Trip to New Jersey ~ Day 2

On Day 2 in New Jersey, I actually had to go into New York City to get my Malaysian passport renewed.  It was 5 years ago that my sister and I had traveled to NYC to do this same task.  Can't believe it's already been 5 years! And now my sister is an American citizen so I guess it's just me doing it.  And I am bringing Graham and Charlie along:

We take a train in Summit.  Charlie is not too keen on the noise of the train brakes:

Didn't take long to let the boys play with tablets again.  It's about a 45 minute train ride into the city:

Once we arrived at Penn Station, I decided to load everyone on the cab instead of walking to the Consulate of Malaysia.  Boys are back in action with their tablets!  It was quite a wait so in a way, it worked out:

After a while, I did decide on a game of Uno instead. And after 1.5 hrs or so, we are done!  Otherwise if I had submitted my passport into LA's Malaysian Consulate, it would have taken 6-8 weeks to get my passport back!

Since we were in the city and still had some time to spare before our train back to Summit, I decided to take the boys to the Empire State Building.  On the way, photo op with the Chrysler Building:

And lunch at Shake Shack - a little reminder of our Abu Dhabi days since we ate at this franchise when we lived there.  It didn't disappoint!

A few blocks later, we are at the Empire State Building.  So glad it is not busy! 

We stop on the 2nd floor exhibit.  It's so well done!

These statues were quite impressive:

I think the boys were a bit hesitant at first with King Kong moving in the window:

What a cool exhibit!

There was a collection of photos with people that had taken photos on the 86th Observatory Deck, including this yellow Mustang. How on earth did they put this up there!?!

The art deco lighting is pretty neat:

We take the elevators up to the 86th floor.  There is a video playing on the ceiling of the elevator. Neat!

Graham is a bit scared of heights so he is not quite by the window:

But what a view of downtown:

I wonder if the building actually still uses these mail chutes?  Actually, just reading up on this online and yes, these chutes are still in use! 86th floor all the way down to the lobby :-)

Here we are... 86th floor!

So glad Graham warmed up to being outside on the deck and there were plenty of binoculars:

We-fie!

These boys are such monkeys:

Not a very busy day as you can see.  Phew!

We catch our train with 5 minutes to spare.  I was told to "not get carried away" in the Gift Shop at the Empire State Building.  Ha!

The boys didn't last very long with their souvenirs from the City:

They were able to charge their tablets at the Malaysian Consulate with just enough to spare for the train ride home:

What a fun day!  Of course, I got suckered into buying some photos by the boys:

The photos did turn out pretty nicely.  Charlie is such a character!

What a fun day!  And then, to top it off the boys see a deer in the backyard before dinner time: 

Passport renewed - check!  New experience - check! Mission accomplished :-)