With blue skies and sunshine and clear views still in our favor, it was time to head back over to the final(ish) stop of our trip- the Empire State Building!
The views from the top were incredible, and so was the queue that took us up there! We got to learn about the history of the building and what it took to build it so fast and all about the famous movie scenes that take place here.
We were in line behind two very fly guys who inspired us to change up our normal poses.
The best Empire State Building movie!
Or maybe it's this one!
This was the scariest adventure we've ever been on!!
We made it out alive
and posed a few more times
before finally making it up to the top for some seriously incredible views.
It was very crowded at the top but also surprisingly quiet. Everyone was in awe of the views.
Yikes! I'm glad Daddy didn't drop his phone while taking this picture!
Imagine what the city must have looked like when the Empire State Building was completed in 1931.
It worked out really well that this was our last stop in NYC- we were able to point out all of the places we had been in the city over the last three days!
NYC has captured at least of few of these hearts!
Hee hee- we went for the serious selfie in this mirror, but boy was it bright!
I loved this artwork- twin buildings in honor of the twin towers.
This building is incredible!
And then it was finally, really, truly time to hop on the subway one more time.
But we couldn't quite bring ourselves to call it a trip just yet. We had to get one more slice of Ray's pizza first! Two things to note in this picture- one, Leah was such a little mommy on this trip- always looking for ways to help and babies to shepherd. She is always a great help! And number two, remember the days of yore when we went on trips and snacked on the food that I packed in my bag between meals? With this giant growing man child every snack needs to be a meal, which means a handful of goldfish crackers or a granola bar wasn't about to cut it when there was pizza nearby!
We sat on the steps at Times Square for one more delicious taste of New York.
"I'll be back, NYC."
Oh wait, I wanted one more taste of NYC. The cookies were meh
but the hot chocolate was ah-mazing. Blessed Max Brenner.
Then it was time to head back to our hotel one last time. Our little family of country mice was looking like city pros by this point.
We took in a few extra snapshots of spring
and climbed into the van for the most authentic New York experience of all- horrible traffic. We sat at the same intersection for a good ten minutes and only moved about 10 blocks in almost an hour. What a rough start to our long journey home!
But it was most definitely time to head home. Why yes, we did stop at Portillo's for some Chicago-style beef sandwiches and chocolate cake on the way home. How could we refuse?
Clearly we were at the end of the trip here- whatever it takes to get comfy!
Spring break was wrapping up and we promised the kids one night in their own beds before it was over. So we drove a painful 9 hours that night to somewhere in Ohio where we had the least enjoyable hotel experience of the trip- two queen beds and a twin sofa sleeper does not equal room for six, but by the time Jason got it sorted out it was well after midnight and the kids were all fast asleep. So we left everyone where they were, tried to squeeze in a few hours of rest, and if my memory serves me correctly the next morning the kids swam in the pool for all of three minutes before Noah slipped on the pool deck and slammed his head on the tile. Not a great start to the day, but we managed to get home without much more incident, despite driving rain and gusts of wind. The drive in both directions was a little too exciting for our liking.
But what an amazing first epic road trip for our family! There were definitely rough moments but no one got lost, no one got hurt, Marshmallow worked her little engine out, and we made so many wonderful memories over the 3,500 (or more) miles that we drove and seemingly just as many that we walked! It was so wonderful to see Grandma and Grandpa and so fun to experience a side of the country that the kids haven't seen before. I have a feeling we'll be heading east again just as soon as we can!
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