Day 10: Evergreen - New York

Grant wants me to say....'Today was our first taste of The Big Apple'........

Up early to make the 18mile journey to Denver Airport.  We allowed ourselves an hour and due to one wrong turn made it in 70 minutes.  The highway in peak hour had me gripping the handrail of the passenger seat, as the speed limit was at times 65mph, way too fast for Australians driving on the wrong side of the road!!  There were a couple of mishaps along the freeway, luckily not involving us, and we were kept informed of hazards by the lovely dj's of KYGO, Grant's new favourite country music station (the kids were even beginning to recognize some of th e songs after a week of listening to it). Thought about picking up hitch hikers again until we saw the sign "You are passing Denver Correctional Facility, Do Not Stop for Hitch Hikers".  Our best dashboard friend Mrs Garmin kept us on track (even when we got off track), driving this week has been made so much easier having a GPS!
We were just about last onto the plane, in part due to the ridiculously early time the Americans start boarding their flights, and partly due to having to wait for Tom to come back from buying a drink.  Luckily he wasn't waiting at Burger King for a Croissann'wich (a true creation) or we would have missed it for sure.
After a 3 1/2 hour flight and a 2 hour time zone change forward, we landed at JFK getting a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty out the window of a rainy New York.  Caught a cab into out hotel (the driver would get a drive with Craig Lowndes I'm sure), quickly checked out the room and then ventured outside.
First stop was to Central Station, which the kids commented would be the most boring place to go in the world.  Eyes popped out of heads once inside at the sight of a policeman and a couple of snipers, machine guns at the ready should there be any trouble in the crowd.  A bit of excitement crept in as they recognized the building from different movies they have seen, but they all seemed a bit overwhelmed for a while as the crowd bustled around us.
After a quick dinner on the dining concourse of the station we walked to Times Square.  Again the crowd numbers were huge but the neon lights and signs are captivating.  As if all of this wasn't enough to make everyone's heads spin we then found M&M World!
It was CRAWLING with people, the place was rocking with music, a dancing M&M, every product of merchandising you can think of, and the smell of chocolate filled the air.  Grant, Tom and Lucy all handed over some of their money for the little chocky balls, and I filled an order for the McIntosh family.  Hopefully we won't have to go back there, I think an hour of chocolate scented air is more than enough!
Hope all are well and enjoying your school holidays.

Jo
xx