Magic and Dinosaurs and Times Square, Oh My!

This sums up our last day-and-a-half in New York City at the end of last December before we went home. 

We went to an amazingly good illusionist show in Times Square. This was a treat!

Then we went the American Museum of Natural History. Similar to The Met the day before, we found a faster way to get in so that we didn't have to wait in line as long. The museum was crowded but fun!

This is one of the reasons I like birds. They're living dinosaurs!

The dinosaurs are cool but owls will always be my favorite!

There was a neat Christmas tree covered in origami animals. Sam was into origami so he appreciated this.

Photo opps with Teddy Roosevelt!

Teddy again!

Then we took a taxi down to Times Square. It was a hoppin' place as usual, but there was extra buzz in the air because it was the evening before New Year's Eve.

Stages and equipment for the New Year's Eve festivities the following night (it was rainy on New Year's Eve, but we enjoyed great weather the night before!).

We ate dinner at the Red Lobster in Times Square because Sam really wanted to. I hadn't eaten at that one since before John was born.
Here's John making himself at home in their window while we waited for a table. 😂

I walked around Times Square until our table was ready.

After dinner we walked through Times Square and went to the Hershey store.

Peter works at the Ernst & Young building in the middle of this picture when he works in the city (which is almost every week, unfortunately).

The next day was New Year's Eve and we went to the Empire State Building in the morning. There were hardly any lines! And the people who worked there were very nice.

Then we walked around Herald Square a bit and checked out the windows of the flagship Macy's store, which I'd forgotten all about and wished I hadn't. This is an area of the city that I really like, so the next time I go, I'm going there. I don't love the big exclusive department stores likes Saks but I do like Macy's; it's much more my style. I took good pictures of things with my phone but those pictures are lost and I'm still sad about that! 😭

I used this subway station a lot when I was taking classes at NYU or when I'd go into the city for fun. Mem'ries!


Back at our hotel while waiting for our car to arrive so that we could drive home.

What can I say, we have classy kids 😅

Then we drove home to Massachusetts, with a lunch stop at our favorite restaurant Gio's in the town we lived in in Connecticut from 2006-10. Their bruschetta chicken is one of my favorite dishes ever! It was a great way to end a fun trip to my favorite city!

So long, 2018!