Catching Pokémon in NYC

 I’ve been lucky enough to visit NYC multiple times in my life, but until last year, I never thought my primary reason for travel would be to catch Pokémon.  My son was 6 last year and very into Pokémon.  He loved to collect cards, action figures, and play Pokémon Go on his iPad.  I re-activated my account from 2006 and started to play with him – that is when we learned about the Pokémon Go festival in NYC.  We had such a blast last year that we wanted to go again this year, and so, I started to make plans for a 2-day trip on our drive back from Pennsylvania. 

This year, we took the commuter train from where we parked in Secaucus, New Jersey to Penn Station.  We stopped by our Doubletree hotel in  Rockefeller Center to drop off our bags and then went back on a train out to the festival in Randall Island.   We learned some lessons last year and really maximized our time to complete the challenges while we were there (do NOT walk over that bridge!).  Unfortunately, the heat kept us from walking around too much and checking out the different tents.   It was a very hot weekend, nearly 90 degrees both days!  We were done with being outside by 6pm and road back toward Times Square to get a quick dinner before seeing the Lion King that night at 8pm.  We tried Raising Canes for the first time, and while I wasn’t blown away, it was good enough, and got us to the show on time.  After the theater let out, my son looked up and said, isn’t it night-time?  Why is it still bright out?  😊  New York is the city that never sleeps!  

Empire State Building

We walked around Times Square a bit and made a pit stop in the M&M store before going back to the hotel for bed.  The next morning, we had tickets to go up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building at 10 AM.   There were not too many people there and I don’t think we really needed the VIP passes at that time, but it might have saved us 15 minutes or so.  It was fun to see the King Kong animation in the window and watch the movie play inside of the elevator on the way up.  Unfortunately, we had to leave after that to drive back to Boston.  

 

NYC is a great place for a family trip.  I have a strong feeling we will be back again next year.