Day 1, part 2. Yes, we are still on day 1.

I mentioned before that we purchased NYC Explorer passes from Costco at a discount price. The pass allowed us to enter 3 different attractions. The passes came with a 96 page guide book that listed all of the attractions. We had so much to choose from. We used our pass at the Top of the Rock attraction. An added bonus to the pass was that it allowed us front of the line access at the ticket counter. So we literally were able to bypass the line, show them our Explorer passes, and were ushered to the waiting area for the elevators. We only had to wait a few minutes until we were escorted into the elevators. They tried to make it entertaining by having a little laser light show on the ceiling of the elevator. We finally reached the top and stepped out onto the platform.

In case you forgot, we are headed to the top of this building.

The view from top of the Rock was stunning. 

A tale of two kids. One has a fear of heights and would not go near the edge of the platform. The other went right up and pressed his face against the glass.

That's Central Park behind us.

A perfect view of the Empire State Building! This was high up on the list of things to see, because they wanted to see where King Kong climbed in the movie.

We could even see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Central Park.

Alex and Noah.

My 3 favorite guys.

 Thumbs up!

Who me, nervous?

Nik perfectly happy to see the view from inside.

Noah loved the view from the 70th floor.

Alex zoomed in on the roof of a building. Grass!

We spent about 45 minutes up on the 3 platforms, enjoying the beautiful views. I had originally planned on staying up there until after sunset. I wanted to see the town light up. But Nik was pretty much done with the whole thing. And sunset was still another 30 minutes or so away.  So, we decided to head down. I guess I should have planned on arriving a little later. 

It really was a great way to kick off our first day. We were able to get a 360 view of the city and could point out some of the landmarks to the kids. And it wasn't that crowded, like we have heard with the Empire State building. I'm so happy we decided to see Rockefeller Center. 

After we exited the building, we decided to head to the Nintendo World store at Rockefeller Plaza. I had no idea how big Rockefeller Plaza was. It took some circling around to find the store. Nintendo World is a 3 story souvenir shop for all things Nintendo. We were able to pick up a couple of shirts for the boys with an I love New York theme, and the kids checked out a Nintendo museum display.

Lost in Rockefeller Plaza.

Nintendo Heaven!

After that, we headed back to the hotel. Along the way, we stopped in St. Thomas Episcopal and St Patrick's Cathedral. The churches were beautiful. Unfortunately for us, we arrived in the midst of a major refurbishment at St. Patrick's. It was difficult to tour the church and get decent pictures. 

St Thomas Episcopal.

St Patrick's Cathedral.

St. Patrick's

St Thomas

We also passed Radio City Music Hall. Our hotel was in walking distance to so many attractions.

Mexican food cart. We should have tried it.

These bike rental racks were the thorn on the side of the locals. They all hated them. But we saw allot of people renting them.

Our day one ended with us buying some hot dogs from Nathans and taking them back to our hotel room. The hot dogs were horrible. Not the way I remembered them as a kid. We ended the evening just watching the news coverage about the tornado that struck Oklahoma that evening. 

Next up, day 2 and seeing our first musical on Broadway!

Day One NYC

We had a very early flight and were up at 5am. It was pouring down rain like I've never seen before. We quickly loaded up the car and headed to the airport.We were in such a hurry, that we totally forgot about Noah's glasses. Oops. We didn't realize it until we were on the freeway. And with the weather so bad, we just kept on going. It was a white knuckle ride all the way. The roads were bad. Thankfully, we made it to the airport on time. Our flight to NYC required us to change planes in Chicago. We had to literally one from one terminal to the next, and were the last ones to board that flight! We made it just in time for takeoff. Whew!

Now this should have been a cue of how wonderful Noah would tolerate things. Normally, he becomes very anxious before a trip. He will rock back and forth before boarding and will be down right miserable. But this time, there was none of that. He talked non stop all the way to New York, so happy and content.

We arrived at our hotel in New York City about an hour before I had anticipated. But to our surprise, the room was ready for us.

The Manhattan at Times Square

The hotel seemed nice enough. The lobby was spacious and clean. 

Our room

When we got up to our room, we quickly realized that the room could use some updating. But it was clean, and the hotel was in an excellent location.

The start of Times Square was just across the street.

The view of the New Years Eve ball from the front of our hotel.

So for us, a room that needs some updating was not a problem. We arrived in the middle of a heat wave, so having a clean, air conditioned room close to the attractions was well worth it. 

The first thing we did was head out to Rockefeller Plaza. We were starving, so decided to eat lunch first. Based on my research on Trip Advisor, I picked Bills Bar and Grill. The food was pretty good, and we spent $75 for the four of us. Not too bad.

Our first meal in NYC.

After lunch, we headed for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). From 4-8 on Fridays, the museum is free. When we got there, we were greeted by a very long line that wrapped around the block. We figured we would get in line, but were prepared to leave if it was too much for the kids.  But the line moved so quickly, we were inside within a few minutes.

The museum was packed with people. Apparently we aren't the only family who appreciates a bargain. Now, there are some pretty famous paintings inside MoMa. Picasso, Matisse, Rivera. But here are some works of art that we found interesting.  

If a painted door is considered to be a work of art, then we have plenty at our house.

