodbyes and expressed our deep thanks for their tremendous hospitality, and got a car to the airport. Queens, our third burough.

UK, here we come.

Day 37 - 22 Oct: New York, NY

Last day of our NY Pass and last full day in NY, and the US.

Poured with rain all night and was still looking pretty dire when we set off this morning for our scheduled 9:05am Top of the Rock appointment. Having booked it with our NY Pass we knew we could rearrange it for tomorrow, even though that's after the end of our Pass, so got there and did that – rebooked for sunset tomorrow, just before we fly out. Fingers crossed the weather’s OK and we can actually see something!

With the weather so awful it was clear we couldn’t do our remaining outdoor Pass activity, a bike tour round Central Park, so today became a museum day.

Started at MoMA, and spent a fantastic morning there amongst the Warhols, Pollocks, Mondrians, Picassos, Kahlos… They had a great Matisse exhibition of his cut-outs, and Monet’s waterlilies pieces were really lovely. Not wanting to miss a DW connection, we made sure we saw Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ (see ‘Vincent and the Doctor’). And the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition was cool, too.

In search of some lunch and heading towards The Metropolitan Museum of Art, we found ourselves walking up Madison through the Upper East Side, a very exclusive and expensive area. Baulked at the prices of a few places before finding a nice-looking deli-type place and going for it…only to find it even more pricey! Felt a bit out of place amongst the posh lunchtime clientele, so grabbed a quick bowl of soup each – the best soup we’d ever tasted, natch – and then bailed.

Next stop was The Met, which turned out to be much more huge and impressive than I had imagined. It’s like the British Museum, only bigger (it seemed) and better! One could easily spend days in there, no exaggeration, but we only had the energy for a couple of hours.

Started off in the European Paintings section, having done the modern stuff in the morning. An absolutely mind-blowing collection, so many paintings, so many incredible images – Vermeer, El Greco, Rembrandt, Tintoretto, Titian, Van Dyck – amazing. Room after room of stunning stuff.

Obviously there was a lot of religious iconography, and after one particularly extravagant room Ruth asked Finley what he thought the overall theme might be.

“Er, flying babies?”

Spot on. The boys and I had fun imagining what some of the younger ‘models’ might have been saying as Mary was standing on their heads or they were weeing on Venus.

There was so much to see there that we were utterly exhausted and really couldn’t work out what else to look at, but Dylan was keen on seeing at the medieval suits of armour…including Henry VIII’s and many other amazing examples. The horse armour was particularly cool.

Then took a quick turn through some of the ancient antiquities, including an entire temple brought from Dendur in Nubia last century and covered in carved 19th-century graffiti, an awesome Egyptian tomb, countless beautiful statues, amphora, sarcophagi…endless wonder.

Almost museumed-out, we made a quick stop at a playground in Central Park before ducking in to the Guggenheim. Stunning building...

..crazy exhibition. Dylan’s summary of the works was ‘bonkers’. Finley’s favourite was a sandpit of dyed blue sand.

So apart from tomorrow’s Top of the Rock (weather permitting), that was the end of our New York Pass. Our approach had been to cram in as much as possible to make the most of the Pass, and we therefore did a bunch of stuff that we wouldn’t otherwise have paid for. Most of that was really good, and ultimately we certainly got our money’s worth, but in hindsight I probably wouldn’t recommend the approach. There’s a lot of stuff that we could have done without, and more time for things like The Met, which isn’t expensive in itself, would have been good.

But we will all be back in New York, as a family or not, and will have the opportunity to revisit those highlights, so it’s all good. Squeezing in lots of things certainly kept the kids entertained, even if all our feet were aching by the end of each day.

When we left the Guggenheim it was properly raining, as it had been threatening to do all day, and with little option but to walk across town, we got soaked. Crossed the park and stopped in at Strawberry Fields very briefly, then walked past the Dakota, the very spot where Lennon was shot, before getting back to the apartment.

We had a dinner date arranged with Tan & Dan plus Alex & Jim, sans enfants, so once the child-minder had arrived we set off out into the rain again. Tan had another function to attend briefly and Dan was going straight from work, and we were meeting A&J on the Lower East Side, so Ruth & I were getting the subway on our own.

We’d studied the map and Dan had explained some of the shortcomings of the system – which I, frankly, was rather disappointed by. It seems back in the day there were three different subway companies, so even though it is now one system there is little cohesion, and it’s not as easy to get around as one feels it could or should be, or is in, say, London or Paris. Getting across town is virtually impossible, for example, and our best route to get from the Upper West to the Lower East was not immediately obvious.

