NYE in NYC!

What an adventure!  Michael and I love New York City, but we had never ventured out for New Years Eve in Times Square.  That all ended yesterday as we scratched another thing off Michael's bucket list.

We kissed goodbye to the kids and left our home base around 1 pm on the 31st, heading for the Holiday Inn by the Meadowlands.  Good hotel, reasonable rate considering the proximity to the city and the night!  About $400 less than anywhere else we could find in Manhattan.

Leaving the hotel!

We checked in to the hotel and made sure we had all our tickets, etc, and then headed out to catch the 320 bus to Port Authority.

Times Square before the roads were closed.  A sea of humanity.

The whole night was so exciting!  People watching at its finest.

It was chilly, so we went scarf shopping near the fashion district. It helped.

Before the barricades went up, things were pretty calm and we just wandered around.

 Fireworks were shot off when the ball reached its position about 6 pm.  So excited to have caught a picture of that!

While standing in line, there isn't much to do but take pictures and stomp up and down in an attempt to keep warm.  Wow, its a lot colder to stand still than to walk around.  Unbelievably colder.....

 We waited to get into our party until the doors opened at seven, navigated the food line, and then watched The Hobbit on a gigantic IMAX screen.  The movie ended around 11:30, so we wandered out to the terrace to watch the ball drop.  And take more pictures.  It is pink above our heads.

And here is our spectacular view of the ball drop!  For the start of the drop it was blue.  It was an amazing experience all around and we loved it.   There were a couple glitches in the night - mostly because the staff at the event we attended were so poorly informed, but it all ended up exactly as we wanted in the end, right down to our movie choice.

Now we are back in New Jersey with the kids enjoying New Years Day.  Happy New Year everyone!