NYC- Day 5

Friday was our last day in NY.  After a hard, sad phone call with Elizabeth on Thursday night, we were ready to go home.  Plus, the weather changed from what had been cold, to unbearably cold to be outside all day!  This was our day to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We set out with the plan to be up on top of the boat in the open for the view and fresh air, but the wind was so cold and strong I went down below and Donald stayed up to get pictures.  When we got to the Island, we got the audio tour and walked around the perimeter of the Island and the base of the Statue.  Seeing it up close was much more impressive than the Ferry ride earlier in the week.  On the back side of the Statue, it wasn't too bad, and the sky was just beautiful for taking pictures, but as we walked around to the front, it was cold and windy and we didn't linger!  Then we went in the gift shop and headed back to the boat for the ride to Ellis Island.  We spent a long time walking around Ellis Island listening to the audio tour, which was really well done.  

 

A view of the city from the boat.

 

 

 

We weren't able to go up in the crown, they have very limited reservations that you need months in advance, but we still enjoyed going out to the Island and seeing this piece of history up close.  Even though we enjoyed Ellis Island, we didn't really take and pictures there!  

We got dinner to go at a little Mexican place that night and had to leave for the airport early in the morning.  We had some rough weather over Denver and we were very happy to be home!  

NYC- Day 4

Thursday morning we had tickets to see Live with Kelly.  We had tried to get tickets to the Tonight show and that didn't work out and I didn't want to crowd around outside the Today show, but seeing Live sounded fun.  We got there at 7:15 for the 9:00 show and had to wait outside a really long time.  They let us in around 8:30.  We had a choice of being in the way back corner or up in the balcony.  We went for the balcony.  The show was fun, but over quickly.  Scott Wolf was her guest host and he was funny and cute.  They she had Annette Benning, someone from Next Top Model or something and Sarah Mclachlan sing a song from her new Christmas album.  It was fun to watch.  At the end they said they were also filming tomorrow's show and they needed people to fill in so we could go out and get in line again and we would probably get in.  We ended up being about ten people back from the cut off point.  That was fine, it was fun, but we aren't huge fans or anything.  

 

 

When we left ABC studios, we headed over to Macy's and the Empire State Building.  Macy's was totally overwhelming and I can't imagine actually shopping there, but we did wander around and ride on these neat old escalators that looked like they used to be wooden staircases.  We got lunch, marveled at the line of people waiting with little kids to see Santa (the sign said 90 minute wait!) and were happy to head back outside.  I wasn't very impressed with those window displays and thought Sak's Fifth Avenue did a better job.  Once we were outside, we could see the Empire State Building.  We walked over to it, went up and enjoyed the views!  It was cold up there!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

After taking in the views, we headed back to the hotel. We were tired and hungry.  Donald ran to the .99 pizza place right next to our hotel and got us dinner before our big night out seeing a Broadway show!  Alison had so highly recommended Aladdin that Donald went online and got us tickets.  Front row tickets!  It was amazing!  Such a great show and we were so close!  Donald spent some time talking to the conductor since we could see right down into the orchestra pit.  What a cool experience!

 

 

It was a beautiful theater too!

 

What a special evening!

NYC- Day 3

After breakfast, I set out toward Donald and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I have to admit, I wasn't that excited about going there, I would have picked the Natural History Museum over an art museum, but boy was I wrong.  The MET was awesome!  Again, it was huge and we could have spent all day there!  It was backed up to the park and even though the food in the cafe was awful, it overlooked the park, which was nice.  They had a wonderful Egypt exhibit and we went upstairs to see some paintings by Donald's favorite artist, Albert Bierstadt.  We would have stayed longer but we needed to get back because we had tickets to see the Rockettes that night!

 

 

 

 

I had been really excited about the Rockettes until someone at school told me it was super boring because it is just kickline after kickline.  Well, they couldn't have been more wrong.  The Christmas Spectacular was truly spectacular!  Yes, they did kicklines, but there was Santa and 3D and a whole story.  At the end, they read the Christmas story from the Bible and there was a living nativity on stage complete with a camel, donkey and sheep.  It was incredibly touching and I loved it!  I am very glad we took the time to see the show and would have watched it a second time.

Inside the theater.

 

 

 

After the show we needed to find food.  As we walked back to the hotel, we came across Ellen's Stardust Diner.  Someone at Donald's work recommended it.  We had to wait in line a few minutes to get in, but it was fun!  All the waitstaff are aspiring actors and in between taking your order, they sing and perform.  Two ladies that had been in wicked (one on Broadway, the other in a traveling show) sang a song from Wicked that Donald really likes.  The food was not very good, but the show was a lot of fun!  It isn't the type of place you go back to again and again, but it was super fun to be there.  I don't think I have any pictures as I only did video of our waiter singing!

Here is Donald sitting at the restaurant!

 

Breakfast with Alison Woods

At some point at the beginning of the week, I looked at Facebook and saw that my friend from Chico, Alison, was in New York with her mom and daughter.  I texted her and we were able to set up breakfast.  She got advice about a nice restaurant called Norma's and it was just blocks from my hotel. So Wednesday morning Donald set off for the conference and I set off for breakfast!  They had wonderful French toast (when the kids saw the pictures, they thought I had cake for breakfast!), but the best part was catching up with Alison.  She lived just down the street in Chico and was one of the first people we met when we moved back there,  she had us over for dinner  and introduced us to everyone.  She is a social butterfly and sets things up so everyone always had something to do.  We could really use someone like her in our ward here!  It did make me miss many friends in Chico and just the whole sense of community we had there.  I have to remind myself how important and lucky we are to be around family here and that things have changed in Chico.  They moved to the country and built their dream house.  Other friends in the eighborhood have moved and the ward was split in two, so a lot of people we loved are in a different ward for church now.  Plus, Donald's job is so much better here!  It was great to see Alison and reminisce, but it also made me appreciate all we have here!

