New York City!!

There are a few things in life that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one left on the planet who hasn't done them.  Visiting New York City was one of those things.  But, I can finally check that one off! (A couple of others I can't and probably won't check off are getting on Facebook and owning/wearing skinny jeans.  Seriously, why would I purposely wear jeans that would make my bum look even bigger?  I digress...)

Two years ago, Dan and I had planned on taking a trip like this one.  But, it turned out the timing of Hannah's birth would be too close for comfort, so we had to bag the idea much to my chagrin.  Last fall we started talking about doing a big trip again and this time it actually worked out.  We even got free air fare with Dan's travel miles.  Woo hoo!  My sweet mom came to watch the kiddos and we were off to The Big Apple as first-time visitors!  It was incredible!

We awoke that first morning to a cold, rainy day in spite of encouraging weather forecasts.  The first stop on our itinerary was to see the Statue of Liberty.  But before we could do that, we had to brave the underworld of the subway system.  It was my first time riding the subways.  The other passengers seemed to ride them without a care in the world, but as rookies, we found them to be confusing, frustrating, and stressful at times.  We could tell in the few days we were there that it gets easier with practice, but the whole subway thing wasn't my favorite.

Going into the actual statue was out of the question as it was closed for renovation.  So, we opted to take the Staten Island Ferry, which is free and goes right by Lady Liberty.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the beautiful architecture of the old buildings that is so prevalent.

I was so relieved that by the time we took the ferry back to Manhatten, it had stopped raining so we had a much better view of the Statue of Liberty and the city's skyline.

After that, we mosied through Battery Park.  It was so picturesque.  Sometimes I think I'm just not meant to live where I do.  I LOVE lush, green, and flowery foliage, and big, lovely, shady trees - all of which are nonexistant in my neck of the woods.

After the park, we walked over to see Wall Street.

Then we walked over to the Southside Sea Port.  It has fun shops and yummy restaurants.

We had an excellent view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I also really love being by the water, and boats, etc. - also nonexistant where I live. 

One thing we had really looked forward to was going to Ground Zero of the September 11th attacks.  They have a lovely memorial there and we actually got tickets to go onto the grounds, which are hard to come by evidently.

The two huge fountains are in the exact spots the Twin Towers used to be.

Printed on the borders, if you will, are the names of all 2,977 people who died that day.

There is a lot of construction going on around the site.  Four new buildings plus a museum are going up.  This one will be new World Trade Center and will be the tallest building in the U.S. upon completion.  It will be even taller than the original Trade Centers.  It's height already is truly staggering!

The grounds were really very pretty.

This is what is called "The Survivor Tree" because it somehow survived despite being nearly demolished at Ground Zero.  It was taken and replanted only to get uprooted during a storm some time later.  It was then re-replanted here at the memorial.

Our next stop was Grand Central Station.  It was grand indeed - huge, beautiful, and busy!  I liked this old, gold letter box.

For dinner we went to a place Dan's coworker recommended: the very famous Carnegie Deli that boasts enormous sandwiches.  We thought it quite fitting to order a Ruben (another first for us both) since we were in New York City.  It was enormous!  Even though we shared it, we hardly made a dent in it. 

On the way home, we stopped by quaint Serendipity for their famous frozen hot chocolate.  It was yummy!

It was probably early by New York City standards when we called it a day, but we were pooped!  We'd had our fill of fun, sight-seeing, walking, and food for one day and pretty much fell into bed.