As we already had a soaked set of footwear each and had adequate raincoats, we decided to go for simplicity over comfort and walked back to Central Park along 72nd to pick up the B and get to our destination on one train. Despite the nonsensical signage on the platform we made it to Grand Street, and met up with the others at a cool little bar before moving on to a really cute and very nice restaurant.

Another lovely evening in great company, very nice food and a tad too much to drink, a great way to spend our last night in the city.

Day 36 - 21 Oct: New York, NY

Early start to beat the crowds up the Empire State Building, and worth it. Such an amazing, iconic building, excellent to get inside, and the view from the 86th floor observation deck was, of course, gobsmacking.

An episode of Doctor Who featured the daleks using the construction of the place in the '30s for their nefarious purposes, so our tour of DW locations continues...although I doubt any filming was done here for that one.

After the trip up we used our NY Pass to do something we otherwise wouldn't have - the Skyride. It was yet another immersive movie, flying around and above NYC, piloted and narrated by Kevin Bacon - cheesy as, but the boys loved it.

Went to another major icon then – Grand Central Terminal. Again, an amazing building, beautiful place. We did an audio tour, which was really interesting and very funny – to be standing in the middle of this hectic place, listening to our individual devices and gazing around as New York rushed by. 700,000 people every day…

I think Ruth & I agree that our favourite building in NYC is the Chrysler Building, so we took every opportunity to snap it.

Then it was the Bodyworlds exhibition at Discovery Times Square, which was another Pass freebie we might not otherwise have bothered with. But it was fascinating (and a bit gross). The whole plastination thing is amazing, and certainly affords a perspective one couldn’t get any other way, really.

Next stop - the ‘Intrepid’ aircraft carrier, which is docked in the Hudson and forms another air and space museum. This one wouldn't have made our list either but for the free entry with the pass, so we had a quick look at the Concorde they have...

..then the various fighter jets on the flight deck, before checking out the Space Shuttle ‘Enterprise’. Really impressive to see up close, even though this was one of the original test orbiters and never went into space, and the accompanying exhibition was very good.

We had hoped to do Top of the Rock – the view from the observation deck of the Rockefeller Center - before checking out the Museum of Modern Art, but we were pretty knackered by this point. Went to 30 Rock and found that the next available time for the trip up wasn’t until the evening anyway, so booked in for tomorrow morning - although the weather forecast is terrible. We’ve been so lucky thus far, it can’t last…

So rather than go to MoMA, which we wanted to afford proper time to but were running a bit short of, we took a leisurely stroll through Central Park, heading up towards a restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue at 81st Street where we were to meet Tan, Dan, Zach & Nate.

The park was beautiful, of course – and immense. We found the boating lake with Bow Bridge, and the nearby Bethesda Fountain, which all also featured in – yep, Doctor Who! They were in a pivotal episode called ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’, and being able to walk in the actual spots was particularly cool for the boys, having only been able to see the locations of previous filming from afar.

Not sure we found the actual rock(s – apparently they filmed at two spots) that the Doctor, Amy & Rory sat on, but this will do. Bow Bridge in background.

Also during our walk we saw some of the many turtles in the boating lake, and what we firmly believed to be a peregrine falcon landed very close to us before majestically taking off over the lake, so that was pretty special, too.

We popped out of the park by The Beresford (left)…

..apparently home to Jerry Seinfeld and one of the many magnificent apartment buildings on Central Park.

Then made our way towards Amsterdam. Stopped for a beer before meeting up with the others for a marvellous feast of meatballs. A lovely evening.

Day 35 - 20 Oct: New York, NY

Day 1 of our New York Pass. It gets us in to a whole bunch of stuff for free but we paid a motza for it so are determined to get the most out of it...

We started by walking down by the Hudson from our 72nd Street digs to Pier 79 at 39th Street to catch a water taxi. This was a hop on, hop off deal, so we took it down to Battery Park, entertained and informed by the excellent on-board guide.

Although bright it was a bloomin' parky morning so we were wrapped up against the chill wind.

Once downtown we grabbed a coffee and pastries from an excellent deli, then spent an hour cueing for tickets and security to get on a ferry out to Liberty and Ellis islands.

Did the audio tour around the former...

..but not inside as tickets for that sell out ages in advance, and didn't get off at Ellis Island as we felt it might be a bit dry for the kids, and we needed to move on.

Back to the deli for lunch sandwiches and more coffee, then to the 9/11 Memorial.

