Our first family vacation was to New York to visit my sister. July 5, 2007 we packed up the kids along with the dog and headed on a 14 hour drive. We left the house at 5:30am and arrived in NY at 7pm. I was not looking forward to the drive with a 3 ½ year old and a 15 month old plus the dog which was a last minute decision. Despite my anxiety the drive went really well. Everyone behaved including me. I brought a ton of movies for the kids along with snacks and coloring activities. I had lots of reading to catch up on and download some movies to my Ipod.
It was so nice to see my sister and her family. Her daughter is the same age as my youngest and they connected as soon as we got in.
July 6, 2007 we decided to head to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania. What a fun place!! I highly recommend it. We plan on making this an annual. We thought the pricing of the amusement park was reasonable and if you’re AAA member you save $5 dollars off admission plus children under 2 are free. We saved a lot of money by packing the cooler with lunches which we ate in the parking lot as many other families did as well.
Sesame Place is not only an amusement park, but also water park. So make sure you remember swim suits and swimming diapers! We forgot swim diapers at my sisters and they were a bit pricey for 1 plus they do not have a variety of sizes. My other suggestion is get there early and go on a week day. It was tough going to the park all day after drive the previous day, but I think it was worth it. It never seemed really crowded. Although when we left he parking lot was jam packed!!
We all had such a good time I want to share it with you. The amazement on the children’s faces entering the park is just priceless. The place is very clean and it is not that big so it isn’t overwhelming. Another recommendation is bring hand sanitizer. The place is clean, but a lot of little kids which equals lots of germs.
I loved how the rides were set-up. My daughter obviously is neither old nor tall enough to go on anything by herself and they make the rides big enough for you to enjoy with them! I went on every ride with her. As a bonus I loved the fact that I didn’t have to leave my 15m out. I could take her on about 90 percent of the rides as well. I didn’t take her on any of the water rides though and I’m not sure I could have.
The day we went was HOT 90+ degrees. Having the water areas was such a treat and everyone got to cool off. **little secret we discovered—the water pools in the back of the park were pretty crowded, but still not at all bad. If you go to the front of the park by the large waterslide they have more pools with a fraction of the people (go in as if you were going on the slides)! Also they have sand to keeps the little ones busy while you take a break.
The characters are always walking around and they have areas for certain characters and times for pictures. You can most definitely take your own pictures! We missed the parade, but heard it was nice. It also run a couple times a day so you have many opportunities to catch it.
July 7, 2007 was a day of relaxation and quality time with my family.
July 8, 2007 we really wanted to head downtown to do touristy things but they were calling for 100 degrees. OUCH! We decided to do something for the kids indoors….plus we really wanted to be in the air condition. Even though my sister has air units in the house, it just doesn’t cool as well as central air.
We jumped in the car and headed to the Long Island Children's Museum. What fun that was! This kept the kids busy for 4 hours and we got to relax in the nice cool building plus the kids were learning even though they didn’t know it! The bubble room was an instant hit along with the music and telephone room. We probably went back to these areas over and over again. I do recommend bringing your own lunch. The museum has a cafeteria, but you can only get items out of a vending machine YUK. The admission was a little more than I would expect to pay, but it is in NY.
July 9, 2007 we were on the road again at 3:30am. The drive again went seamless and fast. Although 1 word of advise..do not plug your navigation system, radar detector and Ipod charger in the same front outlets. (We have 2 in the front of our mini van and the navigation system has a double slot). I managed to blow the fuse immediately and finding plus fixing it was an hour task..let just say my husband wasn’t please! He did get over it and we laughed about it later!
Thank you for reading! If you plan your trip there I hope you have a great time. I’d love to hear about your experience as well. Email me.
Sorry about the limited Pictures! I promise to take better pictures next trip!
