NYC Day 2

Our second day in New York City was the 4th of July. We decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History that morning. We could have spent all day there. It has so much to see! All of the animal exhibits are really neat. Quincy loved being able to see the animals up close. Jordan headed to the Yankee's game and Quincy and I walked back in the rain so she could take a nap.

Naptime! We then got ready to head out for the evening. The following is a story we will be telling for a lifetime...

We headed out to see the NYC 4th of July Macy's fireworks show. We figured it would be an awesome way to spend the 4th of July in New York City. As we had been wanting to see the Brooklyn Bridge, we decided to leave with plenty of time to walk across it and then watch the fireworks on the other side at the park. 

We took the train to the nearest station of the Brooklyn Bridge, walked up out of the station and realized that the bridge had already been closed off to pedestrians for the fireworks show.... (I may or may not have questioned that this would be a possibility due to the fireworks show... unfortunately I was right.) We then had to pay for another ticket on the subway to get us on the other side of the East River, where we planned to watch the fireworks. As we start walking towards the park the crowd starts getting larger and larger. Finally, we enter the gates to the park and find that much of the park has already been blocked off as being "full." So, we kept walking. We weighed our options as we realized that there would not be any sort of grass for us to sit and wait for the next 2 hours. The decision was made to sit on a bench that was open and wait until the fireworks started. As soon as we sit on said bench we realize why no one is sitting on this bench... there is a large bush right in our view of where the fireworks will be lit off from the barge. Lovely! We decided we could move to see the fireworks better after they started if necessary. Jordan then left to try and find some dinner for us. He comes back about 15 minutes later with no food. Apparently he was not allowed re-entry if he left the park and there were zero vendors to buy any food. This was going really well.... We had a toddler at bedtime with no dinner and two hours to wait til the fireworks even started. But, we decided to just wait it out and see how it goes. Luckily, we made friends with a sweet 9 year old boy and his mother who were sitting next to us. They willingly shared some grapes and mangoes when they realized we had nothing to eat. The boy was very sweet to Quincy and kept her occupied.

 Finally, it became dark enough for the fireworks. The first one shoots into the air... BOOM! And I feel Quincy leap to my side and grab on for dear life. She starts bawling immediately. I tell her, "No, look! Aren't they pretty? Fireworks! They are fun!" She is not having it. Jordan takes her further out so she can see them better, but she is terrified. We quickly realize that we need to leave. So, we pack up and head out. But, it is not an easy get away. 

We attempt to go one way, and the cop won't let us out through the gate. Instead we have to walk through a huge crowd of people all staring up at the sky and not moving one bit out of the way. We finally get out the gate of the park. And then we are stuck in an even bigger crowd of people who didn't get let into the park. There was literally NOT a way out. I folded up the stroller as Jordan carried Quincy (who was still screaming from the fireworks, and biting Jordan's shoulder in fright.) We were pushing people out of our way and they were looking at us like we were in their way. I became so annoyed I started yelling "Our child is terrified of the fireworks! Please move out of our way!" Of course no one listened, so we pushed and shoved our way through the crowd. I started thinking to myself "if this were a real emergency situation, we would be in real trouble here! This is a nightmare!" And it truly was awful. We eventually made it through the crowd and walked with hundreds of other people towards the subway. We made it to the subway entrance where we then stood waiting for 30 minutes for a train to come. It was so hot and crowded down there, but we were right up front, sure to get on the first train that came. There was a nice man behind us talking to Quincy. The train started pulling up and we expected to get on until we noticed that it wasn't the train that we wanted. We tried to move out of the way so everyone else could push into the train. It was frightening the way people moved to get onto that train, something I had seen only in the movies. Huge crowds shoving and hurrying into the train. Suddenly we noticed that the nice man who was behind us was trying to make room for us to get on the train. He was literally blocking people with his arm to try and get us on. He punched another man in the face who was trying to get past him, all the while we tried to explain that we don't need to get on that train! The crowd carried him away into the train and the doors closed as we were left with the poor man who was punched in the face for our sake! We felt awful. Jordan apologized to him and tried to explain what had happened. He said it didn't really hurt, and he did look like he was fine. I'm sure he was livid though. The next train came maybe 10 minutes later, and it was the one we wanted. We boarded that train and soon after a fight started in our car. You could feel the tension on the train. I started humming a primary song and as Quincy looked up at me I could feel the tension leave. It was a blessing right from heaven. We arrived at our station 2 hours after the fireworks had started. We were exhausted, but we picked up some Subway sandwiches on the way back to our place and swore we would never do anything like that again! I would say that it completely ruined our NYC trip. But the next day was wonderful. So, we are willing to visit NYC again sometime :) Although, we will never recommend trying to see the fireworks show with a 2 year old.