The Bronx

On June 22nd we decided to take a ride over the George Washington Bridge and go into the Bronx. It ended up being quite the experience. It was a huge eye opener for me. I have always had this image in my head of what the Bronx is like. The movies portray it really well. I guess I just never realized how big it is and seeing it personally really hit me hard. I have a hard time imagining living there or sending my children to schools there. It is the opposite of everything I am used to which is exactly why I wanted to take this summer adventure. I wanted our little family to experience and see things we normally would not. The bridge was fun to go over. Isaac loved talking about the big bridge. Jeff goes over it every day on his way to work so it was fun seeing where he goes every day. We didn't have to stop while on the actual bridge but Jeff says that if you do you can see and feel it moving. Crazy!

Waiting at the toll booths. $8!!!!! per car. Thats a lot of money they are making. You only have to pay to go into NY. NJ doesn't charge you to come into their state or else it would have been $16 for us that day. Crazy!

These are a few of the photos I took while we were in the Bronx. I have talked to a few people this week and have explained it like this. You expect for there to be the apartment buildings after apartment buildings with graffiti everywhere and garbage but as you drive down the street you expect to start getting into better and better neighborhoods but these just keep going. It was crazy to me how many apartment buildings were right on top of each other through all the areas we drove around in. Don't get me wrong I am sure there are good parts of the Bronx and I hear that the Bronx zoo rocks (I've added it to the list of places to take the kids) but like I said it was a eye opener for me. Jeff said that even the tire places just have one of those little shops under the apartment buildings and you just pull your car up in front of it and they have jacks out in the street and they change your tires right there. Good use of the little space they have I guess. Double parking is also not an uncommon thing. I thought one line of cars on a street we were on was the other lane but no they were just parked cars next to the first row of parked cars.