About: NYC!!!

Bah! It has taken me so long to do this! It's because of the pictures - I had so many to share it felt too overwhelming to take it on, but I've gotta do this. I LOVED New York City - and I can't wait to go back... Another great girls trip is in the books - I can't thank Linda enough!

She and I took the red-eye from Seattle to New York, which I thought would be absolutely terrible, but worked out just fine (not that I actually slept on the flight). It was worth it to have the whole first day!

Off the plane and onto a train.

Off the train and onto a subway.... it is how you think it is. Super cramped, hot, and smelly most of the time. But - it's really quiet - nobody talks to each other. It's kind of funny.

It was incredibly cool to see all of these place that you see on TV and in movies or hear about... and they're real!

30 Rock - and we saw where they tape the Today show, and the ice skating rink, and where the Rockefeller Christmas tree goes.

Times Square - straight ahead is where the NYE ball drops. Our hotel was in Midtown so we were 1 or 2 blocks walking distance.

This is place is unreal - thankfully it's really the only part of Manhattan that's really nuts like this.

Oh just another absolutely gorgeous church in between skyscrapers.

The Flatiron Building - you have to see it to believe it - that corner is only 6 feet wide. It's ridiculously beautiful. The whole Flatiron District was phenomenal.

The Empire State Building! When it first came into view I wasn't actually sure that that was it. It looked different than I remembered it looking.

On our first night, after a nice long afternoon nap, we went to see "Cats" on Broadway - it was fantastic, and just like I remembered from listening to the record as a kid.

Going to sleep in NYC can be challenging, especially if you are used to quiet to sleep - there are car noises, horns, sirens, city noises that really do pierce into your room. I slept with a pillow on my head and did fine though. The second day we did some more walking... through Bryant Park down to Grand Central Station. I loved all of the little, but truly gorgeous little parks that broke up all of the concrete and felt like an oasis. Grant Central Station was unlike anything I had seen or been to before, I could've spent hours there just people watching.

There is the Chrysler building - really beautiful, prettier than the Empire State Building, but just not as big.

We decided to buy tickets to go to the top of the Empire State Building - there are some interesting museum type areas and three levels of observations decks. The building honestly couldn't be any nicer and the views were breathtaking. 

It was a bit nerve wracking to be that high up.

All the way down to the end of Manhattan.

Below you can see Freedom Tower with the spike on top, and one of those tiny islands out there has a small bump... the Statue of Liberty.

There it is. You could see it oddly clearly (without the binoculars) even though it seemed so far away. It just didn't show up on the camera.

This is looking out the other side of the building, you can see a little bit of Central Park there.

We decided to find lunch in Chelsea - and ended up going on a bit of a wild goose chase - but just look at the view on the way... I mean, if somebody wanted to give me one of these I'm pretty sure I would take it. 

We found the "Friends" building!

In the evening we headed to the Financial District to visit the 9/11 Memorial.

It's pretty heavy seeing these two pits and all the names. To see all of these buildings around and imagine what the people in them saw and felt that day - just to imagine what it was like to be one of the folks walking around on the ground and look up to see that. It's absolutely unreal. 

The new World Trade Center, Freedome Tower.

 We went to the museum - and it was beyond imagination. One of the most interesting things was the type of people visiting... I would have thought it would be something mostly Americans (or what seem to be Americans) would want to visit - but it was people from all nationalities. It really struck me here how global New York City felt... like it wasn't even the United States at all... but some other foreign place - I really experienced the melting pot of America.

Afterwards, as if we hadn't done enough things we took the Subway to Brooklyn and then walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge at night. 

It's just... wow.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast outdoors.. in the rain. 

Every coffee is fancy in New York City.

These neighborhoods just kill me, they are so beautiful.

Then we walked through Central Park to the Met and looked through a few exhibits. There were some pretty interesting ancient Egyptian pieces, but the American exhibit was my favorite.

Central Park views

Central Park was shocking... it was so different than what I expected just the big square flat empty park with a few trees. It was hilly in places, with rock outcroppings, there were a lot of little gathering places, and hidden statues, and then there were flat empty places too. 

I love the subway tile designs!

I leaned against a pylon in the subway and my arm came away soaking... I thought this was paint. But it was subway slime.

Linda and I headed back to Times Square to stand in line for an hour to get tickets to see Waitress on Broadway. It was totally worth it.

I'm officially obsessed with Broadway musicals. 

It does really feel like the city that never sleeps - and we didn't either. After the show we walked back to Rockefeller Center...

And used our last pass to go to the Top of the Rock - the observation deck at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

I was SO glad we did this - the views at night were stunning - and the best part was the view of the Empire State Building.

The next morning we decided to set out to see the Statue of Liberty, since we were out of passes (and didn't want to A- pay for another excursion, B- spend too much time on our last day) we took the Staten Island ferry (free!) over to Staten Island and got a wonderful view of the statue on the way.

The view of Manhattan on the way back was pretty incredible too. So weird that the tops of the buildings couldn't be seen because of the clouds.

We decided to explore Brooklyn for a while, it was rainy again.

Gah! So pretty!

That bridge below is the Manhattan Bridge. They are very close to each other.

Jeran trying to keep dry.

I missed these guys - it was fun FaceTiming when them when I was out and about to show them some sights.

That evening we went to Chinatown for dinner, Little Italy for dessert, and then passed through NYU to see Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

Views from a crazy Uber ride through the city... later found out the Empire State Building was lit up this way to celebrate Columbus day.

Jeran and I decided we need a few more souvenirs for the kids so we walked back to Times Square which was INSANE with people. But the Disney Store was pretttttty cool.

The top of the Chrysler building at night.

And because it was our last night in New York we decided we needed to find the Balto Statue in Central Park... at midnight. Don't worry - we did! The pictures just didn't turn out... but this one of Christopher Columbus, which we ironically stumbled across, did turn out great. That was a memory!

We had a few hours in the morning before we had to head to New Jersey for our flight home. We got coffee and croissants to go and had our breakfast in Central Park. I tried to take in the sights and sounds of the busy city one last time walking back to the hotel. 

Oh, and I also got a You Are Here Starbucks mug, which is now my favorite.

I went into this trip nervous, not sure how I would feel about the city, seeing as how other big cities aren't my favorite places to go.. but I LOVED it! I mean, incredible doesn't do it justice. I was honestly so surprised at how much I loved it. I loved seeing people from all countries, hearing all the different accents... especially the New York one. I loved all the street noise, and the crazy people that cross the streets before the lights turn. I loved seeing the perfectly normal people that lived there and the crazy rich weirdos, and all the men in the same suit hoofing it all over the place. I can see how people want to live here and never leave (I mean I don't want to do that... but I totally get it now!) Every place I visit that I love ends up stealing a little piece of my heart and makes me want to keep going back again and again... and NYC is one of those places now!