Day two of my Boo’s birthday trip to New York City started out with breakfast at the Embassy Suites hotel. I love Embassy Suites because I can get a made-to-order omlet for breakfast. Boo had pancakes. We had a 10AM entry time for the New York Aquarium out in Coney Island. Luckily, the hotel was just two blocks from the F train which would take us out there. There were many stops along the way, but we got there just after they opened.

For never having been in New York City before, the girl was a pro on the subways. The plan for the day was the aquarium, check out the beach, and then see if the rides were open. I thought we’d be early enough to ride the Hop-On Hop-Off bus a bit more, but after the problems of the day before, we ended up ditching it altogether. That was money wasted, and I wouldn’t recommend it.

We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits at the aquarium. There was so much to see and it wasn’t crowded early in the day. By the time we left there were definitely more people there, but it still wasn’t very crowded.

We went to the sea lion show twice. It wasn’t very long but it was fun.

For a snack, we got Dippin Dots ice cream there. We spent a total of 4 hours at the Aquarium. They also have an interactive “Quest” for kids to do. At the end, they get a temporary tattoo for completing it. Boo loved it.

We went out on the beach for a bit. Boo had her swimsuit with her, but decided she wasn’t going in above her knees since I couldn’t go with her. (I’m still healing from my wounds following appendicitis so I couldn’t go in.) The beach wasn’t very crowded, either. I said yesterday we were very lucky with the weather. It was about 80° out. I’ve known NYC in July to be 100° or more. She played int he sand a while and then we decided to check out the rides.

I paid $69 for a bracelet to let her ride the rides in Luna Park for 4 hours. I won’t ever complain about Disney Prices again. There weren’t really any lines on Friday afternoon, so she went on them for about another 3 hours until we could see it was going to storm. We made it back to the subway station before it hit. We took the train past our stop to Times Square and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. She was tired, and when you’re with kids it’s better to go to a place where you know they’ll eat the food. I would have preferred any number of other places, but the trip was for her.

After that we walked back to the hotel. Boo was really tired, and tomorrow promised even more adventures!