New York, New York!!

New York, New York!  The Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, whatever you call it, it never fails to impress. Last week, I took my son and daughter to New York to visit our family and do some sightseeing. We drove from our home in Oklahoma to New York, taking three days and enjoying the sights along the way. Once we arrived, we had several things we really wanted to do: see a lot of the beaches, take the train to Manhattan, do some souvenir shopping and of course visit family. We wound up visiting two beaches on the south shore of Long Island and one on the north shore. The south shore beaches are sandy, great for sea shell collecting, and we managed to get some beautiful clam shells which are now in our garden. On the north shore of Long Island, the beaches are rocky, and also have a great selection of shells, although they are smaller. On the north shore beach, we watched the boats coming and going and I picked out my personal favorite, a beautiful sailboat with a Pirates of the Caribbean flag flying proudly! Our Manhattan trip included taking the Long Island Railroad into the city, riding the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and the southern end of Manhattan. The new One World Trade Center was standing tall, towering over the Manhattan skyline, quite impressive sight! A very scary taxi ride took us to Times Square where the kids and I then went to the Nintendo store, the Disney store, the American Girl Doll store, the M and M store and the Hershey store! Whew! I hope to review each store a bit more in my following posts, some stores were much better than others, but I think the American Girl doll store was the most impressive, with 3 shopping levels and beautiful displays. The top floor was our favorite, with a doll hair styling salon, a restaurant and even a doll hospital. I will be posting more about this trip in the following posts, with more detailed reviews for anyone considering traveling to New York!