FINAL weekend - NYC!

We spent the last Saturday of our summer in the East in the city! It was my FAVORITE Saturday of our summer. We left our place around 8:30 Saturday morning 8/3 and drove the 45 min to the Staten Ferry, rode on the ferry over to NYC, then took the subway to the NYC temple. Sidenote: We'd dropped the kids off at a friend's house Friday night so we could go to the NYC temple but found out just after leaving the kids that it was closed for maintenance! So we went to dinner instead. But anyway seeing the outside was the best we could do at that point. It started raining so we had lunch at Witchcraft cafe inside the Lincoln Center and waited out the rain. I was pretty worried that our day of bike riding around central park would be ruined but after about an hour the skies cleared up and it ended being a beautiful day. We went and rented our bikes and then had a BLAST riding around the park. We did one loop around, or about 6 miles. We made several stops along the way. That park is incredible. Really cool playgrounds (we saw 2 of probably 20), beautiful bridges and tunnels and waterfalls, endless baseball fields, etc. Everyone says how big it is, but I had no idea! I was seriously in heaven the whole time we were riding bikes. Bikes are just so dang fun, and to be doing it all together in central park was just awesome. I'd HIGHLY recommend doing that to anyone who goes to New York City. Plus, I got to speak french to the guy from Africa who rented our bikes to us (we had a ten minute walk with him to the bike shop so we got to speak quite a bit), and I heard a lady speaking romanian as we were walking our bikes on the street so I stopped and talked to her in Romanian. I got to give pass along cards to both of them too. SO fun. It was like several of my life's experiences being relived in a single day. Only in NYC! From childhood bike riding to french to romanian to being with my awesome husband and kids!

On the ferry headed for the city

Wheelie!!!

After a long stop at a park the kids didn't want to get back in their seats. I busted out two blow pops. The kids were of course happy to get in their seats for a blow pop. Caleb asked, "How many more of those do we have?" I laughed. He said, "No, I'm serious!" They really did enjoy the bike riding and the stops too though. Although Eliza really didn't like her helmet and one time managed to pull it off and throw it down on the road while we were riding.

One of our stops was at this waterfall and bridge. It's amazing how peaceful the park is, even though it's right in the middle of the city. For our wildlife loving family, the turtles in the water were a highlight of the day.

Passing the Statue of Liberty on the ferry ride back.