Extremely moving, and very interesting to see the regeneration of the area, and One World Trade Center is a suitable monument, now the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.

We then spent a bit of time in the 9/11 Tribute Center, a series of galleries established by survivors and families of victims of the attacks, and again, a very moving experience. Finley in particular was shocked and appalled. I don't think he really knew much about the detail of what had happened, and seeing actual bits of the buildings and planes, and reading and hearing words from the people involved really brought it home.

From there we walked across to the Brooklyn Bridge, and fought the crowds to cross it. Worth the effort, as the bridge itself is great...

..and the view is cool of some really nice buildings, many of which once held the record as world's tallest.

The Woolworth Building achieved the accolade in 1913...

..then the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building held it briefly in 1930 before the Chrysler Building took it, only to be topped by the Empire State Building. All three are in this photo, plus the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, which preceded the Woolworth Building.

Also in the photo (on the right) is a brand-new building known as 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, topped out on 10 October, with a rooftop higher than One World Trade Center.

Good to set foot in another burough, and we really liked the look of DUMBO, from where we got the water taxi back to Pier 79.

Stopped for a beer in Hell's Kitchen on the way back to the apartment, and were then diverted around a demonstration at the Lincoln Center over the performance of The Death of Klinghoffer...although at the time we didn't realise this and thought it interesting that there was a demonstration "about the opera" (as we were told by a police officer) and that one needed tickets to attend (the demo as well as the opera).

Day 34 - 19 Oct: Trumansburg, NY, to New York, NY

Packed up at the house and set off back to NYC, stopping at the local gorge for a look on the way. Pretty cool.

Finley showed he can take a mean selfie (with Zach's help).

After that it was the long drive back to the city, which took about five hours and saw us at Tan & Dan's at about 6pm.

Dumped our stuff then took the hire car back, and went for a bit of a wander to Times Square and to get hot dogs and generally get a taste for NYC before we tackle it properly over the next few days.

Day 33 - 18 Oct: Niagara Falls, NY

We and Tan, Dan, Zach & Nate set off early on the 150-mile drive to Niagara Falls, and made it there by midday.

Apart from the tackiness of the whole area, the sheer scale and power of the falls were immediately apparent - and mind-blowing...

..and photos don't really do it justice.

We'd decided to do two specific things during our limited time - first off, a trip on Maid of the Mist for the best view of the falls, particularly the Horseshoe Falls, without going to the Canadian side.

Also a great view of the American and Bridal Veil falls, including the boardwalk we were planning to do later.

So after a bite of lunch we headed for Cave of the Winds (cave not included), which is a boardwalk right under the Bridal Veil Falls, which we had previously ridiculed for their patheticness compared to American and Horseshoe. But it was rather impressive, close up.

Suitably awed...

..we jumped back in the cars and made the 2½-hour drive back to the lake for another fun evening of eating, drinking and games.

Day 32 - 17 Oct: Watkins Glen State Park, NY

Finley managed to persuade Zach to go for a swim this morning, somehow.

After a lazy morning we set off for one of the two main reasons for coming up state - Watkins Glen State Park. Another one of those occasions when 'awesome' and 'spectacular' were overused, but it couldn't be helped. Lots of photos - here are a few.

Not much more to say about the day - an early night for an early start tomorrow.

Day 31 - 16 Oct: New York, NY, to Trumansburg, NY

After deciding that the New York Pass was good value and booking a three-day one last night, I walked from Tan & Dan's place on West 72nd Street down to 48th to pick up the passes, then back to 52nd to pick up our hire car for the next four days. Waited for half an hour to get seen - Dollar service really rubbish - but finally drove away in my red Nissan and managed to negotiate NYC traffic back to the apartment. Rather pleased with myself, especially getting round Columbus Circle.

Back at the apartment we threw our stuff into the car and set off for Trumansburg, up state in the Finger Lakes region. About four hours' drive, we arrived at exactly the same time as Alex & Jim, who we hadn't seen for eight years. The AirBNB house on Cayuga Lake Tan had organised was just gorgeous when we got there, the lake like glass.

This picture doesn't really do it justice - the lake is very long and relatively thin, about 2 miles across, so this pano has totally distorted the view. I took this from the end of the jetty, so unfortunately you can't see the gorgeous boat house, either. The whole place comprises three buildings - main house, little beach house and the boat house.

The water was so clear and inviting that the boys couldn't resist going in, even though they hadn't brought their swimming stuff and we warned them how cold it would be. They didn't last long, but good on them for doing it.

