New York City, Day 1: Times Square and Harlem

After some pondering and researching, we had decided to skip NY this time and save it for another trip simply because it's complicated and expensive to find a campground for our travel trailer close enough (like less than an hour drive) and we thought the girls would enjoy it more later. The only sensible way to visit New York is to stay in town to avoid transiting morning and night (which quickly get costly for the five of us). But on Wednesday afternoon, a suspension leaf broke on our trailer and we had to get it fixed before going any further. We could not go anywhere or we would be causing more damage. As luck had it, we found a garage nearby (in Hackensack) that could order the parts snd do the job for the next day. We could park our truck and trailer in front of the garage where it would be safe to sleep. For free. It was 3 pm on Thursday and we were a mere 20 minute bus ride from the closest NY metro station!

  :: The girls had ridden the subway only once in Montreal when they were little so that was quite exciting. There was lots of discussion about who might live behind the doors in between the stations under the cities and where all those doors might lead... ::

  :: For the full New York effect we got off right at Times Square. The girls were stunned. Aïsha said she never saw such a "decorated" city before. ::

After seeing a French speaking Chinese Spiderman, Sonic, Minnie and Mickey, Bart Simpson and Puss in boots from Shrek, Mathilde spotted a big cookie monster head in a phone booth and we tought it was a pretty funny sight... Then the rest of the monster arrived from Starbucks, coffee in hand, and tried to hide as much as one can in a blue hairy suit, in Times Square, for a bit of a break...

 

  :: Feeling very little in Times Square... ::

 :: Then, we wanted to go to Harlem for dinner to try a restaurant a friend had recommended to us, the Red Rooster, and we were not disappointed. The cornbread with honey butter and tomato jam, the parmesan fries, the maple syrup and Bourbon sauteed collard greens and my smoked trout was to die for!::

  ::And we walked and walked some more and took more subways and inevitably got in the wrong train and ended up in a *very* empty station and found our way back thanks to our amazing navigator. Aïsha was pretty fascinated to watch a woman read an hebrew book beside her in the wagon and recite verses with her eyes closed. And there was the very sexy mama with a baby in a car seat that was quite probably a "him". We finally caught the bus pretty late and when it crossed the brigde back to NJ, we could see the whole city illuminated over the Hudson River and all I could think is how we are some lucky bastards!! Seriously! Things often work so amazingly well for us, it's just incredible! ::