Photopass photos

Meeting Tiana

Spaceship: Earth (Epcot's icon)

With Periwinkle

Jedi girl

at Animal Kingdom

In front of the tree of life (Animal Kingdom)

Me looking terrified (and Daniel doing Mr Stone Face) on Expedition Everest!

Daniel the Yeti!

In front of Spaceship: Earth at night

Riding Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin

About to meet Jessie

Dinosaur! Alexis found it a bit loud

Waiting for an autograph

Jedi training

Rockin' Roller coaster

At night in front of the Castle

The Hollywood Tower of Terror - great ride!

When the Castle is lit up like a glass slipper!

Photopass is a paid service offered at Walt Disney World - they give you a card and there are photographers placed around the parks who take photos of you and then scan your card. You can also get ride photos on the card. When you get home they send you a cd of the photos. These are a few of my favourites.

Day 27

Our last full day in NYC was a busy one!

The morning started with a trip to the Central Park Zoo (Daniel and Olivia stayed at the apartment - they were both too tired). We watched the seals perform tricks and saw the Polar Bear before going into the aviary to see some tropical birds. Then we went to the Tish Children's zoo where Alexis was able to feed the goats and alpacas (she LOVED it!). Then it was time for me to tick off something from my bucket list - seeing the Delacorte clock perform. Every hour it plays music (different dependent on the time of day and year) and the animals slowly turn. It was perfect.

Back to the apartment to meet up and off we went to the Empire State Building. We were fortunate enough to be at the top at sunset - our last one in NYC. The view is indescribable and this was Olivia's favourite NY moment.

The Delacorte clock

The city in black and white

The last sliver of sun as it went down

John's pizzeria

Next we went to John's Pizzeria which is famous for it's pizza and then it was time to see Mary Poppins the musical on Broadway! What an amazing show - and what a way to finish a holiday!

We had front row mezzanine seats - practically perfect in every way!

Day 26

More great subway art

Subway lizard!

Today was grey and looked like rain (the first time it had been like this) so it was handy that we had planned on visiting the Museum of Natural History today. Olivia loves museums and she had been looking forward to this part of the trip since we first announced we were going!

The museum is so big and has so much to see you really need a eek in there! The stuffed animals are set in realistic cenes which look so much better (and give a much better representation) than Melbourne's taxidermy room. It was fun seeing animals like 'roadrunners' I had only ever seen in cartoon form!

The dinosaur exhibit had so much to look at and the ocean room was also unbelievably good. We spent well over half a day looking but then I looked ut the window and saw snow - so we were out of there!

Learning about herbivore and carnivore skull differences

Teddy himself

The hall of Biodiversity - very cool.

Dinosaur!

Dum Dum

We walked all the way through Central Park (and we only saw a handful of people) enjoying the snow falling. It was a magical moment and something I had only dreamed I would get to experience with my girls.


Tonight Daniel nd I went out on our own to meet up with a friend of mine from ighschool who was been living and working in NY for 5 years. She lives in the East Village so we made our way over there and went to a great bar called Cienfuegos. We shared a bowl of punch (so good!) while we chatted. Then we split up from Jenny but with er recommendation we went to a Mexican restaurant nearby called Mercadito which was the best Mexican I have ever eaten! It was $5 taco night so Daniel and tried several combinations. So wish we had Mexican this good in Melbourne!

Day 25

This morning was our pre-booked visit to the 9/11 memorial. It was only a short walk from our apartment and we left early beacsue I was worried about how long the security would take us. The security here is very much like an airport but the line moved quickly and the staff were all very pleasant. On our tickets they ticked off each member of our party - at one stop one of the staff drew smiley faces next to the girl's names:)

The memorial is breathtaking. Imagining the huge skyscrapers that once stood as a symbol of NYC (and that I was fortunate enough to go to the observation deck of when I was Olivia's age) and the footage from that day is almost too much.

We didn't stay long because I was very conscious of the girls (we told them it was a war memorial, I did not want to tell them about the planes when we still had 2 to catch) and I didn;t want them to disturb any of the other visitors.

On the way home we stopped to pick up lunch at The Soup Man. Any Seinfeld fan would know this shop as the Soup Nazi (it is a big chain now thanks to the publicity from the show). We ordered a chili jambalya, a chicken and noodle and a mushroom and barley. It was the best soup I have ever eaten! Wow!

amazing soup

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The lovely ladies lounge at Radio City

Alexis before the show

at the Rockefeller

An enthusiastic Salvo man dancing to "All I want for Christmas is you" The crowd loved him!

stopping for a juice

In the afternoon we went to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. And spectacular it was! We had great seats in the middle about 20 rows back from the stage - but about 6 rows in front of us were empty! Who knows why but it worked well for us:) Even Daniel who was skeptical adored the show. The 3D effects were very cool and the synchronisation was amazing.

My waffles at the front, Lexie's burger and fries at the back

Brooklyn diner - Daniel has the spaghetti and meatballs on the left

This evening we met up with some of Grandma's family who live in NY. They took us to The Brooklyn Diner for dinner which was one of my favourite restaurants for the whole stay. I had Brooklyn fried chicken on red velvet waffles. It was like breakfast and dinner combined on one plate served with maple syrup. It was heavenly! The restaurant had all the characteristics of a diner but with white linen and polished wood. I would recommend this place to anyone.

Brooklyn Diner Christmas decoration