Black smudge on glass. Noah does this to our storm door all the time.

Creepy naked dude.

The kids spotted a picture and said it looked like Luke carrying Yoda on his back.

Hey, it really does look like Yoda.

Angry clown. I love this painting.

High priced apartments across the street.

Annoying apple?

Video games inside an Art Museum?

I think this was their favorite "work of art."

Like I said earlier, the museum was pretty packed. We walked around a couple of floors. After that, the kids were getting anxious to move on. They wanted out. I think it was just too crowded for them. 

Next up was to head to the observation deck of Rockefeller Plaza. Known as Top of the Rock, the tour allows you to go up to the 67th-70th floors of the building. There, you get an unobstructed 360 degree view of New York City. The building is beautiful. 

There was so much to see, that it was hard to get the kids to focus on the camera.

Where the Today Show is filmed.

Next up, the long, long, long way to the 70th floor. We're headed up to the to of this building.  To be continued...

The trip where we went from maybe, to yes we can!

We are firm believers that travel offers some amazing opportunities for growth in children on the autism spectrum. So we try to go on a vacation every year. And we encourage the boys to be actively involved in picking our vacation destination.  But truth be told, so much of our trips consist of us saying "Maybe the boys can handle this." There are always concerns about crowds, noise, sticking to routines. It's part of coping with autism. But by the end of this trip, we went from "maybe" to "OMG, yes we can!"

This year, Nik and Noah both expressed a desire to visit New York City. Alex has visited a few times on business, but this would be a first trip for the boys and I. Being the thrifty person that I am, I went to http://www.travelzoo.com/ to see if there were any hotel deals. As luck would have it, they were running a special on The Manhattan at Times Square. It was formerly owned by Sheraton, so I figured it would be a decent place to stay. At $199 a night, and located at Times Square, it was a bargain. Then just two days before we left, I saw another deal that knocked off another $169 off our total.

Ok, hotel and airfare were booked. Next up was to plan the itinerary. Traveling with someone on the autism spectrum requires planning, planning, and more planning. First on our list was to pick a Broadway musical. We looked at youtube clips of Lion King, Wicked, and Spiderman Turn off the Dark. The kids gave Spiderman the thumbs up. I was very nervous about this. Noah suffers from anxiety, and loud noises and music are a major trigger for him. I researched the seating plan for the theater, and figured out the seats that were closest to the exits.

Off to http://www.travelzoo.com/ again. I went to the entertainment tab and found a deal on Spiderman  tickets. Tickets in the flying circle were on sale for $99 each (regularly $159). The filying circle is the balcony of the theater. In this particular musical, Spiderman would fly over our seats and land in the balcony. $400 is allot of money to spend for a show that we may have to walk out of. But we would never know if Noah could do it if we weren't willing to try. So I went ahead and bought the tickets.

I had a list of museums and attractions that we wanted to see. There are various types of passes you can buy that allow you to use one ticket for different attractions. Costco had the Explorers passes at a discount. I ended up paying $238 for 4 passes. I saved almost $100 there. I love a good deal.

Now that we had our tickets, I worked on creating the rest of our itinerary. Along with that, I created a social story. Social stories are short stories that describe in words and pictures different activites or events that will happen in a detailed way. Knowing what will happen and in what order helps to keep anxiety at bay. We went over this social story every day leading up to the trip.

The last day of school was spent packing and getting all of the last minute things taken care of. We always pack tons of snacks in case of emergencies. Good thing I did that, because we found ourselves running to make a connecting flight out of Chicago and had no time for breakfast. We survived on snacks until lunch.

Snacks and camera gear.

Enough with the pre trip planning. Next up, day one in NYC.

Traveling Dad

Face Time is a wonderful invention. When Alex is on the road, it's a great way for us to get to visit with him every night.  Here is a picture I snapped the first time the kids got to see dad for the first time with Noah's I pad.  They loved it!

Moving up to the big school.

We wrapped up May with promotions for Nik and Noah. Both promotions landed on the say day, so the morning was spent racing from one ceremony to the next. The morning started off with pictures of the boys all dressed up. Ignore the sneakers.

Nik was first up. The ceremony was short, but sweet. Noah seemed happy to watch from the bleachers.

Nik looked good wearing his favorite color. Here he is getting his certificate.

And going in for the hand shake.

Noah was so proud of brother.

The kids were starting to get bored before long. Fortunately for them, it came to an end.

After the promotion, the 8th graders headed to a field trip. I took a quick picture of the boys before we headed to Noah's ceremony.

When we got to Noah's school, we were greeted by his beloved para, Ms. Allie. He just loves her. She has done an amazing job with him.

Noah's ceremony was much longer than Nik's. Noah seemed pretty bored.

That is, until his name was called. Here he is getting a hug from his teacher.

 

And approaching the principal to receive his certificate. 

Look at that proud smile!

What a great day. We are so proud of the boys. They have learned so much in the 5 years we have been in Kansas. The boys have had amazing teachers and paras over the past few years. We are so thankful to all of the hard work the staff have put in with our sons.  Next year, Nik will be going to high school and Noah will be moving to middle school. We are excited to see what they will accomplish at the new schools.

Next up, our trip to New York!