 

 

Dinner with Keilana

We were able to meet Keilana for dinner on Tuesday evening.  She suggested several places, but I could tell she really wanted to go to this Indian restaurant.  It was crazy in there with hundreds of strands of Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling and even sitting down they were hitting Donald's head!  I almost burned myself on the radiator that was under our table!  It was very New Yorkish.  We had a nice dinner and were able to catch up with Keilana.  She seems happy and is doing well.  She is still a nanny for the same family, she is still with Gregg and she is super involved in doing an improv show weekly.  I was glad she agreed to meet with us as I know she has hard feelings about a lot of the family.  We just tried to let her know we love her and encouraged her to stay in touch with us and grandma and didn't ask a lot of other questions.  What good can it bring?  She has always had a special place in my heart and I was happy to see her doing so well.

 

 

NYC- Day 2

Tuesday morning Donald was off to his conference again and I explored a little more.  I had been afraid to go to Central Park by myself, but Donald reassured me that it was safe, and it was.  I was never by myself and there were tons of police and gardeners around.  Before I entered the park I found a little Christmas market with lots of arts and crafts stuff and I bought myself a hat because I had been so cold.  I explored the park until Donald was finished, then we met at the Natural History Museum.  I love the movie "Night at the Museum" and thought it would be fun to visit.  It was HUGE!  We could have walked around it for days!  We tried to pick some highlights and did see a lot, but certainly didn't cover the whole place!  The highlight was seeing the big Easter Island statue that always asks the guard if he brought gum gum.  We also saw huge dinosaur bones and huge stuffed elephants.  

Here is one of the horse and carriage you can take around Central Park.  We didn't.

 

No matter where you were in the park, you could look up and see the big buildings.

My favorite place a saw at the park   It is the old Dairy where moms could get milk and a snack for playing kids.  Now it is a gift shop where I got myself a Central Park sweatshirt.

 

While I was out walking, I looked up to see Trump Tower.  I don't like Donald Trump, but it was enlightening to see where he lives.

 

I saw this bird at the park.  I think he was lost.  Maybe looking for Sesame Street?

 

Me giving gum gum to the statue.  

 

Me with dinosaur bones and crowds of people.

 

The Staten Island Ferry and World Trade Center Memorial

After Donald's conference was done for the day, we took the subway to what I think is downtown.  We were still in Manhattan, but the other end from where our hotel was and our hotel was right at the south end of Central Park.  We then took the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island.  Our sole purpose was to see the Statue of Liberty.  I had read on line that this was the smart way to do do it, instead of paying money (the Ferry is free) to actually go out to the statue.  I was super disappointed.  Everyone crowded to one side of the boat, it was super cold and windy and the statue was very far away!  That made our decision to get the City Pass easy.  I didn't want to go to NY and not get a good view of Lady Liberty!  

After the Ferry, we walked over to the 9/11 Memorial.  We had fun walking and even found the "Bull" on Wall Street!

 

The Memorial was very touching.  It is really amazing to see the empty holes where the towers were.  They have the victims named carved all around the base of the memorial and water flowing down into an abyss.  After we walked around outside a bit, we bought our city pass and went inside.  The museum was much larger than I expected.  It showed the history of the World Trade Centers and all about that day.  It was strange to relive history that I had actually lived.  Going to Pearl Harbor was emotional and you understood the impact of what had happened there, but going here it was like reliving that day.  I was still teaching and had to address it to all my students.  It was scary.  We had just gotten Maggie the day before and she was such a comfort to us.  Anyway, the museum did a nice job telling the story and the aftermath, including people's complaints about identifying remains and sickness among rescue workers.  It made the strong police presence in the city more understandable.  This is the new Freedom tower overlooking one of the memorial pools.

 

It was evening by time we left and we started out in search of food.  We ended up in this upscale mall and found this little French section and had fun getting food and lots of pastries.  Then we sat and watched a nice light show they had in the food court area.

 

New York City- Day 1

Monday morning, Donald set off to his conference and I slept in!  Once I got up and ate breakfast at the hotel, I set out for a little walk.  I walked to Rockefeller Center and saw the tree, ice rink, the LEGO store with a model of Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Avenue and their awesome window displays.  Then I walked to Saint Patrick's Cathedral and enjoyed walking around in there.   

The tree at Rockefeller Center was huge, but it wasn't very pretty during the day.  We went back at night and it was gorgeous!

 

It was strange to go around the corner from Rockefeller Center and come across the Cathedral!  It was beautiful!  It was warm inside and there we're several homeless people sleeping or sitting on back pews and I was relieved to see that.  When I see homeless people in southern CA, I feel badly for them, but move on quite easily.  To see homeless people there, where it is so cold and there are so few options for shelter, I felt very concerned.  It just seemed like the right thing that they be allowed to shelter in the Lord's house.  The Cathedral was beautiful and I enjoyed the quiet time there.

 

One of the window displays at Sak's Fifth Avenue.  I liked this one because Lizzie was about to be in a production of the Nutcracker as one of the little ones coming out of Mother Ginger's skirt.

 

Ok, there were police everywhere.  Police walking, police on horseback, police driving around, sitting in parked cars, just standing around.  I don't think I've ever been in a city with such a police presence.  It was both comforting and scary at the same time.  

 

California Adventure after closing