Someone recommended the Anchor Bar as a place to try while near Buffalo, as it is the home of the original chicken wings.
After riding Maid of the Mist and walking to see Horseshoe Falls, we were hungry and there just happened to be an Anchor Bar nearby. Of course we needed to go, as Will loves chicken wings!
We got a few different items to share: wings, burger and fries, and a salad.
Click to enlarge
The food was really good and Will loved the wings.
We did have to wait quite awhile for a hostess to come to the stand and for our food to arrive. It wasn’t that busy and they seem adequately staffed. It could have been because this location was located at a local hotel.
We spent a couple of hours walking around Central Park. It is so much bigger than I thought it would be. It is 843 acres! There are several bridges, a playground, a zoo, a fountain, a lake, and a castle. We didn’t even see all of it. If we had more time, we would have taken the Blue Line bus tour around the park to hear all of the different tidbits about it.
We didn’t really have a plan in mind, just wandered through the park enjoying the beautiful weather.
There was a large open field in the park where we saw people throwing the Frisbee, picnicking, reading, and sunbathing. We saw a lot of Speedos.
Ben brought us to Belvedere Castle and Turtle Pond. Nick enjoyed seeing all the turtles; they were swimming and lounging on the rocks. Belvedere Castle was open, but there was really only one room open. The stairs to go up were closed off.
It was an amazing park in the middle of a huge city.
One of the best ways we spent our money in New York was the Big Bus hop on/hop off tickets (we bought the Classic ticket). It was a double-decker bus (open air on the top). The tour was prerecorded, but they gave you headphones that you plugged in to the bus. You also had some volume control. This worked out great for me because I sometimes have trouble hearing on the tours.
The tour bus has an app where you can track where the buses currently are, so you can find one to hop onto. There is a red line and a blue line. The blue line really only circles Central Park, while the Red line goes through different spots in the city. Their audio portion contains a lot of fun facts and trivia about the sights along the way.
During our trip, the Red Line had stops at the Empire State Building/Korea Town, SoHo, Chinatown/Little Italy, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty/Battery Park, Circle Line Sightseeing, and M&M World (Times Square). The Blue Line stopped at Times Square.
The experience of sitting on the top floor of the bus was really neat. We had to duck under a few trees, could (but didn’t) touch the stop lights as we drove under them, and had a good view of things near street level (we could see over the other cars).
Views of the High Line (old railroad track made into walking path), Little IslandWall Street, Chinatown, library (Ghost Busters was here), Flat Iron Building), Empire State Building
DETAILS:*
TICKETS: $47.20/adults online price ($59 on-street), $39.20/child online ($49 on-street) (ages 3-12). COVID Restrictions: masks required. They have a few options, these prices were for the Classic Ticket.
HOURS: Red Line: first bus is at 9:30 am at the M&M stop, last bus 4:30 pm at the M&M stop. Blue Line had stops at 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 2:00.
PARKING: No
BATHROOM: No
TIME RECOMMENDED: Min 90 tour per line (tour time without getting off)
*Details correct at the time of posting, but please double check before you go.
Once we got off the ferry at the Brookfield terminal, we walked around New York City to see some of the sites before our tour bus was due down at Battery Park.
We stopped by the 9/11 memorial. The area was gated off and the museum wasn’t open yet for the day. We could still see the fountains/pools that were made in the footprints of the towers. Ben and I both remember hearing the live broadcasts over the radio. The boys have learned about it in school, but it is something else to see it in person.
We walked to see Wall Street and the Charging Bull statue. There was only 1 other person there, so we didn’t have to wait in line long at all. I will say the backside of the bull had some very shiny parts.
We made our way down to Battery Park and got to see the Statue of Liberty! Ben and I saw it on the ferry coming in (the boys had fallen asleep), but we still enjoyed seeing it. We did not take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty island, as you could not walk up to the crown (COVID restrictions). NOTE: Currently, the ferry is only available from the New York side at Battery Park. The New Jersey terminal should open May 29.
Will liked seeing Castle Clinton, although it seems like this battery is now used mostly for tickets to the Statue of Liberty. There were not a lot of informational signs available, as the only two we saw were hidden behind construction items. It looks like they are doing renovations. The restrooms were open, which were a big plus as many others were closed (COVID).
Battery Park had some nice green space and a fun looking carousel (Seaglass Carousel). There was a Starbucks across the street, so we got a coffee and a bagel to enjoy while we waited for our bus tour.
