NY trip with parents

Took my parents to NY this weekend. I have been planning for the past few weekends but weather was very unpredictable, finally we decided to drive down irrespective of what the weather forecast said. We stayed over at a friend's place. I was very keen not to stay at anyone's place when we take parents around whether my husband's parents or my parents, but this time our friends really insisted we stay over at their place or there was no other way. Friday evening we drove down to Jersey city. Saturday morning parents and I started our tour. DH stayed back as he was very tierd and it made sense as he wanted to spend time with our friends. Their house was very close to the liberty island. So DH dropped us to the ferry terminal and we took the ferry and spend 2-3 hours at the island, and in the return we took the ferry to to NY city. I have to mention our friend's apartment location in Jersey city, we can see the serene Statue of liberty from their bedroom window and beautiful NY skyline from the living room. We just loved it! Did the usual Wall street, bull, etc and witnessed a television serial shooting there as well.

Stopped over at Star cafe for lunch and my parents really loved the Veg pannins there. I was keen that as much as possible they do not eat Indian as they get enough of it back home. Then took the subway to Penn station and did the Empire state building tour. The day had been pretty cloudy to begin with and cool but hadn't rained. By the time we reached the 86th floor on Empire, the clouds cleared up and parents got a spectacular view. I am glad the clouds decided to part and let the rays of the sun shine through. By the time we got out of the building we were tierd had walked so much. We met DH at Madison Square, grabbed a bite for dinner - which was Katti rolls - I really loved it. Our friends have been telling us so much about it we finally got to taste it. In fact the previous night also we had tried it but at Greenwich village. It was yummm! I also had the best Veg falafal there.

Anyway by the time it had got dark, and we had witnessed an arrest also in NY city. Some shoplifter was arrested by these handsome NYPD officers. We reached time square and it really wowed my parents as expected, clicked pictures and we rested on those stairs that have been built now. Almost 2 years back when I went with DH' parents we were struggling to find a place to rest our feet, so that we could admire the hustle-bustle, sitting. Now those stairs were such a blessing really. When my mom and I went and got some souvenirs, commotion had started again. An African-American woman was yelling at the cops as there was an emeregency and a baby was lying on the road and not breathing. So many cops surrounded the street and we happend to see a young Indian couple panicking and crying as their 3-5 yeard old son was lying on the side of the street- still and not breathing and responding. CPR was performed and by this time an ambulance arrived. It took 10 mins for ambulance to come. And whatever it is the paramedics did the boy started moving his hands and gave some hope to the parents. By this time our mood was kinda off, seeing the upset parents cry and the boy lying on the roada nd the exhaustion hit us. We then took a cab till the station and took the train back to Jersey city!

I had not left anything else for Sunday, so we got ready had a filling breakfast on India street at Dosa house, I sacrificed half my dosa to eat Pani puri (typical of me!) and we drove back home.

Now I have to plan the Niagara trip. Parents and I are planning to go sometime midweek in the Goto- chinatown buses and not bother DH with all the driving (I dont want to drive at all that far, beyond 2 hours of drive, thats not me!) .