Life's Journey with 8: Epic Road Trip 2017 Days 5 and 6, part 1

Thursday was our last day on Long Island. I had lunch plans with another old friend who I was excited to see. I got up, took Paul to the church, and rushed back to where we were staying. We were moving to another home this afternoon, so we needed to have everything packed up and cleaned up. I also decided to do our laundry. So I got back, got the laundry going, had the kids clean up and started packing. Then I left Ellie to finish the laundry and packing and took off to meet with Heather.

Heather and I met way back in 1975, as far as I can tell. Their family began coming to our church around then and we became fast friends. Several years later, we also attended college together. I'm pretty sure the last time I had saw her was at my wedding, 29 years ago. We had lunch at a fun little place called "Diner By the Sea". It was a blast catching up and reliving old times. We talked for over two hours, and it wasn't enough time. But I had to get back, so I left, rushed back to the kids, packed the van and went to get Paul. We picked him up and went to the new house we were staying at. In a strange turn of events, we ended up at a birthday party for someone we didn't know. But this family was so hospitable, it didn't matter. They lived out on the Island in a mansion. I've never seen a house so big. They were so kind and generous to us. We got back, and got in bed. Tomorrow was a big day- New York City!!

We left the house fairly early. We had bought tickets to ride a double decker sight seeing bus but we were unsure of how we were going to get to Times Square where we would pick up the bus. We drove down towards the city, parked and took the Manhattan Ferry over to the city. It was so exciting.

Our first view of the city. The United Nations.

The Freedom Tower.

It was a bit windy.

We got off the ferry at Wall Street. We were so excited to be in the city, but a bit apprehensive. We split up the kids- Paul had Jack, Ellie had Emma and I had Ben. Sam stayed with Paul. We still didn't know how we were going to get to Times Square, but we headed in that direction.

Statue of George Washington where he was inaugurated president in 1789. This was one of our history sentences we learned, so it was cool to see this actual place. (Well, I thought it was cool. Not too sure the boys shared my sentiment).

We headed down into the subway station, realized we were in the wrong one, headed back up to the street, crossed the street and headed back down the other station. The subway station was like a sauna. With the help of a few friendly people, we figured out how to get to Times Square. We stopped for a bite to eat at an Irish Pub and then found the sight seeing bus. Finally! We made it on the bus.