Blacky1 wrote:plan to venture further than manhattan this time as I'm on my own and that reminds me I must tell mrs b
Any ideas how far you want to venture?
For some Brooklyn is aworld away but the Brooklyn Museum is good as is the Transit Museum if your into subway trains.
For a different perspective of the NYC skyline take the PATH to Hoboken for a completely different view of the city. Ditto just getting the Staten Island ferry (not sure if you did that with your kids lat time you were there). You could then take a bus from the Ferry Terminal across the Verrazono Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn
Further afield you could explore parts of Long Island but the trains can have some pretty irregular schedules - more so as you are traveling the 4th July holiday period.
BTW the Statue of Liberty opens again on the 4th having being closed as the island was repaired after Sandy (the statue was undamaged) but I imagine tickets will be pretty popular so if you want to do that I'd try and book in advance