We (my parents, brother, son & my husband) left home at 6:30am. We had arranged for Borders limos to transport us to South Station in Boston for our Amtrak regional train to New York City.

On arrival at South Station we got a Red Cap to take our luggage so we could go and get Breakfast before we boarded the train. We had arranged to meet the Red Cap at 7:45am so we could board the train before the crowd so we would have time to get settled and all our luggage stowed safely. Our train left South Station on time and we were soon on our way to New York City. Our journey passed fairly quickly and before we knew it we were pulling into Penn Station we were running about 10 minutes late but that was not a worry for us as we had no definite plans other than to get to New York and checkin to our hotel. We had booked 2 rooms at the Doubletree by Hilton on 128 W 29th Street. It is within walking distance of Penn Station. What a sight we must have looked, 6 adults all in a line with 6 large cases and 3 smaller striding down 7th Avenue on a very cold Thursday in March. Once we arrived at the hotel we discovered that the 2 double rooms we had booked were not available and we were offered one double room and one king room with a rollout bed. for our inconvenience we were offered free buffet breakfast for the whole group.. more about this later. These rooms were ready and we could dump our stuff and go exploring.

We set off back towards 7th Ave in search of some lunch. We found a place called Harringtons Bar & Grill and we headed in there, it was a bit noisy as there was a large crowd watching a basketball game on the large TV's but the food was good and not too over priced. From here we continued up 7th Ave to Time Square where we took a few photos. It was very very cold so a visit to Starbucks for a hot drink was in order. We then walked along 49th Street to 6th Ave and headed back toward downtown stopping to check out a few shops along the way. We came across an incident where we saw 6 fire trucks and a few police units all with flashing lights, very exciting... we were not able to find out what it was all about. Once we were back at the hotel we chilled out for an hour before we headed back out to find somewhere to have dinner. We found a small diner called Andrew's and decided we would eat there as there was something on the menu for everyone. I enjoyed my Meatloaf dinner very much. We headed back out onto 7th Ave with the idea we would explore some more of the area but it was so cold and windy we all decided to head back to the hotel for some heat and an early night. Now more about the room situation... As I mentioned before the two double rooms we booked were not available so we had had to take one double room and one King room with a rollaway bed added.. Well anyone who has ever stayed in a mid priced hotel in NYC will know that you cant swing a cat in the rooms never mind have room for a full sized rollaway and still have floorspace to stand up in.. so my parents and my brother ended up three in the king... not the best night sleep they have ever had. to top it all they could not get there TV to work either.. so they had a very early night. For the rest of us we were able to chill out and watch some TV before getting some much needed sleep. Read more