New York City

After we left Maine, we drove to New York City to meet my Aunt and her Grandson (our Cousin). We weren't able to get down to Virginia to visit them on this visit, so they very generously offered to meet us half way - in NYC. It was so great seeing them and also touring around a bit. We did not have a ton of time there (only 24 hours), but the weather was beautiful and the time what we did have was really fun. The kids decided that they would definitely like to go back for a longer stay next time.

When we arrived, I thought that it might be handy to take a picture of our rental car, just in case we never saw it again (after handing it over to be parked in NYC:-))

Mia taking a selfie :-)

Bailey in Times Square

The famous New Years Eve Ball - it won't be long now until 2016!!

This guy was announcing his run for presidency - "Robbie Williams" - never heard of him ;-)

My Aunt treated us all to tickets to the top of the Empire State Building - such a fun and cool experience!!! Here - you can see it in the background as we were walking towards it....

As you get closer though - it just seems to get bigger and bigger...  Crazy to think that this enormous building was built in only 11 months (back in 1930!!!)

86 Floors to the Observation Deck...

And such amazing views from the top!!! In the background, you can see the new "One World Trade Center" building (the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere)...

And we could see the Statue of Liberty too - it looked so small!

Our group shot!

Such gorgeous views!!!

After the Empire State Building, we went out for Pizza and then walked around Times Square at Night

They say that "you never know what you might see :-) - quite entertaining for a Thursday night

In the morning, we went to the Good Morning America Studio. 

It was neat because one of the guests was one of the "heros" from the Paris Train Incident 

We smiled thinking that this guy was just an ordinary every day guy one week prior - and now he was all over the news ...

Outside the studio, they broadcast too ...

We haven't watched the regular news in over 7 years, so I wasn't quite sure who this is - but had to get a picture anyway :-)

After breakfast, we took the subway to Central Park to walk around together before our flight later that evening. The kids thought this was funny to see (being that Donald Trump was in the news non stop during our visit home)

the Tavern on the Green in Central Park

So calm in a world of busy!!!

It was so nice to visit my Aunt under a bit calmer circumstances for a short time - before we had to say our goodbyes

 

They had a silly camera  that took your picture and put it up on a building - it was really funny! Bryan made "crazy man" eyes and made us all laugh.

After a great month, we drove across the river to Newark to catch our flight home to Germany. We smiled at our plane - instead of "Lufthansa" - it was called "Fanhansa" and had a soccer ball - Gotta love the Germans :-) 

Tschuss America - bis 2017! Vielen Dank fur eine schone Monate mit Familie und Freundinen!!!! *had to practice my German a bit, as we spoke nothing but English for an entire month :-)