July 9 New York City, New York

New York City has been a bucket list item for me for years.  John on the other hand, has been there done that but saying that, he will join me because he loves me and knew how much I wanted to see the city. 

There are not a lot of campgrounds close to NYC.  We met a very nice man in the laundry area of a campground in Maine that was telling us about Newburgh KOA Campground.  It is in Plattekill NY outside of NYC and you can drive to the train station, take the train to NY and get off to find the Hop on Hop off trolley's or whatever you want to do.  

It sounded like the perfect solution since neither one of us wanted to drive in or near downtown NYC.

Campground is 1 1/2 hours outside of NYC a little further than I had imagined. Not many closer they said.   This KOA is very beautiful with lots of trees. 

It was so hot when we finished setting up outside, I went inside the trailer and turned on AC and finish the inside.  Doing well.  I worked on our blog this afternoon and we watched the movie Noah. 

John fixed egg salad sandwiches. I fixed veggie tray and now John is fixing a PB and J sandwich. Humidity is high.  

Tour tomorrow at 7:30 am   I am so anxious and excited to see the city.  We are however, wondering how the U.S. Women's Soccer Team Parade tomorrow in NYC will affect our tour. 

Our tour left from our New York City North/Newburgh KOA campground and we enjoyed an exciting, all-day guided tour of the Big Apple on a beautiful air conditioned bus.

Our tour guide carried a bright yellow umbrella so we could always find him.  Due to the Parade, our bus driver had to make adjustment to where she dropped us off.  But it was exciting to walk through NY with all the extra people, police, road blocks due to the exciting parade.  Congrats to our US Women's Soccer Team.  I found out there is a police officer on foot directing traffic at almost every intersection in the city.  I believe they go to work each day taking their life in their hands.  But what a great job they were doing.  Amazing.
You have to understand, I was so excited to see New York City, meeting all the other people on the Bus Tour that was going to take us on our journey to NYC, seeing the first glimpse of the skyline was thrilling, listening to our tour guide explain the NY slang was so fun, seeing the "traffic" was what was expected, the beautiful tall buildings and the disbelief we were actually here.  We caught a cab and had a delicious lunch in the city.  

 

A ferry took us to the Statue of Liberty.  I was caught off guard with emotion when I exited the ferry and looked up to see a side view of the Statue of Liberty.  Tears rolled down my cheeks...   freedom, how many people saw her as they entered the US, finally seeing her in person and much much more.  She was beautiful.

Our tour included so much information about New York City, Empire State Building, Ferry to Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, 9/11 Memorial, Chinatown, Wall Street, Fifth Avenue, Gand Central Terminal and much more.  We did miss going through Times Square due to the longer hours it took to get through the city due to the parade and our bus driver would run out of time behind the wheel.

World Trade Center Memorial

It did not disappoint.  My John survived NYC and we both were grateful.  LOL

It was, however, very hot and humid when we arrived in the city.

We were going to drive back to New York City the next day and take the train but I could see John was happy with the tour and we had much more to see along the road heading to Washington DC.