Happy Campers: Day 5-New York City

Today was quite a day. We overslept or slept-in, depending on how you look at it. We woke up at 10:00 so we skipped the Brownstone Diner (Diner, Drive Ins and Dives) and the Statue of Liberty. We got ready and decided to brave the subway. It was hot, a little scary but cheap:). We went from Grove Street in Jersey City (8 block walk from RV) to World Trade Center. We then took a cab to Chinatown to hunt for fake purses. We got dropped off at Canal and Mulberry and waited to hear the Chinese mumbling of "Prada, Gucci, Coach". It wasn't long till a man spotted us and took us to a lady with pictures of purses up her sleeve. She showed us the picture and we said we wanted to see in person. They did not like that, but then the man led us up the block to a younger guy who we quickly followed another block. There was an NYPD van coming down the street so the younger boy quickly pointed to a yellow awning and ran off. We walked over and went in the door and said a man had sent us. The lady hit a button on the wall that was hidden by scarves, making a wall pop out and then took us through the wall in the back of the store. we went through the wall and came into a room with hundreds of purses. The girls picked theirs out quickly and went for the $35 she quoted them. After I shot them glares for not haggling the price they were quiet. We let daddy do the negotiating and felt pretty good about our purchases. Colbie got a Coach purse, Kayla got a black Coach shoulder bag, Callen got a brown Coach shoulder bag and Mommy got a brown coach bag. We went back out on the street because mommy was looking for Louis Vuitton. We didn't have any luck and could not find anyone that would show the actual purse, only pictures. It was not as easy to find purses as we remembered it to be last time, there were a lot of police and we also think they were suspicious that daddy might be a cop. We gave up on that and started looking for a place to find a quick eggroll for mom. Daddy found a place and waited with a mob of Chinese people and came out successful. Mommy, daddy and Kayla thought the eggrolls were awesome. We realized we were only about eight blocks from Lombardi's pizza that Kristina Donahue said we had to go to so we started walking to Little Italy. We went in and had pizza with an egg roll appetizer that we ate out of the bag. In the meantime, we had a call, text and Facebook from Elle Camp wanting to see us. She was in Time Square with Caroline, Jack and Will. Mimi and Opa were also asking of our whereabouts. They were walking in Central Park and having brunch with all the beautiful people We got a cab and headed to Fendi on Fifth Avenue so mommy could buy some new sunglasses. After fearing for our lives once again in a New York City cab, we finally made it to Fendi. Mom was quick in Fendi because the talking to regarding behavior that she gave the girls before we went in did not work on daddy who was trying hats on Colbie. While daddy was dressing up Colbie at Fendi, the other girls were busy looking at how much everything cost and reporting back to mom. We made it out without being too much of an embarrassment. Next we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was under construction and had scaffolding everywhere on the outside but was still breathtakingly beautiful on the inside. Colbie did not quite get it as she asked if they had a penny machine! We lit our candles and said that some prayers and then headed up the street to American girl. Colbie all of that sudden got a spring in her step as she knew we were only blocks away from American girl. We walked into American Girl and immediately saw Elle Camp who had Caroline Will and Jack with her. It was fun to see them, Caroline was very quiet, the boys not so much. Colbie had a great time filling up her bag and collecting little tickets to put in her new coach purse. We visited a little bit and then said goodbye and headed back up Fifth Avenue to do some shopping. We shopped some more and mom went back to Fendi to exchange her new glass (daddy had to wait outside). We then met up with Mimi and Opa and started walking to Bloomingdales. By now, everyone's feet were starting to hurt. Colbie talked daddy into carrying her and we started walking. On the way, we passed FAO Schwartz and had to go in. They had a great candy shop and we all got bags full of candy to keep us going. We got to Bloomingdale's and did not realize it had 9 floors and were very overwhelmed. We looked around a little bit and then headed back to Times Square to ride the Ferris wheel and meet Mimi's friend Kim. We let Mimi lead and had we known it was going to be 20 or 30 blocks, we would have taken a cab. At one point, Colbie stepped to the curb, put her hand up and said, "YO, CAB!" By the time that we got to Toys "R" Us half of our group was in tears.
Everyone perked up when we made it and we got our tickets for the Ferris wheel, which had sold out the night before, and the girls and Mimi waited in line for a ride. Mom and Opa were on the top floor waiting to take pictures. We had lost dad along the way when he stopped into Salvatore Ferragamo to buy some sunglasses. The girls rode the Ferris wheel, mom's friend Kim met her precious daughter, granddaughters, and son-in-law and we said goodbye to Mimi and Opa as they were all going to a play. We should've just called it a night but mommy wanted to go to Macy's. We were not messing around with walking as none of us could take another step, especially Colbie and Kayla. We took a cab to Macy's and realized it was just as big as Bloomingdale's. We found some new shoes for Callen and Colbie and then left to get a cab. Macy's was not as nice as Bloomingdale's and very dirty. We decided to take the subway back to Jersey City since it was so quick before and we did not know where to get the ferry from. We took a cab back to the World Trade Center and easily made it through the subway and back into New Jersey. We decided to go eat at the Brownstone Diner, a Diner, Drive In and Dive, that we had missed this morning. We got a cab from the Path Station and drove the 5 blocks to alleviate any meltdowns. It was awesome!
We were able to walk the five or six blocks back to the RV as we were rested and fed. As we were resting and enjoying Frasier mom got in the shower and it wasn't draining. Yelling to dad, we realized the grey water was full. He went out to empty it finding there are no sewer hookups, only a dump station. Mom was standing in water so dad dumped some in the parking lot to drain it and told the girls to get their stuff, they were going to the bathhouse. We all walked to the bathhouse and the girls all but cried when they saw it. There were gnats and hair everywhere. I made them shower anyway and we survived the horrible ordeal!