These are a few pictures I snapped with my phone at our church's Greek Summerfest. The girls had fun riding the rides and playing a game. I forgot my camera, so my phone was the only option. Speaking of our church, be sure to check out the new and improved website! 
We made our last journey into the city on Saturday. After enjoying our final Jamba Juice and oatmeal morning snack in one of the several little public parks around the city, we walked around the theater district looking for reasonably priced souvenirs while waiting for our show to being. We attended a matinee showing of The Gazillion Bubble Show. This was a great show for kids! There were lots of opportunities for kids to expel their energy. The bubble artist was awesome. Her husband taught her everything and they take turns doing the shows. They both hold world records for their bubble blowing. There were huge bubbles, small bubbles, bubbles inside other bubbles, smoke inside of bubbles, bubbles that danced and moved, and gazillions of bubbles that filled the theater. It was really neat and Sammie couldn't wait to get home and try out some of the tricks she saw. After the show, we ate at 5 Napkin Burger. We requested a table outside so that we could take in as much of the city as possible. I wrapped Erin up after lunch and she eventually fell asleep (after fighting sleep by trying to escape) while we continued to shop for souvenirs. After souvenirs were found, we walked through Times Square one final time before hopping on a bus to Hoboken. We were all a little sad as we drove through the Lincoln tunnel for the last time. We spent the late afternoon and evening exploring Hoboken. We found a park overlooking the city where we let the kids play. Then we walked along the shoreline and down a pier. We ate dinner at Uptown Pizza and then walked down the main street on our way to the train terminal. We had to duck into a couple of boutiques and a Ben & Jerry's to avoid a monsoon like round of rain that luckily only lasted a few minutes. As we were walking up to the Hoboken terminal we noticed a huge rainbow over the city! We explored the terminal, bought our tickets and looked across the Hudson one last time while waiting for the light rail train to take us back to North Bergen. Once at the rental we began the process of packing up to head home. This trip ended up being one of our best family vacations yet! We loved the house we stayed in and loved that our children got to experience a city life that's completely different from our own! We (heart) NY!
On Friday we took the subway into Queens to explore Astoria. This area is often referred to as Little Greece and is rumored to house the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece. After walking around the outskirts of the area, we found a restaurant to eat at that had fabulous food. George and Sammie really enjoyed their saganaki! We also toured one of the three Greek Churches in the area. It was stunning. All of the walls and the ceiling were covered in gorgeous iconography. We also had the chance to shop at a Greek market where George found a little slice of heaven in the olive bar and 7 different types of feta they had at the deli. Next to the market was a Greek music store that was full of music, movies, and toys imported from Greece. We saw the Greek version of one of Erin's favorite toys, but didn't get it due to the price (apparently inporting baby toys from Greece is not cheap!). We did buy them a CD to listen to that was all kid songs. On the way to the market, we stopped at a bakery called Ya Ya's Kitchen to sample the baklava and the koulourakia, which were good but not as good as yiayia Rena's! On our way back to NJ we stopped for another stroll through Central Park. We thought about taking a ride on one of the horse drawn carriages until we saw the price. On our walk we passed by a pond, a small festival, the chess and checkers house, the Dairy house, the Children's and the Central Park Zoo. I was hoping that the zoo would be open, but we arrived about half and hour after they closed. Then we sat on a park bench and watched the people go by until it was time to head back to the rental house for dinner.
