New York City

     So after spending the weekend in Pennsylvania, Danielle and Derek were kind enough to watch Collin for 3 days while Rob and I took a little trip to New York City. We rented a car and enjoyed the scenery for the 5 hour drive. It was our first overnight trip without Collin and it was so much fun! 

     We stayed at a hotel in New Jersey, and took a 15 minute bus ride straight into the city each day. We saved money this way (and had to keep reminding ourselves of this as we settled into the slightly gross hotel and neighborhood). However, what the neighborhood lacked in cleanliness, it made up for in its diverse wildlife. When we were walking back from the bus stop one night, we saw a raccoon cross paths with what we thought was a cat. . . but then after getting (way too) close to it, realized that it was a skunk. 

     We arrived at our hotel Monday afternoon, checked in, and went straight to the city. We wandered around Times Square and walked to the Empire State Building, then had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway! We had been so excited to see it for so long, and we loved it! 

Times Square

Times Square (Phantom billboard in background)

Empire State Building

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Phantom at the Majestic Theater

     Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed for Rockafeller Center for the Today Show! We stood around in the audience, and waved when the cameras came around. We were on camera waving at one point. During part of the weather, Al Roker stood right in front of us so we could be seen behind him too. Every once in a while the reporters would come out and talk to people in the audience in between segments. Al Roker shook our hands and Ann Curry came and talked to us for a few minutes. It was lots of fun to be there for the show, and to have our few seconds of waving on TV!

     After the Today Show, we headed to take our ferry to the Statue of Liberty that we had booked in advance.  We had tickets to go up to the pedestal and museum inside. I don't remember exactly how many stairs it took to get up there, but it was at least double the RB stairs at BYU. :) From the pedestal, we had a good view of New York City.

Actual size of her foot (in the museum)

We are mostly covering the view of NYC, but it is there.

      After the statue tour, we wandered around Wall Street and got some lunch before going to see the Ground Zero Memorial (which we also had to get tickets for in advance). The memorial was really beautiful. We kept imagining how crazy it must have been on that day, in such a busy city, for such a scary thing to happen right there. Skyscrapers make me a little uncomfortable to begin with, and the thought of the two of them collapsing in the middle of the city is terrifying. And we imagined if we were on the crew that had to dig through the rubble, find people to rescue, and clean up the endless mess. Where would we begin? It was hard to imagine what the city must have been like after 9/11, and amazing all that has been done at ground zero since then.

Wall Street

New York Pizza- just as greasy as we'd imagined

Ground Zero Memorial

     After that, we went to Times Square for some delicious New York Cheesecake. We went to Junior's, which we've seen on the Food Network and it was divine. Then, we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge and took a little walk on it. We had some dinner and walked through Chinatown and Little Italy. It was dark by then, so we ended our sightseeing for the night.

Brooklyn Bridge

     Wednesday morning, we took a little walk through Central Park. It was nice and pretty and we wished we could have had the time to go for a run like so many other people there. It would be fun to live close to such a big park like that.

     Our last stop in New York was the Manhattan Temple. We were so glad we were able to go there. It was such a cool experience. It seemed out of place in the loud and busy city, but as soon as we walked through the doors, it was silent and peaceful.

We loved our New York trip! We missed our baby so much, and couldn't wait to see him again, but we were so glad we could make this fun romantic trip alone!