Family Adventure: New York City, Delaware & Maryland

Every year we try to take a family vacation and things were no different this year. Our family vacations always seem to take place in New York, but this year we divided most of our time between New York and Delaware.

To make the vacation more entertaining for the kids I decided to add a special travel companion named Ella the Giraffe. The small toy traveled with our family and experienced a lot of things and best of all the kids enjoyed finding places for Ella the Giraffe to get her picture taken. This is our story!

After making a quick pitstop in Virginia, we were on the road again. However, as we approached Washington D.C. it was clear that we would be stuck in traffic. Siting in D.C. traffic was the worst, but our loyal travel companion Ella the Giraffe took this opportunity to take pictures with the Washington Monument.

As the traffic began moving again, we were quite relived as the excitement to be on the road picked up again. We were finally on our way and Ella the Giraffe would soon experience her first trip across the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  We spent several hours on the road, but we were so glad to make it to New York. (I might have mentioned this before, but New York holds a special place in my heart…it’s home and I don’t know what I will do when I no longer have a reason to visit.)

We spent the evening chatting and hanging out with grandma before calling it a night. We were all exhausted, but to wired from the trip to sleep. I think it was after 2 a.m. when I fell asleep-considering we needed to be up early for our day the Bronx Zoo. One thing about the streets in the Bronx, if you need to be awake early the police or ambulance sirens are reliable. I got the family up and ready and we embarked on our trip to the zoo. Of course, Ella the Giraffe was tucked away ready for her adventure at the zoo as wellq.

Bronx Zoo:

If you have never visited the Bronx Zoo it is a must. It sits on 265 acres and there are many indoor buildings/exhibits and outdoor areas. It is also open year-round, but are closed for Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Year’s and Martin Luther King Day.  

The best way to enjoy the entire zoo is to be there when the gates open at 10 a.m. but know it's difficult Tiger Mountain, Himalayan Highlands, Congo Gorilla Forest, and World of Reptiles. One of our favorite exbibits was Tiger Mountain. I think seeing tigers up close was a neat experience.

We also went into the World of Birds exhibit and saw a large variety of winged-friends. The coolest thing about this exhibit is how the birds can fly around. Make sure you watch your step, or you may step in bird poo. Even worse you can leave with some on your head or shoulder.

Another highlight from our visit from the zoo was the Carter Giraffe Building. We were able to see giraffes up-close and personal which was neat for our traveling companion Ella the Giraffe. During the winter the giraffes go inside to keep warm which allows visitors to see these long-necked beauties. Fun Fact: giraffes can spend up to 20 hours a day consuming food.

Reptile World was also another fun experience where we saw snakes, turtles, and lizards. Some of the featured exhibits were the anaconda, the blue iguana, and the poison dart frog. I was impressed with the selection of reptiles and was even more shocked with the number of visitors inside the exhibit.

The girls also enjoyed visiting the Madagascar exhibit because of the lemurs. At the zoo you’ll see six different species of lemurs. Inside this exhibit we saw a Madagascar Tree Boa, a Fossa, and Nile Crocodiles. Fun Fact: there are about 97 lemur species native to island of Madagascar.

Overall our time at the zoo exceeding our expectations. I mean we did walk a lot and saw damned near every exhibit and spent the whole day there. I highly recommend you guys visit the Bronx Zoo.

Central Park:

Now you’ve probably seen Central Park in several movies like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Cruel Intentions, Enchanted, Vanilla Sky, Spider Man 3 and many more. But if you have never been you are truly missing out on a piece of New York City history dating back to July 1853. It was than when state legislatures made into the setting aside of over 750 acres of land. This area is was America’s first major landscaped public Park.

When visited Central Park we spent the afternoon in the rain walking up and down the paths enjoying the sites. Not even the crappy weather couldn’t stop us from enjoying one of New York’s best attraction. 

There is so much to do that one day in the Park will not be enough to cover it. Some of the popular attractions are the Central Park Zoo, the Balto statue, the Dairy Visitor Center & Gift Shop, the Obelisk, The Loch and much more.

Funny story...although we had a map of the Park we got lost. Somehow, we spent two hours walking around in the rain and took the wrong path. So instead of ending on W 59th Street we ended up circling around to Central Park North. We were soaked, cold and tired, but everyone including Ella the Giraffe had fun

 Times Square: Sights and Bites 

After getting lost in Central Park we hopped on the 1-train to Times Square there the kids enjoyed the sights and sounds of the busiest tourist trap in NYC.  We saw Nasdaq and other neat attractions. However, if you have ever walked through Times Square the one thing you will notice is the variety of food options available.

Since we were “pretty much tourist” we decided on eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. This place is super expensive but come highly recommend. The experience is like no other and if you ever get the chance to visit this chain make sure you know you Forrest Gump facts.

Since this was out first time here, our waiter was extremely polite and patient with us as he explained the specials and popular items. As we waited for our meals he came over to the table and quizzed us on movie history.

After we completed our meals, we headed downstairs to the souvenir shop where you can buy shirts, hats, beer glasses, and other neat trinkets. Fun Fact: there are now 44 Bubba Gump locations worldwide.

Once we finished up at the restaurant, we were still in the mood to explore more so we took a short walk to Ripley’s Believe it or Not where we saw over 500 artifacts within 20 galleries. This location is the largest in North American and holds the biggest collection of shrunken heads.

Some of the highlights for Ripley’s were...

•       Black Hole, a dark whirling tunnel simulating the black hole gives you the illusion of walking through one as you go across the hallway. It gives you the illusion that the floor is moving.
•      The Torture Room…is designed to resemble a dungeon and holds a variety of strange and scary torture devices
•      The Empire State Building, an interactive gallery suspended with mirrors creating an optical illusion effect.

We spent about three hours inside the attraction and really enjoyed it. I most say after walking around in the rain in Central Park, to exploring Times Square and eating the best Seafood in our lives we were exhausted. It was about midnight when we made it back to the Bronx and we needed to get some rest before we headed toward Delaware in a few hours.

Second leg of our vacation...after several hugs and kisses and long goodbyes with grandma, we were finally on the road again. Unlike the way up to the city the drive to Delaware went without a hitch. Of course, we were all still tired and worn down from the activities the day before, but we were excited to visit family.

Once we checked-in to the hotel no one was tired, we all wanted to visit family and enjoy some tax-free shopping. So back on the road we went to visit my husband’s brother, father and uncle. A two day trip turned into a five-day trip and we were able to enjoy our time together doing family-fun activities. 

Ocean City, Maryland: As a family, we hit the boards (boardwalk) and spent sometime enjoying the scent of saltewater and the breeze blowing in our hair. Not much has changed since we moved away from the Eastern Shore, but it was nice being back to the beach even if it is was the off-season. However, the girla and even Ella the Giraffe had a great time also.

We took advantage of the lack of tourist and decided we wanted to play some Putt-Putt; and just like that we put our game faces on and played mini golf as a family.

Salisubry Zoo: Not only did we spend time at the beach and visiting family, but we also decided to visit the zoo. If you're familiar with the Salisbury Zoo then you know that on a good day it takes about an hour to walk through. For us, we just wanted to enjoy being outdoors and the kids had fun showing Ella the Giraffe all the zoo animals.

Overall, it was a great week and a half with lots of laughs and memories. Although, we have moved away from Delaware, it's always nice to come back and visit family. I'm sure the girls will be talking about this trip for awhile or until we go on our next family advendure.

Until Next Time:
Samantha Jan