Big City, 4 - Walking!

We all have sore feet tonight!  Today was our big walking day.  Gram arrived from Memphis last night, so she got to walk out into Times Square with us this morning.  First stop was The Cake Boss cafe - I think it's the closest door you can walk into after walking out of Port Authority Bus Terminal.  We all chose delicious and way Times-Square-overpriced-sweets :)  Then, we walked east and Gram got to check out all the Times Square madness.  We didn't leave the crowds, but did leave the utter chaos as we headed East on 42nd to the Main Branch of the New York City Public Library.

Gram is a librarian, so this stop was requested by her, and I'm glad we added it to the itenerary.  It is a really beautiful building inside and out.  Also, we got to walk through the Reading Room (the Ghostbusters theme song is now stuck in my head all day), ZB had a great time in the Children's Rooms (one room just had squishy foam gym mats all over the floor!), and there was a really neat exhibit on Children's literature.  We learned that pop-up drawing were used for hundreds of years before anyone had the idea to make them into a children's book.  We learned the origins of picture books, saw the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals, went through a hallway of banned books (I had no idea all the edited out parts of the Diary of Anne Frank!), and ZB spent probably an hour just in the room dedicated to her very favorite book, Goodnight Moon:

We kept walking down 42nd St and toured Grand Central Station (largest train station in the world!) which is amazingly gorgeous inside.  Then we walked just another block to the Chrysler Building and checked out this art-deco icon.

Some legs needed resting after this walk, so we took a subway north and got out at the Apple Store.  Gram took the boys to wander while I walked ZB across the street to Central Park.  Rock climbing and seeing the ducks in The Pond were on her agenda.

 ZB says, "Now take a picture like this!"

The kids were not impressed with the Apple store, and they shortly joined us in the park.  We found a big playground, where Clay and Reed rock-climbed, while Gram put her feet up for a while and read a book, and ZB loved another chance to play!

The sun started to set, and we headed out to wander around in search of food.  We are having great luck finding delicious food at hole-in-the-wall places instead of trying to find more popular spots.  We found a yummy and very affordable (for Midtown Manhattan) Korean restaurant tonight.  Everyone tried something new and loved it!  And Reed showed off his chopsticks skills...

The good food gave us a second wind, and we trekked down to the JP Morgan Museum and Library.  He's one of the fellows who pretty much financed Manhattan (along with Rockefeller and the likes), and not only lived in a mansion in Midtown Manhattan, but collected ridiculously cool stuff.  On Friday nights, the museum is free, so we at least wanted to take a peek.  We saw hand-written letters from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven's hand-written 9th Symphony, precious stones and jewels, artifacts from Mesopotamia, it was really a random and cool collection.  We only lasted about an hour before Reed declared "too tired to go on".  So, we made for home before anyone passed out or had a major meltdown, which is a win in my book with this trip :)

Tomorrow it's down to the Southern end of the island to see the Statue of Liberty!  See you then, Julie