New York City, NY
October 27-October 30, 2017
Mark and I decided to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary by taking a trip to New York City. Mark had been to NYC a couple of times for some work things, but I had never been. I was very excited, especially since we would be going in the fall.
We arrived in NYC on Thursday, Oct 27, and after a tiny bit of a struggle with which train to take, made our way to our hotel. We rested for a bit and then met up with my friend, Kate, for dinner.
Kate is part of my First Descents family. I was so excited to have dinner with her. She lives in New Jersey and works in New York. She took us to an awesome pizza place called Késte. After dinner we walked down to Washington Square and took some pictures. It was awesome to be able to talk with Kate. I had not seen her for a while.
After visiting for a bit, Kate left to go home, but Mark and I wandered around a bit more before heading back to our hotel. We found a place where Mark got some of the thickest, most luxurious, hot chocolate you have ever seen in your life. It was more like just drinking melted chocolate. We felt like we had slipped into the river in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
On Friday, Oct 28, we had a very fun and exhausting day. We left the hotel around 9 am and headed downtown to the 9/11 memorial and museum. What an absolutely incredible experience that was! I was in awe of the memorial pools they have built where the 2 towers once stood. They are a beautiful, peaceful tribute to the men and women who died that awful day.
9/11 Memorial and Museum
The One World Trade Center building is enormous! (That is the building in the above collage in the top right hand corner.) It goes on forever! We decided to not take the tour of that building because our time was a bit limited and we wanted to go through the 9/11 memorial.
What a special experience that was. That memorial and museum is beautiful. It was a very somber and sacred time to go through and hear stories from people who survived that attack back in 2001.
I remember that day very clearly and to be standing there at the actual place where it happened was surreal. I am so grateful that I had this experience and that Mark and I were able to pay our respects to the men and women who died that day.
From here on out in this post, I am going to have to wing it because that's where my journal entry stopped. (Ugh.)
After the 9/11 memorial, we did some more walking around downtown. One thing I should mention is that we took tens of thousands of steps every day while we were in NY. By the end of the trip, my legs literally fell as though they were detached from my body.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
After checking out some sights and buildings downtown, we made our way to the Ellis Island Ferry so we could go see the Statue of Liberty. The Ferry station is huge! I was surprised to see food places and gift shops there, although I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Anything to make a buck off tourists, right?
I was very excited to be able to see the Statue of Liberty. Even though we only saw her from the ferry, it was still cool to think that I was that close to something that I have learned about my entire life. It was a spiritual experience for me because I have ancestors who came to America and probably saw the Statue of Liberty on their journeys.
I feel like the Statue of Liberty was the last major place that we saw on Friday. Now I am going to attempt to remember what we did on Saturday...
We found some amazing New York bagels, walked thousands of more steps, saw Rockefeller center, and went to the top of the Empire State Building, among other places.
The bagels we had were awesome! We ended up going back to that place right before heading to the airport so we could bring some bagels home with us. Mark also found some real New York pizza and was pretty happy with that find.
Random pictures from our endless walking adventure...
More random pictures...
St. Patrick's Cathedral
It really is a beautiful building. I love looking through old churches.
Empire State Building
Here we are at the Empire State Building. The elevator ride up to the 80th floor was pretty intense. You have to make sure you keep swallowing to pop your ears. The view from the top is unlike anything you've ever seen. You can see for miles.
Pictures from our walk around the city including Rockefeller Center, Chelsea Market, and Herald Square.
I just realized something as I was writing this post. It really doesn't matter which day we saw what. I can just post about all the amazing places we saw out of order! Look at me, letting go of some of my OCD blog writing tendencies. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?
The Manhattan Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Time Square
Time Square was super crazy! So many people and so many lights! It was hard to take it all in, but I am glad that we went. It's definitely something crossed off my bucket list.
Central Park
I loved Central Park and we were only able to see portions of it. There were a ton of street performers and lots of great people watching. It was really nice to just walk around the peaceful park in the middle of the busy city.
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge was super cool and we saw a lot of great architecture and places along the way.
The Museum of Natural History
We went to the Museum of Natural History after church on Sunday. As you can tell from the bottom left picture in the above collage, I was T-I-R-E-D. Mark looks great, but I look like death warmed over. I swear I almost fell asleep standing up. But the museum was awesome and we just tried to take in as much as we could.
Random pics of New York
Mark snuck some great (lol) pics of me. The bottom left picture is me being excited about seeing the red pandas at the zoo.
Whew! I think I managed to cover everything we did in New York! The highlights for me were
- Going on a session at the Manhattan Temple
- Seeing red pandas at the Central Park Zoo
- Seeing the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Museum of Natural History
- Eating a New York bagel
But, the absolute best part of the trip was hanging out with my bestie. We had a ton of fun together. Missed the kiddos like crazy, but it's always nice to have some time together to explore new places and remember why we like each other. Lol.
