We only had one full day in NYC and we packed it as tightly as we thought we could! Not unlike our time in Disney World, Jason and I went to sleep with assignments for the next morning- which direction we were heading first, where we were eating meals, what subway station we needed to walk to and how early we needed to leave to get there in time. It was a full day with a tight schedule (or so we thought) and we didn't have much room for sleeping in.
Not that we wanted to- it was St. Patrick's Day and sure enough, there were traces of leprechauns in our room! And we figured out how they got in-
It was chilly and rainy this day- the skyscrapers all vanished up into the clouds, which was an awesome sight but not a good sign for our afternoon plans for a trip up into the Empire State Building.
Everything felt so "New York!" The kids kept saying, "That was a genuine New York City honk!" or "Look! A real New York pigeon!" I'm sure we sounded silly but it was so fun to be experiencing all things New York!
Including navigating the subway. Maybe that wasn't exactly "fun" but it was an adventure trying to buy six unlimited ride passes and then getting everyone through the turnstiles and into the right car going the right directions every time we needed to zip around town.
Our first, and most stressful, stop of the day was the Statue of Liberty. Umbrellas in hand, we raced from the subway station over to the dock just in time to watch the boat sail away. It was soaking wet and super stressful until we realized that we could just hop on the next boat. Not off to a great start, but eventually we boarded the boat and made our way out to the beautiful Lady Liberty. She was out there somewhere!
There she is, a tiny little dot in the clouds!
Once we got on the boat it was nice to sit back and just let her come to us.
Once we were on the island, we were especially grateful for the hotel umbrellas. It was fully drizzling and chilly too!
And not quite the skyline pictures we had hoped to take this day, but we just went with it. What else could we do?
How New York-ish!
There weren't very many other people around, but we managed to get a few family pictures.
And lots of selfies with this beautiful, world-famous landmark.
There's the city, kind of!
Where's Noah?
There we go!
All the way around the statue we went,
and then into the gift shop to warm up!
Leah and Emma picked out cute shirts, and the funny old shop worker told me, "Sorry mama, you're definitely too old to wear matching shirts with either of your girls anymore."
We needed up having to wait an extra bit for the departing boat, but it wasn't quite as rainy or chilly by then, plus there were "genuine New York seagulls"!
So long, Lady Liberty!
The 9/11 Memorial.
This was a first for all of us, and it was incredibly powerful. There are two beautiful memorial pools in place of the twin towers, with an endless flow of water spilling into an endless hole.
The rain on the memorial only made it more beautiful, and there were white roses placed in the name of each victim whose birthday it was.
"We remember you."
On 9/11, I was a sophomore in college in Rexburg Idaho and Jason was a missionary in Bolivia. We were just becoming adults, and this experience rocked us and shaped us, just as it did the entire country and world. We were very glad and grateful to spend some time remembering this horrible day.
The beautiful Survivor Tree was just starting to show signs of blooming, a perfect reminder that spring comes again, even after the hardest winter.
After this sobering stop, it was time to warm up again. This time with hot chocolate!
I promised everyone that Max Brenner's was THE best hot chocolate I've ever had, and they were ready to see if it was true!
It turns out just one of the hot chocolates we ordered was THE best, but wow, it was so delicious. As was the pizza, mac and cheese, fondue platter, and brownies a la mode that we ordered. It was a very good thing that we walked 22,000 steps this day because we totally indulged.
We basically had the place to ourselves, so the kids took advantage of it. It felt so good to relax and warm up for a bit!
But before long we were back on the streets! Look at that wall of buildings.
Three cheers to Daddy for being our fearless navigator on the subways- he did a great job of getting us where we needed to go every time. We never missed a stop!
Our next scheduled stop was the Empire State Building, which didn't seem like a great idea given all of the clouds but we already had our tickets.
We were delighted to find out that we could trade our tickets for the next day, so we did! That freed up our afternoon and shifted our next day as well, but it was worth it to (hopefully) get to experience the city on a cloudless day.
So we started wandering! We watched the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center,
and checked out the LEGO store, much to the boys delight!
Then we crossed the street to St. Patrick's cathedral, which was a bonus because it was St. Patricks' Day!
Emma and Leah made a candle donation for Ukraine.
We saw all kinds of fancy shops,
and incredibly ornate old buildings,
and ended up at The Plaza (where Kevin from Home Alone 2 stays).
We followed this fancy lady inside,
ooh'ed and aah'ed at all of the fanciness,
and then made our way over to Central Park.
Which was gloomy but beautiful!
Emma found a proposal site!
How romantic!
These pictures all look much gloomier than it felt.
There were little signs of spring too!
"A genuine New York City squirrel!" And he only had one eye!!
And our day definitely wasn't done, but that seems like a great place to wrap up this post!
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