We flew through the night Tuesday night. Cade and I had never done a red eye flight together and we were so exhausted the next day (good thing we didn't have children with us!). We got a couple hours of restless sleep and landed in NYC around 5:30 in the morning Wednesday. The company had a driver there waiting for us (luckily) and it took over an hour to get to Times Square. My first initial reaction on that drive from the airport was "I'm not sure about this…crazy drivers, SOOO many people, so much going on…I guess we'll see how much I like New York after all!"
But it didn't end up taking very long for me to really see I would enjoy this trip a whole lot. It was SO awesome staying right on Times Square. I'm so glad that we listened to others and paid the extra money towards staying right in the hustle and bustle of everything going on. We stayed at Renaissance right off of Broadway and the other main places of Manhattan.
So Wednesday morning we thankfully got to check in super early and get a good 3 hour nap in before our excursions for the day. After we woke up, we went on a Bus Tour that showed us a lot of NYC. It was really good to do that because even though it was super slow moving (took us almost 4 hours to drive around Manhattan) we got to see some major buildings but also get to know the map and footprint of Manhattan a little better. Since it was our first time going we had no idea how the city was set up. We got to hear some history and relax after getting little sleep all night.
Wednesday evening we went to dinner with Mark and his wife Linda to a really nice Italian restaurant called ___________. They treated us and then had tickets for us to go see Wicked after. Of course we absolutely loved the show. It was interesting to note that the Broadway tour show we've seen in Salt Lake City was just as good as the real thing on Broadway. After the show, we could just walk right back to our hotel room and go right to sleep! We needed it :).
Thursday was a great day! We started out the day riding the subway for our first time. And of course all the people on the subway going to work could tell we were first timers and excited about doing that for the first time ever :). One thing I loved about the Subway were different performers that would come on each car and entertain. Three black men got onto our cart and started singing awesome harmonies of "You are My Sunshine". It really made my day happier!
We rode the subway to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The museum was very well done and very beautiful. We paid for a tour which lasted about an hour. The tour guide gave us a lot of details about the day itself, but also of all the main big artifacts and art work that was in the museum. Then we continued on a self-guided tour through the rooms that had recordings, video, and many, many smaller artifacts from that day. It was a very solemn and thought-provoking time, a hard thing to wrap your mind around and remembering the days events clear on the other side of the country. But a day that affected the entire country.
After the museum, we walked around the memorial outside where they have fountains in the footprints of the original Twin Towers. We enjoyed that a bit until we met up with Brandon Egan. He is one of Cade's roommates from college and works in Manhattan. We ate lunch and visited his work place at American Express.
After meeting up with Brandon we went to the harbor and did a ferry tour around Liberty and Ellis Island. It was relaxing and nice, however, we weren't aware that that particular ferry wasn't stopping AT the two islands. We were bummed about that but really wanted to go on the islands so we paid extra and did that Statue Ferry the following day.
Cade and I went back to the hotel for a quick nap, had wonderful dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant and then went to Les Miserables at night. Oh! And how we got those tickets-- there is a line you can stand in to get 50% off tickets to same day shows and since I was pregnant a nice worker took me straight to the front of the line! It was so great! In Utah you can't EVER pull the "pregnant card", but in NYC it's a different story :).
Friday was an awesome and very tiring day. We did a lot/got to see a lot, but man my feet were exhausted after the day was done. We first traveled to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and both of those were really neat experiences.
Cade wanted to see Francis Tavern where General Gorge Washington said goodbye to his troops after the Revolutionary War. So we walked over there and he took a tour of it while I just sat and rested :). Then we walked some more and of course Cade had to take a picture with the famous "bull". Don't know why it's famous but apparently everyone from around the world has to take a picture with it!
Again, me being pregnant, I was very tired so we took an afternoon nap and then went to a pizza place for dinner. The food in New York is amazing and every place we tried was SO good (and surprisingly not too expensive). Then we took a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and saw what we could in the last hour that it was open. Really you could spend almost all day at a museum of that size, but we did what we could. Then we took the subway to Grand Central Terminal and walked around for a bit and got shakes.
I really wanted to walk through St. Patrick's Cathedral, but it was too late to go inside. The outside architecture is absolutely amazing though! The last thing we did at night was took an elevator to the top of the Rockefeller Center for the views. A very expensive excursion but the views at night were amazing and we really enjoyed that!
Our last day in Manhattan was wonderful! We woke up and packed our stuff up and rode a subway up to the LDS Manhattan Temple. Cade and I were so excited to be able to do a new temple together and definitely a highlight to the trip. Afterwards, we met up with Brandon and Tessa Egan and their kiddos. We hopped in their car and went to Central park. That was probably my ONLY regret of the entire trip was not spending enough time in Central Park. Next time I go to NYC that will be the first thing I do so I can spend all day there! It was so beautiful and would have loved to bike through the whole park as well as take a boat ride in one of the lakes. It's amazing how in the heart of Manhattan is just ginormous sky scraper after another and you can't see anything else in the city unless you're at the top of one of the tallest buildings. However, you enter Central park and are reminded how amazing God's creations truly are. Man cannot create what God can. He is amazing.
After Central Park, we visited the Natural Museum of History. It was really neat, but reminded me of a giant Dinosaur museum which was have a pass to in Utah. But was much bigger of course and still worth seeing just for the whale :). We then ate dinner at a pizza place and headed back to their house in New Jersey. We traveled through the Lincoln Tunnel to get to their place and I immediately fell in LOVE with their city. They live in New Providence, NJ and it is so amazing. Quiet, quaint, beautiful town full of older homes with tons of charm and huge gorgeous trees everywhere. I loved seeing where they live. We got to attend church with them on Sunday and just take it easy.
Then a THREE hour drive back to the JFK airport (poor Brandon- who took us) because of two different accidents, we were finally on our way back.
I am so grateful to Aunt Boose who watched our three darling girls and did such a fabulous job while we were gone. The girls didn't even miss us one bit :). And it made us feel great that we can leave and they do just fine with other people watching them. We did Face Time with them each day and they were loving their time with Boose Boose. Luckily she wasn't scared away from having her own children some day :). Emma, Reese and Nora all LOVE Boose and had a great time. It was the perfect trip at the perfect time and I am so happy Cade worked so hard and was able to win that trip for us. We are SO incredibly blessed.
