Real vacation: day 1

I put pedal to the metal this morning and made it to Heather's in about 4 hours, including the obligatory stop at the rest area on the Mass. Pike.  We made such good time, that we got to her house before she returned from picking Joshua up at school and grocery shopping.  We hadn't been to their place since the furniture arrived from California.  It was nice to see the apartment look more like them.

After eating lunch and rearranging our travel bags, we went to the train station to get a Metro North train into New York City.

Our train was on time and we cruised into Grand Central Station a 1/2 hour or so later.

GCS is celebrating its 100 year anniversary.

It has such a beautiful interior.

And the ceiling isn't too shabby either.

We walked the .7 mile to the hotel and checked in.  We are on the 19th floor with a spectacular view of a construction site below.

Bryant Park is also in sight.

We dropped off our luggage and walked through Bryant Park.  Heather, Joshua, and Selim rode the carousel.  I documented.

I loved all the flower baskets that lined the perimeter of the park.

When we got to the library, we stood in front of the lions for the photo op.

The main reason for making the library one of the first stops was so that we could see the Lego sculptures by Nathan Sawaya.  His NYC show closed in March, but his website stated that there were pieces at the library.  We walked in the front doors and asked the security guard where we could find the information desk.  He answered the third floor.  The first person we asked outside the main reading room didn't seem to understand our question about the Lego sculptures.  In fact, she had trouble grasping the concept of Lego all together.  She pointed us to the reference desk.

The man at the desk asked us which entry way we used.  We told him that we went in by the big lions.  He looked at us with a slight raise of his eyebrow and proceeded to tell us that if we walked in past the granite lions then we walked right by the Lego lions as well.  He pointed us to go back down the stairs to the main lobby and look again.

Proverbial tails between our legs, we walked down the stairs and, ta-da, there they were, right on either side of the front doors.  Our observational skills had let us down!  Honestly, I don't know how we missed them the first time.

Mission accomplished.  Next we walked 10 blocks down to get Stan.  Right around the corner from his office is an awesome Thai food place.  The boys were very hungry.  We didn't lick our plates clean, but it was close.  To aid our digestion, we opted not to take public transportation back to the hotel.  Instead, we crossed over to 6th and walked up thirteen blocks to Times Square.

On our way, we passed a store front that had two of the Project Runway challenge dresses in the window.  Document, even though the boys had had enough of my camera.

At dusk, the lights are quite noticeable.

Selim and I said good bye to Heather, Stan, and Joshua and walked back to the hotel.  Selim was a bit teary -- missing his Dad and the comforts of home.  The novelty of the key card entry had worn off a little and he felt the let down.

Tomorrow starts off with the breakfast buffet and then we are off to take a river cruise past the Statue of Liberty.  Let's hope the weather stays rain free.