Day 190 – 17th May – New Orleans – New Jersey

We were up early this morning and got an Uber to the airport ready for our 9:55am flight to Newark, New Jersey. We arrived about 2:30 and were picked up by my cousin Jonathan at the airport. He drove us back to his house which was approximately 90 minutes away. We had a lovely afternoon sat outside on the decking in the sun having a catch up with Jonathan and Barbara.  They cooked us a lovely steak dinner and we carried on chatting until we went to bed!

Day 191 – 18th May – New Jersey

We got up and went out to sample a traditional American breakfast at a place close to their house. There was so much choice and so many variations of options you could have! Dan and I had omelettes that were nice but huge! After this we drove to Waldon in the state of New York to go to the Angry Orchard Cidery.  It was free to go in and do a self guided tour that also included a sample of three ciders so we did the self guided tour first. Jonathan went to check on tours that were happening and there was a brewery tour that was starting so we decided to do that as well. It was really interesting and the guide was good. The brewery here didn’t make a lot of the cider and it was more of a research and development centre that experimented with new flavours and got feedback from the people who came to see the cidery.  We tried one of the newer ciders which had an English influence and was pretty high in alcohol content! After the brewery tour we went to get our free samples of cider and sat in the bar area trying them. We had an apple variety, a rose cider and a pear cider. All of which were nice but I think we all preferred their standard crisp apple cider! Dan went to get a couple of jugs called growlers to take home with us.

On the route home we stopped off at an ice cream place to try some. Barbara is a massive ice cream fan and we were happy to go along with this! We spent the rest of the afternoon sat outside at Jonathan and Barbara’s house in the sun and in the evening we went out for a lovely Italian meal near to their house. When we got back we sat up for a while chatting again. We’d had a really lovely day.

Day 192 – 19th May – New Jersey

We got up and went out for breakfast again at Kathy’s. I was a bit boring and had another omelette while Dan had ham and eggs. We then went back to Jonathan and Barbara’s house and chilled for the rest of the morning in their house. In the afternoon we went to their local baseball stadium to watch the Sussex County Miners play the Rockland Boulders. It was really hot and we moved seats to get some shade. We had the rules explained to us again as neither of us could remember / knew them. It was a really good atmosphere in the ground and the PA system played music and made noises of broken glass etc when the ball was hit out of the ground. There was also a lot of entertainment between the innings and I got picked out to win a prize! The game was really good and the Miners won 9-1! After the match we went back to Jonathan and Barbara’s house via the ice cream place and sat in the nice air conditioning in their house! The weather had been very warm and after a while a storm approached and the thunder and lightening started. We spent the evening sat chatting over a growler! Again we had had another lovely day.

Day 193 – 20th May – New Jersey – New York

We got up, had breakfast and then set off for New York City at 9:45am.  We arrived about 11:15 and parked near the circle line cruise company ready for our cruise around Manhattan. We set sail at 12 and went south towards the financial district, the world trade centre and then sailed past the Statue of Liberty. We then went up north on the east side of Manhattan and saw various building and landmarks including the Brooklyn bridge, Empire State Building and the Yankee stadium which is home to the New York Yankees. The cruise around Manhattan took about 2 1/2 hours and it made you realise how big the city of New York actually was. After the cruise we said goodbye to Jonathan and Barbara. We had had a brilliant time with them and were sad to be going but also looking forward to exploring New York. We got the subway to Brooklyn and found our hotel relatively easily. We checked in and then went to have a look around Brooklyn and the suburb of Williamsburg where we were staying. We stumbled upon some really cool bars and ended up in an Italian restaurant for dinner.

Day 194 – 21st May – New York

We had a lazy morning and a late start and spent the time wandering around Brooklyn and had lunch out. We then got the subway into Manhattan to meet one of Dan’s uni friends; Alok for a drink in the financial district. After a drink, Alok had to get home to his new baby and so we went to a bar in Murray Hill and then went for an Indian afterwards.

Day 195 – 22nd May – New York

We had a chilled morning and set off late morning to Times Square and Broadway to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child parts 1&2. We had booked tickets a few months before and we were both really looking forward to seeing the play on broadway. We went for our first McDonald’s since we’d been in America first and then went to the theatre at about 1:30pm. The first part started at 2pm and lasted two and a half hours. There were some really funny parts to the play and the first half was really good and left the ending on a bit of a cliff hanger ready for part two. We had about a two and a half hour break before the second part started and we went to grab a drink and food nearby. The second half was equally as good as the first and the special effects were amazing considering it was on a theatre set. We were both really impressed with the performance and really glad we’d bought the tickets. After the show we got the subway back to the hotel and went to bed.

Day 196 – 23rd May – New York

We got up quite late and decided to go into Manhattan and go and have a picnic for lunch in Central Park. We picked up a couple of sandwiches in Brooklyn and got the subway to Central Park. We sat and ate our lunch and then went on a bit of a walk around. Unfortunately for us, there was heavy rain forecast for the afternoon and pretty soon after we had eaten lunch the heavens opened. We tried to shelter for a bit under a tree but we were still getting quite wet so we decided to make a dash for it. This was a bit of a mistake as we got absolutely soaked! We had no choice but to head back to the hotel and get changed out of our sopping wet clothes! We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel drying off and in the evening headed out in Brooklyn for a drink on our last night in New York. We went to Circle Bar and they had a skee ball table which we played for a while and it was good fun. I obviously beat Dan! We headed back to the hotel and ordered a pizza for tea!

Day 197 – 24th May – New York – Reykjavík

We checked out of the hotel at 12 and left our bags there. We got the subway into Manhattan and went to have a look around Chelsea market. Alok had recommended a really good taco stall which we wanted to try. It is quite famous in the area and we were told there is normally a big queue. We arrived about 12:45 and the queue was really long but it went down pretty quickly. The tacos were incredible and definitely as good as the reviews. After this we had a bit more of a look around Chelsea market and then walked to the Empire State Building. We had tickets to the observatory and got the lift up to floor 79. This was an indoor viewing area which had great views over Manhattan. We then took the stairs for the final 7 floors and went to floor 86 to the outdoor observatory. The views were incredible and it made you appreciate how big Manhattan is and how many sky scrapers there are! After spending some time on the observatory we then got the lift back down and got the subway back to Brooklyn to the hotel. We had a couple of hours to kill until our taxi was due and we just sat on some sofas to wait. Our taxi was booked at 7pm to take us to JFK for our 23:25 flight to Reykjavík.