New York

I decided that it would be ridiculous for my mom to come all this way and not head into New York City. We decided that the five us would go on Sunday and spend the day there. I was looking forward to it but was somewhat apprehensive, not knowing how the boys would do. We figured it would be best to go for the first time when my mom was with us, an extra set of hands would come in "handy". Saturday night James changed his mind and decided that he would stay home with the boys. As much as I wanted all of us to go together, this was really the best decision. It was a pretty cold day and the crowds were crazy.
We just made it to the train (literally, we ran up the stairs to the platform to catch it). We got off at Penn Station where we headed above ground. My mom was quite taken aback by the size of the city. We grabbed coffee and a quick bite to eat and then headed out on a mission to go shopping. We definitely accomplished our mission. We started at Macy's and worked our way all over the city. I could not even guess how many blocks we walked during the day. We retraced a lot of the steps that James and I took just a few weeks earlier. It's amazing how much the city can change in a short period of time, it was all decked out for the holidays this time. It was great.
We decided to head back to Princeton on the 6:10 train. We headed back toward Penn Station with plenty of time to spare. (We had to walk at least 25 blocks. Thought the exercise would be good, decided not to take the subway.) That was until we realized how much the crowds slowed us down. Once we hit Broadway we could barely move. We headed underground to the subway or else we would never make the train. The subway was empty where we went down, it was eerie. We made it through and found a police officer who told us which way to go. Once we got there we had to stop someone again and find out which train to get on. I don't think I'll ever get used to the subway system. We got off and then had to ask yet another person how to get to Penn Station. We had no time to waste. As we rushed down we found our gate and got on our train. Only 10 minutes early. Good thing we decided to get on the subway otherwise we would never have made it. I fell asleep shortly after we took off.
What a long day......but I got a cute pair of shoes. ;)