Spent a fantastic evening with marvellous old friends, playing this very silly game...

..and went to bed far too late and far too drunk.

Day 30 - 15 Oct: Washington, DC, to New York, NY

Finished packing up our stuff this morning then took a quick trip on the Metro back into Virginia to have a look at the Pentagon and The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.

Pretty amazing place – the biggest office building in the world, with 17 miles of corridors, five sides, five stories, five ‘rings’. We’d had a good view of it from 500-foot up the Washington Monument yesterday but it was good to get up close.

The Memorial is rather beautiful, in an elegant, simple way – 184 ‘benches’, set out in rows according to the birth year of the victim, orientated to either face the Pentagon if they were on the Flight 77, or away from it if they were in the building; 59 of the former, 125 of the latter.

Perhaps most moving is the presence of the five first benches, separated from the rest by quite a gap, representing the five children who were on the plane – sisters of 3 and 9 years old, and three 11-year-olds.

Having listened to the audio tour and had our moments of reflection, we went back to the hotel and picked up our stuff, got back on the Metro and went to Union Station to catch the train to New York City.

Got there a bit early and so spent an hour reading the news and stuff, then went out to get on the train to find it absolutely pouring with rain. We’ve been really lucky with the weather so far – very little rain apart from when driving, and managed to avoid the tornado affecting large parts of the country not far from us. Checking the weather once the train got going we found that an inch of rain had fallen in DC in 30 minutes while we were happily sitting in the station, and that there was a major weather warning for the area between Washington and Baltimore – exactly where the train was going! Didn’t affect us, but it was pretty wild out there.

Arrived safely at Penn Station in NYC and managed to negotiate the subway during rush hour with all our luggage – not fun, but we did it – and found our way to Tan & Dan’s awesome apartment on 72nd Street. Spent a lovely evening catching up and planning the next week, half of which will be spent up state and the other half cramming as much as we can into three days in NYC.

Day 29 - 14 Oct: Washington DC

Pretty busy day making the most of our time in DC.

Jumped on the Metro and went to the main Smithsonian building in The Mall, known as the Smithsonian Castle.

This has mostly information and a gift shop, but also had a fascinatingly bizarre collection of exhibits, including such things as a piece of the Berlin Wall, a piece of the Bastille, a piece of George Washington’s coffin and a piece of Joan of Arc’s dungeon prison.

We decided the National Air & Space Museum would be our first port of call, so headed there and got on a brief tour of the space part, which was excellent. They’ve got three actual command modules from the space program – the one that was used for the first US orbit by John Glenn, the one that was used for the first spacewalk, and the one that went to the Moon. There are also life-size models of Mars rovers and stuff, rockets…and an actual piece of Moon rock which you can touch! A really good morning.

Also saw the actual, genuine, original, Wright Flyer.

From there we went outside to eat our packed lunch, and go on an historic carousel...

..and sort of stumbled across a sculpture garden. I’m no art expert but I do like a nice sculpture, especially Henry Moore. This garden had heaps of his works…

..and a whole bunch of Rodins, too.

Plus a couple of other works that I really liked.

We then wandered to the National Museum of American History, where Finley and I had briefly stopped yesterday. This time we had a good look through the ‘America at War’ section, learning about the War of Independence and the Civil War especially. Didn’t get any further than that as it was so detailed, we were in there for quite a while and had had enough by then. Very good though, and very, very interesting.

Finley wanted to go up the Washington Monument, so we headed there next, only to find all the (free) tickets for the day long gone. But as we sat there lamenting the situation, someone came by giving away spares, so we grabbed four. They were for the 2:30 slot and it was 3:00pm, but we managed to get up what was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1885. Special view from the top, obvs, and a really great perspective on the amazing scale of Washington and its buildings.

Time was getting on by now and we were pretty knackered, so we strolled down to the Tidal Basin and visited the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial.

Having visited so many other places which were significant in his life, it was moving to see this great monument to him, and read the many inspirational quotes engraved there.

They certainly know how to do a monument here – this one is to Jefferson and is on the other side of the Tidal Basin from the King one.

Walked back to the hotel then with the intention of having a quick swim, but unfortunately the outdoor pool is closed at this time of year. So after a freshen up we jumped back on the Metro and dropped in at the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art. We only had half an hour before it closed, so grabbed a quick look at the contemporary section, which was cool.

Then got some dinner in Chinatown and headed home, via Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated. After today’s history lesson it had much more meaning for us, and the tragedy of his untimely death was brought home.

Packing tonight as we leave for NYC tomorrow.