A Recap of Our Travels Back East Part 2

After our wonderful time spent with the Larsens in D.C., we still had more to look forward to!

Sunday January 2, 2011

We took a bus up to New York City to meet my parents on Sunday afternoon. The bus took us to Penn Station and then we took the subway up to Times Square where our hotel was. My parents had already checked into our hotel and decided to try and find us coming out of the subway. The problem was, they couldn't find the subway exit because they just thought the big signs that said "SUBWAY" were sandwich shops. hahahaha. Jeff and I went over to our hotel room and completely missed them among the millions of people. Once we met up at the hotel, we decided to go to a pizza place that was just a few doors down from our hotel. After dinner, we went to walk around. For some reason that night was really warm. I only had on a thin sweatshirt and long sleeved shirt and I was fine! We walked over to Rockefeller Center and found the big Christmas tree. I was so excited that all of the Christmas decorations were still up all over the city because they seem to make things look that much better.

Monday January 3, 2011

Monday morning we got up, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and walked to the Empire State Building. Luckily my mom is on top of things and bought tickets ahead of time. We passed all of the lines and quickly made it to the top. It was a perfectly clear day, but soooo cold! The view was really pretty and we could see for miles.

After taking in the amazing views, we walked over to Carnegie Deli for some lunch. We all got sandwiches packed a foot high with meat. My dad couldn't believe it; he was in heaven. Once we were all full, we walked around Central Park for a little while. It was so cool to actually be there and Jeff and I were quoting Elf the whole time.

Then we headed over to the Ed Sullivan Theater to get in the line to claim our tickets for the David Letterman Show! My dad had applied for tickets online a few months before and finally just days before our trip they called and ask him a trivia question about the show and he got two tickets. But we needed two more so luckily he convinced them to call me too. Problem was, I also had to answer a trivia question and I know nothing about Letterman! I had to tell the lady that I watch the show a few times a week and that I was a big fan. She asked me what color is the announcer's hair and for some reason I felt that it was red. I got it right and we got tickets too!

Inside the theater was really cool. They make sure that you are so pumped to be there and teach you how to laugh and cheer the way they want you to. The show was really fun. The guests that day were Brian Williams (NBC News Anchor) and Paula Abdul. Brian Williams was actually a really funny guy and Paula was just awkward.

Since we only saw a little bit of Central Park earlier, we decided it would be nice to take a carriage ride and get more of a tour. It was pretty cold, but our driver was funny and we got to see a little more of the park.

That night we met up with a friend from Danville, Melanie Andersen, and her new husband James for dinner. They got married in December then moved to NYC for James' internship. It was so great to get to know James better and see Melanie. We ending up going to this really random nice restaurant in a mall and everyone had really good meals.

Tuesday January 4, 2011

Tuesday morning we decided to take a nice long walk from our hotel to the Met. It felt good to do so much walking while we were in New York. On our way there we stopped in a few stores on 5th avenue and took our time. We also got stopped by some interns from the Today Show for an interview! They asked each of us about our diets and exercise routines. Jeff and my mom both got on the show! (The videos are at the bottom of this post.)

We finally made it to the Met and we went in to check some things out. It is impossible to see everything in the Met in one visit but we saw some cool things. We mostly looked at the Ancient Egyptian artifacts and some pretty artwork.

It was soon time for lunch and we headed to the famous Serendipity 3. We enjoyed a good lunch and fabulous desserts. We were too cold to try the frozen hot chocolate but we got their packaged kind to take home.

My dad had been wanting to see Strawberry Fields, the memorial for John Lennon so we made the trek across Central Park to see that. My dad loved how simple the memorial was and he was very excited. We also went across the street to see the entry to The Dakota, the apartment complex where John Lennon lived and was shot. Of course my dad new all of the cool facts and stories about all of this so it was fun to hear what he had to say.

Since we hadn't spent much time in Times Square yet, we took a cab down there to walk around and check it out. We went in a few stores and ended up going to a really good pizza place for dinner.

Wednesday January 5, 2011

The financial district was our first destination on Wednesday. We went to go see Ground Zero and found that it was mostly just construction. What was neat was a small museum that they had around the corner devoted to explaining what the upcoming memorial is going to be like. It is supposed to be completed by September 11, 2011 and it seems like it is going to be pretty amazing. Here is the website if you want to see what it is going to be like: http://www.national911memorial.org/

After going to an observation deck to see the construction going on, we walked down to Battery Park. At Battery Park they currently have this statue that was once between the twin towers on display as a memorial.

From Battery Park we got a great view of Lady Liberty.

Since we were close by, we walked up to Wall Street to see what it was like. We stumbled upon a high class chocolate shop where my dad went crazy and bought us anything we wanted. That was some great chocolate though!

While we were there we saw the New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, and where George Washington was sworn in as president.

That afternoon we had tickets to see The Lion King. Oh my gosh, it was AMAZING! I loved all of the costumes and how they stayed true to the story.

For our last night in New York we decided to go to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for dinner. It was the perfect place for our last meal in New York because it was soooo good. We pigged out and lived it up for our last night.

We had such a fun time in New York with great company! I can't wait to go back! I owe a big thank you to my parents for taking us on such a wonderful trip!

Here are the videos of Jeff and my mom on The Today Show.