New York City Day 1

We took the Amtrak from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in New York. The train ride was pretty uneventful. The kids thought it was fun, and it was nice that they could move around freely. We grabbed a quick lunch at Penn Station and took a cab (through crazy traffic) to our hotel. Our rooms weren't ready, so we dropped off our bags and headed to F.A.O. Schwarz. We all had fun there and spent about 1.5 hours looking around. We allowed the kids to purchase one toy and of course, there were plenty of displays to captivate their interests and play with.

Here they are holding their purchases-Pierce, a transformer; Madelyn-a Madame Alexander Dorothy doll; Isabel-a Madame Alexander Madeline doll:

JD did some quick research and found that we were only "6 minutes" away from the American Girl Doll store. It might have only been 6 minutes if you didn't have kids, but with ours in tow, it was more like 20 minutes. I'm glad we made the effort, though, because it was a little taste of Heaven for Madelyn.

In front of a display of all of the "period dolls" :

Checking out the Julie Albright display:

In front of McKenna, the girl of the year, display:

Isabel enjoyed reading the books:

We left the store and went back to the hotel, dropped our stuff, and headed to the old stand by, McDonald's, for dinner. We tried to have an early bedtime since no one had had a rest time. Isabel, though, was too excited to fall asleep, and we spent the next two hours playing bed tag with her. It was a good day, though, and we were excited for a "low-key day" to follow.