This night was difficult we woke up several times because of the jet-lag and probably because of my cold. But in the morning we came out of bed without many problems because today would be shopping day!

We planned to meet Glenn & Gina on Staten Island so at 8:00 we left our hotel walked to Times Square from there we took the Subway 1 towards the Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island Ferry is a free transit from Manhattan to Staten Island. Danielle found a great spot to make some pictures from the Statue of Liberty.

On the Staten Island side Glenn and Gina would pick us up with their car. First we gave them some gifts from Germany and soon we left for the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, one of the biggest outlet shopping centers in the world.

At about 11 o’clock we arrived and started with getting our free vouchers for extra reductions:

• VIP Coupon book with ‘Show Your Card’ (ANWB/ADAC/AAA)
• Free vouchers with a foreign MasterCard
• Getting a free suitcase when you spend 500$ or more on a MasterCard
• FourSquare check-inns for Specials

After getting an overview on what additional discounts for which shops were available we selects the first shop to visit, the 7 for All Mankind. I found 3 new jeans for about 75€ each which is a real bargain over the prices in the German outlets (180€). From there we went to the Converse where Danielle found a nice pair Converse in Stars and Stripes style.

At Michael Kors and Oakley we were not so lucky, but at Tommy Hilfiger Danielle hat her moment. Moment might be the worn word we stayed in the women part of the store for over 2 hours of shopping! At my side of the store there was not so much choice.

Since shopping makes you hungry we went to the Applebee’s for lunch to continue shopping afterwards. In the afternoon we spender an additional 2 hours of shopping at several stores like The Sunglass Hut, Vilebrequin, Uggs, The disney Store and more.

• 3 dresses
• 3 jeans
• 2 pants
• 1 pair of shoes
• 5 shorts
• 1 swimming pant
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• 2 suitcases
• 1 Polo shirt

And soon it was almost 6 o’clock and we were tired and ready to go back to our hotel. Glenn and Gina dropped us of right in front of our hotel so we didn’t need to travel from Staten Island back with 2 new suitcases full of clothing. After dropping of the suitcases we went to Times Square t check-out the Disney Store but we didn’t found any Tiger stuff for our little nephew but Danielle was lucky and found a new outfit for Duffy the Disney-bear.

Our feet were tired and sine I’m far from fit we went back to the hotel at 8:30.

Today started a bit different as expected. I didn’t feel great and went to the doctor which acknowledged what I already thought I have a sore throat. Which resulted in medication, it seems like there is something with me traveling to New York, last year I also had a sore throat.

At 10:30 we left our house to the Nürnberger airport and at 11:30 we were fully checked in. After a simple lunch at the airport it was already time to board on our flight to Munich. IN Munich we walked towards the gate and after going through the usual additional passport check for the USA we could board our plane. The plane took of without delay.

The flight was ok, I didn’t felt to good, Danielle felt okay. We both watched several movies like Broken City, The Guilt Trip, Playing for Keeps and Identity Thief and in the end the 9 hours flight took too long.

And what would we be without an internet connection? So before the plane was parked I already started the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini which we use during the trip as a mobile router. The phone is simlock free and on www.keepgo.nl they offer sim-cards for interesting prices. I didn’t expect too much but the speeds so far are good.

After going through customs we waited a couple minutes for our suitcases before we left Newark Airport. We wanted to take a yellow cab to our hotel and so we did. Unfortunately the rain was so bad we didn’t even had a proper change to take a picture but it’s all about the experience I would say.

As you’ve read before we booked the hotel via priceline but the hotel was kind enough to give us an upgrade to a deluxe king room. The room is nice but we still needed something to eat.

Since we are both tired we decided to grab something at a restaurant in the street but first we need to buy some water for in the room. We walked through the heavy rainstorm (imagine a rainstorm and multiply it with 3) to the Duane Reade near our hotel when we decided to walk another 400 meter to the Magnolia Bakery. But even before we arrived there we were already soaked.

After getting water and cupcakes we went to our room and jumped into bed to write this blog and sleep because it was a long day and we can’t wait for tomorrow.