New York City

Each year it seems David and I take the time to get away, just the two of us together. We've been to some pretty exciting places including Tokyo, Belgium and Beijing. So after visiting some of the largest cities in the world, we hadn't visited the nearest one to us yet: New York City. So, it was already determined where we would be going.

But the 'how' part is always the challenge. Who could we find that would be willing to watch four kids for several days? Well, we found some willing people: A million thanks to my cousin Savannah and our neighbor Marci!!!!!! (and their husbands too) Savannah willingly took Dallin for four days, who by the way, was being weaned "cold turkey".  And then she took all four of our kids along with two of her own to church on Sunday!! She deserves a medal of bravery for sure. And Marci took the 3 girls for 3 days. She got them off the bus, helped with homework, fed them, gave them baths, put curlers in their hair, got them off to school the next day and even took Carmen to her special art show (that we were so sad to miss). She did all this and took care of her own 3 children as well. She deserves a medal too! We are truly grateful and indebted to these two women.

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We left Thursday afternoon and arrived early evening at our hotel, which was located in the heart of Time Square! So, we were thrust into the NYC atmosphere immediately. We settled into our room and then ventured out into Time Square. It was not what I had imagined, but still very exciting.

There were these crazy characters all over the square that you could pose with for a picture, they of course wanted tips. I just found it to be so random. Everyone from Woody to Smurfette could be found there.

We of course had to try a New York hot dog - it was pretty yummy and came with cucumber relish.

We walked the several blocks surrounding Time Square. We ate some "New York style" pizza. Here we are at Rockefeller Center Plaza. Everyone has told me it was rather small, so I wasn't surprised by that at all. And if you can't tell from all the pictures, it was freezing!

On our walk back to our hotel, we happened upon Magnolia Bakery. There was a very short line, so we dropped in for some cupcakes and cheesecake. YUM!

 We took full advantage and slept in the next morning. We woke up around 9 and grabbed some breakfast and headed out for a tour of the NY Harbor. We were really hesitant to spend our time and money on this little boat trip, but it turned out to be one of the high lights of our trip! It last 1 1/2 hours, and although frigidly cold, we really enjoyed it. 

We were given a good view of the new One World Trade Center. When completed, this will be NYC's tallest building. There will be other building also that will replace the others that were destroyed during 9/11.

More boat ride, Manhattan in the background and the Brooklyn Bridge.

David with both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges behind him.

The Statue of Liberty in the distance!

In this picture below I think you can really see the void of space where the Twin Towers used to stand.

I was very excited to see the Statue of Liberty. The entire island that it's on was closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, but we were able to get very close on the boat.

Despite my nagging not to waste our time, we visited this old retired air craft carrier. It was a little bit interesting, but I could have lived without seeing it. David loved it.

 I was fascinated by the submarine though. Now not everyone can say they've been on a real submarine! This is how tiny all the doors and passageways were! They really crammed all they could into some very tight spaces.

We did some shopping at FAO Swartz. We even quickly saw the Big Piano. It was being closed off for filming of American Idol. And although we didn't buy this, we found this giant bottle of chocolate syrup that reminded us of Charlotte. I would have LOVED to see her face if we had brought this back to her. It was actually a piggy bank.

We also visited the American Doll store to pick up some surprises for the girls. Afterward, it was getting really late and I could barely walk anymore. We caught a ride from this.... thing. It was a little buggy on the back of a bike. I don't know what you call it, but it was lovely not to have to walk back to our hotel.

I was most excited about seeing a Broadway show. We picked Newsies, which was spectacular! Here we were waiting outside before the show.

The next morning we visited Ground Zero. This was a very somber, reverent place to visit. Just see all those names scrawled across the memorial left me with a feeling of sorrow, yet pride-fulness of my country.

You can see the new World Trade Center being built in the background. The most interesting part of Ground Zero, was not actually on this site, but down the street at the St. Paul Church. This church served as a place of rest and refuge for all the emergency workers during 9/11. They could go there and find food, or a cot to sleep on, or have any sore feet or hands taken care off. They could find counseling for help to understand and sort out all the feelings they were having and dealing with. It was a great memorial to the rescue personnel from that day and the days following.

We took a LONG walk through Central Park. Central Park is large! We walked about 3/4 of it, and it was snowing as we walked.... I'm sure it's a beautiful place in the Spring/Summer. And I can see how it offers a great place of solitude from the busy New York streets. But it lacked anything of interest for me. I was cold and could barely walk another step and I just wanted to catch the nearest cab back to our hotel room so I could warm up. It was a fun walk with David though, as we were able to just walk and chat and focus on each other, with nothing else to distract us.

We saw a lot of NYC through the back of taxi cabs. They really weren't as intimidating as I had thought they would be. Before this, the only cabs I had ridden in were in foreign countries, so I was kind of scared of them. But they weren't really that scarey.

We were able to visit the Manhattan Temple and even attended church there on Sunday. It felt so odd to step off the crazy streets of Manhattan into the quiet peaceful surroundings of the Temple. And then have to leave that wonderful place and jump right back into the busyness of the city. I'm sure there is some great analogy I could make out of that, but I can't think of one right now.

And this was the view from our hotel room. What a lovely little town.