NYC Day 6

Our last day :(
We got up and headed to Central Park and rented a row boat for the reservoir. Mark was kind enough to row us around.
After we grabbed a bagel from a place featured on Seinfeld. Then we went next door to Zabars gourmet store/deli. Yeap, pretty much every kind of cheese, meat, veggie, fruit, etc. you can think of. We grabbed some food from the restaurant section. I must say though that my mom makes better blintzes :)
Overall the trip was a success!! Although we missed our boys terribly, they were safe and had fun with family. We did "skype" with them in the morning and at night everyday.
We were able to do everything we wanted to, but I am sure there is so much more!

NYC Day 5

Today was the only day we had to get up and be somewhere. Of course we were a little late, what do you expect with 3 girls getting ready and the subway train we were supposed to take needing repair! Today we had our tickets for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island...good thing I got them in advance! We did have to wait a while to get on a ferry. First stop was the statue. We were lucky enough to get crown tickets. Boy was that a climb! The last steps were in a small, spiral staircase. The crown was tight quarters, but a nice view.
Next stop was Ellis Island. How humbling to know the sacrifices my family made to come to this blessed country. How different my life would be had they not. We were able to search the records for family, even though my family has the copies, it was still exciting to find them and see their information and a picture of the ship they came over on.
After the ferry ride back we found a yummy pasta restaurant where we stuffed ourselves...can't let good food go to waste right?
The girls and I went and saw Wicked at the Gershwin Theater while Mark went to watch the Suns game. Wicked was very good! This was my first time seeing it and the girls second time. My aunt got us amazing seats.

NYC Day 4

We went back to Rockefeller center to get tickets for the top of the rock. We wanted to go at night to see the city lights, but it was sold out. Mark wanted to get an NYPD shirt from the official store so we stopped there and got some shirts. We walked around Madison Ave and did a little more shopping. We went into Grand Central Station, another beautiful building. We saw the Empire State Building. We went up the rock at 5:30 and stayed until around 7. Amazing views of the city and very scary if you look down! We walked back through Time Square and then went and got a hot dog and frozen yogurt.

NYC Day 3

We started today at Battery Park. You can get a nice view of Lady Liberty and Ellis Island from here. Displayed in the park is a large round sculpture that was in the plaza between the 2 towers and was moved to the park after 9-11. We walked around the Financial District and saw Wall Street.
We walked through Trinity church and saw the root sculpture (see picture for story).
Next we went to Ground Zero. It is overwhelming to see that where once stood 2 massive towers there is nothing. It is also sad that we do not have a memorial built after almost 9 years. We did see the construction on one of the freedom towers and the plans for the memorials that will be in the footprints of the towers. We went and grabbed lunch at a really good sandwich shop. After we walked to the American Express building and walked through the museum in the lobby. We also stopped to see the memorial for the 11 employees who died on 9-11. It was a beautiful tribute. You will see in the picture there is a giant crystal suspended over a black granite pool. All of their names and a little message is inscribed in the granite. Also one drop of water falls from the ceiling at different times into each person's section which represents a tear drop. We walked over to St. Paul's, which amazingly has survived a few tragedies (see pic).
We walked around the memorial store and saw all the large pictures on the wall which are a time line of the events on 9-11. You could also record a message about where you were on 9-11 and they had a statue encased with notes, ribbons, badges, flags, etc. taken from make shift memorials. We all bought a memento from the shop.
We walked to South Seaport and saw the Brooklyn Bridge. We saw City Hall (where Law & Order is filmed). We went and saw the big Macy's, the temple, Julliard and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We wanted to watch the Suns game so we went to a sports bar and got some really good buffalo wings and nachos.

NYC Day 2

Today we had Kathy as our tour guide...she is very knowledgeable about NYC!
We went to the Flat Iron district and Madison Square Park. This happened to be the weekend for a street fair so we stopped by. Good thing we walked up and down because we had a lot to walk off...roasted corn, crab cakes, fried Oreos, Italian ice, Mozzarepa (2 corn pancakes with fresh mozzarella inside and then grilled) and Zeppoles (fried dessert dough). After that we walked to Washington Square Park and sat and enjoyed the beauty and more street performers. We walked though East and West Village and Greenwich Village where all the beautiful brownstones are located. We walked through a small portion of Little Italy and stopped at Lombardi's Pizza (first pizzeria in the US) and luckily got a table because there was a wait. Nothing like eating pizza with fresh slices of mozzarella, sauce and basil...yum! We walked through the tenement buildings where the first immigrants lived. Some of them are turned into museums and you can see all the tin ceilings, wood floors and detail work. We walked through Chinatown...pretty gross, the smells were not pleasing to the nose..hee hee. We went back to Little Italy for the nighttime street fair. We went to a bakery and got fruit tarts, cannolis and gelato.

NYC Day 1

We had the opportunity to take a trip to NYC last week...it was amazing!!
Hopefully I can chronicle everything we did!
Mark, myself and my 2 sisters, Emily and Alyssa all went. We stayed with my aunt Kathy who lives in Manhattan.
After we all cleaned up after our red eye flights we hit the town. Our first stop was Central Park, it really could not be more beautiful. Especially coming from the desert, the trees, grass and flowers are breath taking.
We stopped for a late lunch at Shake Shack...yum!! Best hamburger, fries and shake I probably ever had. It was right next to the Museum of Natural History were Night at the Museum is filmed. We walked back through Central Park and sat on some benches to watch the street performers. From there we walked up to a shopping area and went into a huge FAO Schwarz (we were all like kids again) and huge Apple store. At that point Kathy met back up with us. We walked to 5th Ave. Walked through St. Patrick's Cathedral, the size of the church, the stain glass and detail work are amazing. We then walked through 30 Rockefeller Plaza, saw Radio City, walked through Time Square and then grabbed some pizza at a place by Kathy's for a late dinner. We also stopped at a few bakeries along the way and got cupcakes and cookies.

Enjoy

For those of you who don't read nienie...I LOVE Mormon Messages :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHDvxPjsm8E