Bridges And Tunnels

We went for a drive to see the bridges and tunnels. We made a big circle to hit the ones we wanted to see. The first one we drove through was Lincoln Tunnel. There is something just a little crazy about knowing you are driving under water. When we came out on the other side we were in a part of NYC that the traffic wasn't horrible (still city traffic just not the worst we would see that day.) We were stopped at a red light waiting for it to turn green and there was a guy with a pick up truck with a Monster (the energy drink) ad on the side. He was going around handing everyone 2 cold cans of Monster drinks. Jeff went and grabbed us some and was still back in the car before the light changed.


We then made our way through the city (down Canal street and through China town, which you can totally tell you have hit because all the signs and everything are in Chinese.) We then drove over the Manhattan Bridge


and that took us over to Brooklyn. We went right through there and hopped right on the Brooklyn Bridge. The view from the bridge was amazing. We decided to find a place to park on the other side and walk across it. There was a lot of people and I can understand why. From the Brooklyn bridge you have a view of the Empire State Building and the NYC skyline, the financial district, the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Bridge. The bridge itself is also really cool to see. I would love to walk over it at night I bet it's amazing with the city all lit up and the bridges and their lights.








After we parked the car we had gotten out and started our walk to the bridge and I had Isaac's hand and Jeff was with Gracie up ahead of us. All of a sudden I feel Isaac stop and he starts crying. I turned around and asked him what was wrong and he pointed to the hot dog stand and said "Mom, I want a hot dog!" He has really grown to love the hot dog stands everywhere. So we got our little man a hot dog and he was a happy camper.



After we finished our walk over the bridge we got back into the car and headed toward the Holland Tunnel. This is where our full experience of driving in NYC happened. Our Garmin (what a blessing and a curse some days) took us through the streets to Ground Zero. Well we have seen that already and because of all the construction driving is a nightmare! We finally got our way worked around to the street right across the street from the tunnel and they had it blocked off! We couldn't get across to get to the tunnel. They have traffic cops in addition to lights to help speed things up at main intersections and there was a cop there so we couldn't just go around. So we had to go clear back out and around and get on the next street over. That wouldn't have been so bad but all the streets to that one are one way and they were the opposite direction than we needed so we had to go clear out and around. Rush hour in the city starts at around 3 and it was 3:30 by this point so then we had to wait in backed up traffic to get onto the tunnel. It was crazy. Driving through the tunnel was cool mostly because the kids were awake this time so they were excited about it. We were both very excited to be back in New Jersey though and I don't think we will ever attempt to drive in the city again. Once is enough of an experience for us. FYI we even had cell phone service in the tunnel. Yea for Verizon!