New York City (1st stop)

 Our long trip began on Sunday, August 25^th – the bags were loaded and our friend, Tracy, drove us to Charlotte to await our flight to NYC.  We enjoyed the fellowship and a good country meal at “Cracker Barrel” before we headed to our hotel.  Up bright and early at 3am we head to the airport and fly to New York.  With all bags in tow, we make our way to Times Square to spend a couple of nights in the Big Apple.  You should have seen the looks we got with all those trunks and suitcases!  Everyone kept asking, “Where are you moving?”  And they were stunned to hear our response – AFRICA!

 Touring the city on about 5 hours sleep is not a good idea, but we forged ahead to:  NBC Studio Tour, stopped for ice cream in the Rockerfeller Center, enjoyed the view from Top of the Rock, went past Radio City Music Hall (no time to go inside plus we were exhausted), so we went back to the hotel to see if our room was ready. We then took the Subway to Chinatown to eat at Lombardi’s Pizza.  After dinner we wanted to go towards the Harbor, but we couldn’t figure out the best route from the Subway (even after asking directions).  We decided to take the Subway hoping we would get there, and the next thing we knew we were heading into Coney Island (oops, wrong way), so we got a tour of much more than we bargained for!  After our scenic tour, we headed back into town and went inside Macy’s where all Coby wanted to do was ride the escalators to the top floor and back down again.  Then it was on to the Empire State building where we did the Skyride tour and finally the top view at night.  

 Our 2^nd day started out with breakfast in Times Square at McD’s, a Subway ride to Museum of Natural History, a short walk in Central Park, caught a taxi to the Harbor for ‘the Beast’ boat ride to Statue of Liberty, walked past Madison Square Gardens, lunch at Bubba Gumps Seafood Restaurant, picked up tickets for Broadway show, and returned to hotel for a rest.  Our broadway show, “Spiderman”, was a good choice.  After the show we were disappointed to find Roxy’s closed (boo…no cheesecake) so we opted for Subway sandwiches instead as our dinner choice.
(The picture of the large mosquito was just a funny, since we're going to Malaria area - this is an anopheles mosquito which carries the malaria virus.)