Later in the day, we visited Times Square and explored the M&M Store. Nick found a pressed penny machine and added two new ones to his collection. Will got a large warm pretzel from a street food vendor. The Krispy Kreme had the Hot Now light on, so we stopped in to get a warm donut. There was a little bit of a line, but it moved pretty fast. We got to see the donuts getting glazed on the conveyor belt. There was one cool looking donut, The Big Apple, but it was $11.99! The kids loved being able to finally try the hot glazed donuts (it only took us 10 months to have the right timing!).
At the end of the day, we had over 25,300 steps from walking. We were all exhausted, tired, and sore. The city was incredibly empty compared to what it used to be. It did get a little busier in the afternoon, but was still really down from what the city was pre-COVID. It did make for easier sightseeing though.
While we were in Pennsylvania, Ben really wanted to show the kids New York City. The city had just recently opened back up from COVID travel restrictions. We were worried about traffic and parking in NYC, so we parked in New Jersey and took the ferry over. We woke up about 4:30 am for the almost 2 hour drive to the ferry station. We wanted to get on one of the first ferries and make the most of our day in New York.
We bought our ferry tickets online and had our route all planned out. (It was as $104 for all of us. It was $52 each way.) We were boarding at Port Imperial (NJ) and debarking at Pier 11/Wall Street (NY) to see the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park.
The ferry station had a screen showing what slip each stop’s ferry would be in. However, after not seeing the boat move or anyone going to our slip, I asked one of employees and discovered that Pier 11 was not running due to COVID. We took the ferry to the next closest stop to Brookfield Place. The ferry was pretty empty, as it was 7:30 am.
You have to be at the ferry slip on time, probably a little early to catch the ferry. They move fast! They dock, unload, reload, and they are off again. There is no waiting around.
The ferry was a little bouncy going through the river, but the boys managed to fall asleep on the half hour ride.
There is an app to buy and show your tickets, or you can buy at the ferry terminals. However, as we discovered, the app was not updated with locations being closed due to COVID.
Have you ever heard of East Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania? We hadn’t either! We stayed in Timothy Lake South RV Campground in East Stroudsburg, in the Poconos.
The campground offered quite a few pull-throughs and some back-ins. The back-in sites seemed mostly along the edges of the campground. Many of the pull-throughs were very long. We could have stayed hooked up to the truck it was so long. They were a little on the narrow side though. There were plenty of trees throughout the campground, so once the trees have all their leaves, I’m sure it will be quite shaded.
Click to enlarge
The campground had a laundry room and office/store. However, the store was closed for COVID. You could walk up to the check-in window to buy ice ($3/bag) and firewood. The campground had a sister site, Timothy Lake North, whose amenities you could also use (per the website, we did not go).
Laundry was $2.00 for washers (or $2.25 for super wash) and $1.75 for dryers. The laundry room was limited to 1 person at a time and you had to check out the key from the check-in window. Reservations were not accepted. They did not have quarters/change machine, although the machines were quarter run.
Our Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile were spotty around the campground and the mountain areas. We ended up paying for the campgrounds WiFi for the week to make sure we could connect for work and school. Even their internet was spotty at times. It was also not a very fast internet.
The campground was 12 minutes from Super Foodtown grocery store and 16 minutes from Price Chopper grocery store. There were several restaurants within a 20 minute drive. The Delaware Water Gap was also close (12 minutes to a close trail or 25-30 minutes to the hike we went on).
Getting There: I would take it slow on these roads. The roads are pretty narrow to fit two cars (especially one being a truck and RV) around some of the turns. The roads are hilly and twisty as well.
If you enjoy quiet with no electronics and lots of nature and hiking, you may enjoy this location. However, everything was closed in the campground (not including the laundry room) and there was just not a lot of things to do besides hiking (or kayaking if you had your own). We would not stay here again. If things were open, maybe it would have been a different experience.
SUMMARY OF CAMPGROUND:
Our rating: 2 out of 5 hitches
Cell Phone Reception: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile (all of our connections were slow/spotty depending on where we were in the park)
Laundry: Yes
Bathrooms/Showers: Yes
RV Sites: Pull-through and Back-in (grass)
Pop Up Tents/Gazebos/Outdoor Rugs On-Site: Yes
Amenities: picnic table/fire pit/grill at sites, playground, pool (closed for season while we were there), shuffleboard. (Paid for cable and WiFi)
Cabins: Yes
Tent Camping: No (sister site Timothy Lake North does)
Full Hook-ups: Yes
Amps: 20/30/50
Pool: Yes
Food On-Site: No
Camp Store: Yes, closed due to COVID
WiFi: No free WiFi, Paid WiFi (a little slow, not what I would call high-speed internet)
