New York City

Not much driving today (woo hoo!). I was up early to exercise and load the van, while everyone else slept in. By 9:30AM we were on our way. Our first stop was the Crayola Crayon Museum in Easton, Pennsylvania. The boys had fun learning how crayons are made and checking out all the hands-on exhibits. Lots of drawing and painting. After a quick lunch we started our short trip through New Jersey and on to New York City. Driving the last 10 miles or so was pretty nerve-wracking. The people here drive like maniacs. Pretty much, anything short of driving on the sidewalk is O.K. Still, we found our way through the Lincoln Tunnel and on to 42nd Street, where the Travel Inn was waiting for us. Check in went fine, parking was something else. The hotel has free underground parking, which is rare for New York City. The nice Indian parking lot attendant helped guide (shoehorn) me into a sub-compact parking spot in the far reaches of the dimly-lit garage. We eventually got parked, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get the van out again. It might just be easier to abandon it and buy a new one when it's time to leave. Since the weather man says it's going to rain for the next three days, we (I) decided we should visit the Empire State Building right away (today was very sunny). We spent an hour checking out the view of the city from all four sides of the observation deck. The boys weren't very impressed (probably cause they were tired and wanted to swim). On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a 7-11 store that had been converted to a Kwik-E-Mart (from the TV show The Simpsons). Josh and Justin got Squishee's, and I took a bunch of pictures of Apu. Sadly, we only got a few minutes in the pool before they booted us out for the night. We'll swim tomorrow...