NY Pt. 1

Note: Check out posts 2 and 3!

We were sitting on our couch one evening, and some commercial pops up about hotels, NY or kitties {{I don't really remember what clicked/went off in our heads}} but we ended up booking a 3-night stay in New York for Friday. 

It was Wednesday evening.

We had two kids. A booked hotel. And a trusty car. And 1700 miles to go. In other words, 29 non-stop hours to get to New York.

So we immediately got to packing.

You see that purple line going half across the country? 

We drove that. 

Twice.

Our trip was not easy. NOT. Easy. We honestly didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.

It was long, demanding, tiring and more tiring. So now we know--

But our Big Apple vacation was something to remember forever.

The boys did okay most of the way, except for Andrew's two motion sickness vomits along the way. 

We had to take plenty of breaks too mostly because we all suffer from TB {tiny bladder}, and Jonah's buns, although plump and precious, couldn't handle being strapped in the carseat for more than a couple of hours. 

Onto the big road with smiling faces!

We switched Jonah to Andrew's old carseat and it worked beautifully.

Andrew was in love with his Cheetos. It's what he always grabbed and asked for.

The boys did plenty of napping too.

Green rolling hills. Silos. Cows. 

Landscape was beautiful!!!

We missed a lot of State lines but we managed to catch a few.

Here's 'Wild and Wonderful' West Virginia, which is freaking beautiful!

Still smiling!

And more Cheetos!

We finally had enough of the trip, and arrived in tiny Maryland...

ARRGGHHH and then Pennsylvania! Are we ALMOST there?!

Yay! We finally see our first signs to New York CIIITTTTYYY!!

This is the New York City tunnel. It was crowded.

With a posted speed limit of 35 mph, and we were going a mere 4.

Our first NYC Taxi cab spotting! I was so pumped! 

By now, we were so tired, stinky, and ansy!

In we GO!!!

I was ready with my camera to take a picture of the New Jersey/New York line....

Here it is. 

{{yeah, it came out like poop}}

Our first view of the amazing skyscrapers! 

Immediately you get frazzled with all the traffic that's going on in this spot. 

With very limited space, people gotta improvise!

Just a quick pass by the New York Times offices!

We got in NYC at 8pm (EST) time and the fog was thick it covered the tops of the buildings...

I was SO in love. So many times I've seen NYC in movies, only to just take their word for their hustle and bustle but now I can say "it's true! there really are that many people walking in crosswalks and billboards the size of my house!!"

See? Huge!

One of the main, top reasons we wanted to take a trip to NYC was because of Harry Potter the Exhibition. The Harry Potter Exhibition was going on at Discovery Times Square and it was the last stop on the tour.

They have props and costumes used in all of the films, and it was quite a sight. 

Many things you wonder if they were really used in the movie, and unfortunately they didn't allow any photography and their audio guide wasn't all that wonderful.

So the pictures you'll see are either from outside the exhibit or in the gift shop :)

Our first sighting of Harry Potter eye-candy

Walking around, the building is quite attractive.

The building kept a lot of the original floors from when it was used by the printers for the New York Times and they looked pretty cool...

The whole thing kinda reminded me of the King Tut Exhibit we saw in Dallas several years back...

But this was Harry Potter, so in my book, a helluva lot cooler.

The Sorting Hat

Wands were incredibly accurate to the movies...each character had their own wand {but seriously, they weren't worth the $50}

Plus, I really didn't want to admit to myself that I'd look like a dork IF I had really gotten one. 

I mean, come on, who carries around a wand?!

Boxes and boxes of wands...

The Marauder's Map 

The Triwizard Cup and the Golden Snitch

The Chess set from Harry Potter's and the Sorcerer's Stone

Retail price: $499.00

WOW

And there it is, we caught the last stop in their North American tour...

Phew...

I hope you enjoyed my pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. I learned to be quick in NY manually adjusting my settings. So I'm really proud of myself. 

I will be posting a couple more follow ups on here since lots of pictures tend to make the posts kinda long...

FINISH THE SERIES with posts 2 and 3!

Don't forget to share, message me, comment, etc to let me know how 'awesome' my pictures came out, I need all the encouragement I need