4,000+ Mile Road Trip: Day 4 – Rockefeller Plaza, Empire State Building & Grand Central Train Terminal

Hey there! Thanks for following along on our 16 day, 4,000+ mile road trip through the east coast of the US up on through to Canada to the Gaspésie Peninsula in Québec. It was amazing and I’m having so much fun going back through all of the thousands, yes I said thousands, of photos. I really wish we were still on the road and exploring!

You can follow along on our entire trip HERE!

Rockefeller Plaza

Located between 49th and 51st Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

We began our day early in the morning and headed down to Rockefeller Plaza. If you’re familiar with the Today Show, this is where the news anchors come out in the morning and talk with the crowd as well as where the summer series concerts are held.

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We went inside of the Rockefeller Center and browsed several of the shops and bakeries. Our favorite was pretending to be news anchors for the Today Show!

Bouchon Bakery

Located at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020

Time for breakfast!! This is a must stop if you go to Rockefeller Plaza. I’m serious! The unique baked goods selections were amazing and absolutely delicious. And besides, most likely you will be visiting here on vacation, so live a little and have a macaroon for breakfast!

Nintendo Store

Located at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020

After our delicious and totally calorie free (ha!) breakfast, we headed into the Nintendo store in Rockefeller Plaza for the kids (and big kid) to play around for a while. My husband noticed that if he ever leaves his current job, he can come and apply to work at the Nintendo store because it appeared that the current qualifications were “must have a man bun” —>?hahaha

Grand Central Train Terminal, NYC

Located at 89 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017

This was by far one of my highlights from the day. My dad is a huge train buff, so I’ve grown up around a lot of trains! I was super excited to check out this mazing landmark because 1. so many love movies have a scene here (I’m a total cheesy romantic movie loving dork) 2. I wanted to see the clock!! I mean who wouldn’t want to see that?

Meet Me At The Clock! Grand Central Terminal is one of the country’s great architectural achievements and New York City’s unofficial meeting place with thousands of people choosing to meet friends and loved ones each day at the opal-faced Main Concourse Information Booth Clock.

The architecture on the inside is stunning. In an effort to keep this blog post from being all about Grand Central, I’ll have to write another one dedicated just to the terminal sharing lots of fun and interesting facts that we learned while we were there!

…And when you have a goofy little boy, you never know what the photos are going to look like until it’s too late!

Empire State Building

Located at 350 5th Ave, New York, NY 10118

The Empire State Building, the most iconic building in the world. It is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, completed in 1931. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet and stands a total of 1,454 feet tall, including its antenna. The 86th and 102nd floor observatories provide unforgettable 360° views of New York City and beyond.

While we were there, all I could think about was Elf, one of my favorite Christmas movies! p.s. apparently the security guard on the right is Will Ferrell’s brother. (source) In all honestly, it was kind of creepy going to visit the Empire State Building because there were armed officers on both sides of the building with major assault riffles….and if you know my in real life, you know I don’t like guns, so it was scary!

You can take tours and go to the observation deck by purchasing tickets ahead of time.

Afterwards we headed back to Central Park, walked by the Central Park Zoo and then back to the playgrounds to play! After we grabbed the best and cheapest dinner…99¢ Slice Pizza!

99¢ Fresh Pizza

These tiny little shops only serve pizza and soda and are cash only. There are several locations around the city but they can be hard to miss because of their small size. You can check for locations here.

We had accomplished all of this before 2pm when we headed back to our hotel, hopped in our minivan and headed to Connecticut! We sure know how to pack in as much as possible in a short amount of time!

We got to our next hotel and enjoyed a swim in the pool!

The next day we headed to Castle Craig in Connecticut!

Thanks for following along on our 4,000+ mile road trip through the USA and Canada! You can find each day of our 16 day trip HERE or by clicking on the image below.