The B-Hive does NYC

In January, the B-Hive decided to take a trip to NYC to visit Uncle Muck and Auntie D and see a few of the sites.  It was such a quick and relatively easy trip--it took us about 2 hours to get there--so now that we know how painless it is, Marc and Deleah can be sure that we will be up to visit them more often!  The only hard part is all of the gear we have to pack for a family of 5, even for just 3 days!!

Marc and Deleah live on the Lower East Side just outside China Town.  We arrived at their place in the early evening and decided to walk into China Town and have dinner at a truly authentic Chinese restaurant.  We were literally surrounded by Chinese people in a very packed place (they were celebrating a couple of first birthdays that night) and in spite of the fact that the boys were a little overwhelmed by the events of the day, we really had a nice time and great food.  Unfortunately, no pictures were taken that night. 

The next day, we all headed to the subway for the Museum of Natural History.  This would be the boys first subway ride ever, and it was a nice and long one with one train change along the way.  Here are a lot of subway pictures taken to commemorate this "special event"...

The Museum of Natural History was really neat.  And really really really packed.  I guess when one goes on the Saturday of a long weekend that is what one should expect.  Notwithstanding, I know I had a great experience at my first time visiting this national landmark, and I am sure the boys, in their own nonchalant way, did too.  We were thrilled that Uncle Muck and Auntie D decided to accompany us, as they made the trip much more fun and it was nice to actually have better than "man-to-man' coverage at such a packed place.  The exhibits really were awesome as the pictures below depict...

I thought this photo of Sam and his reflection amidst the tiger was really cool...

Awesome life-sized model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling...

Straight from "Wild Kratts" (one of the boys' favorite TV shows on PBS):  a humpback whale and and giant squid fighting...

There was even a huge dinosaur exhibit...

Outside on the museum steps, Max had (and loved) his first "dirty water dog" (a hotdog sold by a street vendor)...

Jack got a fun little bath in the sink and Marc and Deleah's place that night...

We spent the next day touring Times Square.  At first the boys were a little overwhelmed by all of the sights and commotion.  But, they had a good time walking around and shopping for souvenirs...

We ended up at a restaurant in Times Square for lunch. The boys (especially Max) love to go out to dinner...

Then, we went to the "Top of the Rock."  I thought the boys would love this--staring out at the incredible NYC skyline from the 70th-story observation deck of the Rockefeller Center.  On the contrary, they were pretty indifferent to this experience, much to my surprise.   However, I personally thought it quite thrilling.  

Flashback to May 2007--the last time I was at this same spot with my parents and I was pregnant with Max...

While most of us enjoyed our NYC trip a ton, the youngest member of the B-Hive didn't have such a fun experience. ..

 Poor Jack was sick the whole time and we dragged him all over the city.  At first I just thought he was just feeling bad from the antibiotics he had been taking for his double ear infection.  He threw up a couple of times and was extremely cranky and whiney  However, when rest of us got sick shortly after our return to PA, we immediately knew that Jack had something else going on--something that he passed on to all of us and to Marc and Deleah--those two were apparently puking up a storm.