To Hoboken and Back

On the morning of our last full day in New York we ventured off the subway lines and took a bus from Port Authority Bus Terminal station to Hoboken in New Jersey. There we visited the site of a reality TV show (Cake Boss) and enjoyed the view of Manhattan from Pier A Park.

It was a slightly overcast morning as we made our way up town to the Port Authority bus station. First stop inside the station was a quick visit to the information office where we found out not only that there were stupidly annoying 'the world owes me' type Brits in this part of the world at the same time as us (just can't avoid the afflicted) but also the stand where our bus was departing from. We didn't have to wait too long for our bus, buses world wide don't really change, the only difference between this bus and the ones in Belfast was seeming it being like a monster truck of the bus world. I wouldn't like to be trying to get a buggy or something on them anyway.

It was a short ride under the Hudson and into the State of New Jersey and it was soon after that we were keeping track of the streets in an attempt to find the one closest to our destination which was Carlos Bake shop, home to reality TV show, Cake Boss.

Personally I preferred Ace of Cakes when it was on but Cake Boss was also one of our guilty pleasures for those dull moments on TV. It's not so much the cakes but the decorations but we thought we'd check it out anyway. Turns out it does exist.We got there quite early and there wasn't a queue outside as we'd heard could be a possibility. We headed in after some photos and saw Frankie and Madeline who both get a fair bit of airtime on the show.

We bought a few sugary treats which surprisingly to me, were not all that expensive, and peered at all the cakes and baked goods on display as well as all the Cake Boss merchandise and paraphernalia.

Once we had left the shop we took our photo in front of it then had a look around the back of the building too. Curiosity satisfied we made our way to find a drink to wash our sweet goodies down, Starbucks was on the way so it was a quick trip there before strolling along the streets of Hoboken on the way to Pier A Park.

The park was a bit of a surprise as it provided some great complimentary eye candy – namely the panoramic city scape of New York City.

The sun by this point was starting to take hold in the sky and it was quite tranquil out in the park considering how close to one of the largest cities on earth we were.

We dug into our deserts. First of all we had our Lobster Tails and they were absolutely delicious! I did manage to get a photo in before I demolished it, in a Dougal type logic, they're the same size as those big buildings that are far away.

Afterwards, Norngirl had her cupcake whilst I had my Napoleon, they were ok, but nothing really to write home about.

After sitting for a while and taking in the view, we headed to Hoboken terminal to catch the bus back into Manhattan.

We were heading to visit all the big stores and department stores like Bloomingdales (which was boring) and FAO Schwarz (which was awesome – and we had great fun playing the giant piano like in Big). More about all that on Norngirls blog.

After the retail therapy we headed to the TKTS booth at Times Square again for the 2nd time of the trip.

This time the queue was crazily long and we were there for what seemed an age before getting to the front and obtaining ourselves some front row seats for Avenue Q that night.

In the time between buying the tickets and heading to the show, we did many things, one of them was heading back to the Nintendo store for me to buy a Bowser soft toy (I'll try and put a photo up in a later post) and some other souvenirs and another was heading out to see the Chrysler Building up close...

...and another to wander around Grand Central Terminal...

... before a mercy dash to see the front of the National History Museum that we'd visited but only saw from the back and the inside, sadly the place was being refurbished so was covered in a big sheet, but we did get to see the Theodore Roosevelt statue.

It was a busy but fun bucket-list-ticking hurry around the city but we made it to New World Stages to see Avenue Q with so much time to spare that we headed for a drink in a nearby café before heading in. It was our last night but like this trip over to Hoboken, we were still in for another awesomely sweet treat or two.