Okay, we started the day in Manhattan. We went to the Intrepid Museum where they have an aircraft carrier (Intrepid), submarine and a Concorde jet on display.

We spent a couple of hours there. Here is the submarine…

Then on the Intrepid…

After grabbing some slices (and Stephen a couple of dogs), we hit the subway and headed to the Bronx. We first went to the Bronx Zoo.

After that, we got back on the subway and headed to Yankee Stadium. We were bummed when the subway left the underground to the elevated track. It was pouring rain.

We hung out in the subway station for a little, then pulled out our umbrellas and got into the stadium.

After an hour of rain delay, the game started about 8:00.

We had to leave after the 4th inning cause it was getting really late.

Old Yankee Stadium right next door…

We took a LONG subway ride back to Manhattan, then transferred to PATH back to Newark Penn Station.

Since rain was predicted for all week, we have been very fortunate that this has been our only run in with rain so far.

Only one more day on New York.

Today was my birthday and what better way to spend it than on vacation in New York.

We started this morning by going to the Museum of Natural History. By the way, it is nothing like the one on the movie. Even so, it did have a bunch of cool stuff including a full scale model of a blue whale. The picture does not do it justice. The thing is HUGE. Much bigger than I imagined.

Here are some more pics from the museum…

Dum-Dum. Got any gum-gum?

We left the museum for lunch. Found a local joint called the Firehouse. Pretty good. We went back to the museum after lunch for a little bit, then off to Central Park.

Then to the Central Park Zoo…

After that, we went back to Grand Central to grab some dinner. We were really tired so we just wanted something easy. On our way to the Subway we passed this place.

Picture NOT TAKEN WITH MY iPhone…

And FAO right next door…

We then went to Rockefeller Center and the Top of the Rock…

Michael checking out Central Park…

And we passed by this place…

This is another night that we are BEAT. Our vacation is now half over. Only two more days of NYC before we get back on the train.

Wow. What a long day.

We started off early and got to the World Trade Center site around 9:00. We walked all around. Not much to really see other than that it is a construction site.

I caught Michael trying to make friends with this guy…

We also saw a real interesting parking lot. It makes use of the vertical space.

We then learned something about the New York Subway. Our plan was to get four 7-day passes for unlimited Subway use. Well, it seems that the kiosks you have to buy them from only allow two transaction per credit card PER DAY. AND, there is no way to buy more than one card per transaction. Is that not ridiculously stupid? I have two credit cards, however, PATH tickets to get us from NJ to NYC use the same machines and I had already used one card on those.

We eventually got them all which included using most of the cash we had. Stopped my an ATM and my debit card from my bank was declined and of course it is Sunday so nothing I can do about that until Monday. Of all the things I worried about in making plans, two things I never dreamed would be problems. Oh well.

We then headed out to the New York Fire Department museum.

After that, we took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

We decided to be adventurous for lunch on the island…

Can you believe they have a KFC and Taco Bell in the same place? What the big city folk can come up with. (yes, I am joking)

We then went to the Transit Museum in Brooklyn. A very cool museum showing the history of New York train transit system. They also had a huge inventory of historic subway cars. It is housed in an old subway station. Here are some pics…

We then caught the subway to Grand Central Terminal.

We ate dinner in the food court in Grand Central.

Then, we stopped by Times Square…

Then back the hotel to collapse in our beds (and me to type in this report.

More tomorrow.

Here is the grand hall at Chicago’s Union Station…

We hung out in the lounge Friday night and they took us to the our train around 8:30. We dropped our things in our room and went to the dining car for a welcome reception. Cheese and fruit plates with some sparkling cider.

After that, back to our rooms and we sacked out.

I slept a whole lot more. I set my alarm for 5:00 cause I wanted to step off in Cleveland, but I turned it off and went back to sleep. I got up around 6:15 and took a quick shower. Taking a shower on a moving train is an interesting experience!

At 6:30, everyone else was up and we all went to have breakfast. French toast all around. After, back to our rooms to hang out.

This train is not a double decker like the last one (those are too tall to fit into New York City). The sleeper cars are different. They have windows for the top bunk as well as the lower bunk. So instead of converting our room back to seats, I made the seats up on the lower bunk for me and left the bed down on the upper bunk for the boys. They can lay down or play up there with plenty of room.

We got a chance to step off the train in Buffalo. Here are the boys outside our sleeper car.

Here is a picture of me taking a picture of Stephen napping on his bunk.

Stephen watching the world go by…

We continued on to Albany. This is where some interesting railroad stuff happens. The two locomotives and the front 5 cars of our train are disconnected and that train becomes train 448 and goes to Boston. The remaining 7 cars continues to be train 48 and continues on to New York City. They hook a different kind of locomotive up called a dual-mode. This loco can run like any other diesel, however because all the tracks in New York City are underground, they cannot run diesel engines in them. So when we get North of New York City, they shut off the diesel engine and lower a shoe which picks up power from a third rail.

