It took us 12 hours to drive 640km to get to the Big Apple but it is worth the effort. The long trip was not in any way the little guys fault. It was the result of his parents not being prepared for driving into one of the biggest cities in North America. We had smooth sailing all the way into NJ and only ran into trouble when we tried to find the Lincoln Tunnel. We found ourselves looking for I95/NJ Turnpike, the only problem is the signs say NJTP not I95 and we were looking for I95. In summary the combination of our poor preparation and very poor signage added almost three hours to our trip. We spent this additional three hours listening to the little man cry as by this point he had had more than enough of the car.
Prior to this he had been the perferct passenger passing the day either sleeping, reading or working on the computer.
We saw a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and fit in a run in Central Park. From our hotel room we can see Times Square so we saw a bit of the Parade from the Hotel and then headed down to try and see some of it from Street level. We soon realized that there was a reason people had started to claim spots at 7am for a Parade that started a 9am. The crowds were 20 deep in spots and it was impossible to hear the bands. It was neat to be a part of it and would be nice to come back and see again when the boy is a little older.
Running in Central Park was pretty cool. What a great place to have in the middle of a city this size. We just stuck to the outer loop, which is a road that weaves around the perimeter of the park. The road was closed to traffic so the cyclist had moved to the road and the runners had taken over the bike lane. Within this outer perimeter there is a great network of smaller trails, some paved and some gravel. Hopefully I will get out for another run before we go so I can check out some of the other routes.
