Day 10 - Rainy Day Driving, NYC

It started raining soon after we all got up this morning and continued throughout the day. Thank goodness the  reservation system was closed last evening when we tried to spend $400 on tour tickets for today! Rich decided he could do a driving tour instead...lucky us!

We started by driving south from our Jersey City, NJ location to cross the Bayonne Bridge onto Staten Island. We had hoped that it would stop raining so that we could view the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry but the lack of visibility in the pouring rain made that impossible.

Staten Island

From Staten Island we drove across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (3X) to Brooklyn. Rich loves this bridge!

Brooklyn

From Brooklyn, we drove across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan!

We're still hoping to walk across this bridge while we're here.

After crossing it, we drove along the East River in Manhattan where I got this shot of the Brooklyn Bridge...

...and the Manhattan Bridge just a short ways north of it.

Here are just a few highlights of our drive around Manhattan. It is very difficult to take photos in the rain and I took lots of them today with various placement of the windshield wipers in them or rain blurring the scene. It didn't affect our thrill though at seeing so many sights that are familiar through TV, movies, etc.

Broadway

Theater District

Times Square at Broadway and 44th St

Times Square...see the 2013 at the top of this tower of ads?

Madison Square Garden on 7th Ave.

The High Line at West 17th St and Tenth Ave.

A real NYC dog walker!

The Freedom Tower with clouds surrounding the newly installed antenna tower.

The crowds of people...the traffic...the thrill of seeing it all...before driving through the Holland Tunnel back to New Jersey. It was a perfect circle tour and I have no idea how Rich can drive in that traffic, but he does it expertly!

And what did we discover on the other end of the tunnel? A Papa Johns, which is the kids favorite place for pizza back home.

This location even had tables so we enjoyed a little taste of home for lunch!

You must be thinking that, after all that, Rich would be tired of driving? Not quite. He had a little surprise planned. He drove to Meadowlands in E Rutherford so that the kids could see Metlife Stadium where the Giants and the Jets play.

Dylan's favorite NFL team is the Giants! We couldn't get in, but I did have him step inside the gate for this photo while Rich talked to the guard.

This would have been a lost day if Rich wasn't so intent on everyone having a great time and if he wasn't so comfortable getting around everywhere we travel. The kids and I are the luckiest travelers in the world...and we often thank him for all of this.

Lovin' Life ~~ In New York City!