In Albany I found something that reminded me of New York.

The black and white cookie. In case you are not familiar, there was a funny bit on Seinfeld with a black and white cookie. Since Seinfeld was set in NYC, I thought it appropriate. Though Vicky did not get any of the bit I tried to reenact.

Our train followed the shores of the Hudson which is quite a beautiful trip by itself. A great way to finish up our trip to New York. Our train arrive at New York Penn Station about an hour early at 5:30.

A friend of mine I met from an online forum (that discusses, well, trains) who lives in NYC met us at Penn. he showed us around, helped us get our commuter train tickets and even rode with us out to Newark Penn Station (our hotel is across the river in Harrison, NJ). In case you read this, Alan, thanks again. Nice seeing a friendly face in a sea of people!

A hotel shuttle picked us up from Newark Penn and we got settled into our hotel room. It is a NICE BIG room and a fraction of the price of getting a little room in the city.

We have a big day planned tomorrow with many places to go. Should be a long, good day and we are really gonna get our feet wet in the NY subway system.

The video I posted yesterday failed to be converted by youtube. I am uploading it again and will post here if it works.

Right on time, we boarded Amtrak #4, The Southwest Chief, in Lamy, New Mexico. Here is a video of the train arriving… (video had not finished processing when I posted, so if it won’t play, try back later)

We got right on and settled into our rooms.

By 4:00, we were all getting real hungry. Our stomachs were on Central time (we were in Mountain time). We got the earliest reservation for dinner at 5:00.

Before dinner, we spent around 30 minutes in the lounge car watching the country go by.

We went to the dining car at about 5:05.

I had a beef dish, Vicky had roasted chicken, Stephen had a hot dog and Michael had pizza. All was really good and we all either had cheesecake or Oreo dream for dessert.

After dinner, we returned to our rooms. After a 20 minute stop in La Junta, Co where we got to step off the train for a bit, we made our beds and turned in.

I did not sleep a whole lot. I usually don’t the first night on the train. Don’t want to miss anything. I did sleep some. I woke up at 5:30 am to find Stephen’s head peeking over the side of his bed staring at me (he said he was looking out the window). Anyway,  no more sleep after that. He and I got dressed around 6:00 and Vicky and Michael got up around 6:30.

At 6:51 we arrived in Kansas City. For those who read last year, this is where we had to get off the train and on to a bus because of flooding. Fortunately this time, we were going to see the route to Chicago on the train this year.

Our train is on the left.

We went to the dining car and had breakfast while still at Kansas City. All the boys had Railroad French Toast and Vicky had something called the “Continental.” Looked a little to healthy for my taste. The trained pulled out of KC while we were still eating.

After breakfast, back to the rooms for hang out time (and a little, very little, dosing off time for me).

Because of the arrival time into Chicago and the time the dining car staff needs to close down shop, they did and early lunch as first come first serve.

Vicky and I split a hamburger and a warm turkey sandwich (we each ate half) and the kids had pizza.

After lunch we had about two hours until arrival into the Windy City (that is Chicago, not Amarillo). We hung out in our rooms until we got close. Then we started packing everything up in preparation of disembarking our first train.

We arrived around 25 minutes EARLY into Chicago. We checked into the lounge for sleeper passengers and then headed out to walk around downtown.

We walked under the El (elevated trains).
Then went to our favorite Chicago pizza place, Giordano’s.

We are now back in the lounge waiting to board our second train, The Lakeshore Limited #48 from Chicago to New York.

We have arrived in Lamy, Nm and are at the train station waiting for the train.

Part of the joy of train travel is what we are doing right now, waiting for a train.

There is something especially exciting about when the time for the arrival gets close. You step out to trackside and peer down the tracks as far as you can see.

Then, you hear it, a distant horn followed by spotting the headlight of the locomotive.

There comes the train you are about to board to take you on your journey.

Most do not get to experience anything like this. Air travel just does not have the arrival that a train has.

Just one of the many things I like about train travel.

That is right, the Mashburn family is heading out to visit the big apple.

We will be departing Thursday, June 25th and returning July 4th.

Of course, we again will be using our favorite transport to get us there, Amtrak.

We hope you will enjoy sharing a bit of our journey with us as I will be updating this blog as we travel. If you would like to receive an e-mail whenever a new post is made, put in your e-mail address on the right hand column and press the SEND button.

We are very excited and can’t wait to get started. Here is an overview of our itinerary…

I am going to attempt to add some video clips this year, especially of the train trip since I will have plenty of time on the train to edit them.

Hope you enjoy!