New York City!

So, here's installment #2 on my summer trip... After David and I got back from D.C., my mom and I left the next morning on an Amtrak train bound for Penn Station, New York City! Neither of us had ever been there, so we were excited. The train was an hour late getting to Kingston, RI station, but we weren't in a big hurry, so it was nice to have that extra time to visit. We had about 3 hours on the train, but it went by so fast. I haven't had that kind of one on one time with my mom in many many years. It was really great!

Me and my mom on the Amtrak train.

We got to Penn Station and found a zillion taxis outside, so we grabbed one and went to our hotel. I got a great deal on Priceline for a 4 star hotel about 6 blocks from Times Square! It's called the Intercontinental The Barclay. Very nice! So, we unpacked a little and set out for some sightseeing. We walked around the corner and found the Waldorf Astoria. It looks much bigger in the movies. Then we made our way to Times Square. We went to the M&M's World Store, too fun! We visited a bunch of other places on Broadway, etc. We ate lunch at a fun place called Ellen's Stardust Diner. It's 50's themed and the waitstaff goes around with microphones singing the hits of the 50's and 60's. My mom was singing along and we had the best time.

At M&M's World, Times Square

After walking around this city entirely too full of people, we went back to our hotel to get a shower and ready for Broadway!!!! We got tickets to the Phantom of the Opera. We dressed up and got ready to go, got a taxi from the front of our hotel and told him 8th and Broadway. Okay, it's Friday night, we're all dressed up, clearly tourists, and I said 8th ave. and Broadway. Guess where we ended up?....8th STREET and Broadway in SOHO. While we were in the back trying to ask the driver if this was broadway for the plays he pretended to be on the phone and ignored us and shooed us out of the taxi. So, there we were, standing all dressed up on a regular street corner in SOHO, scratching our heads and wondering if we'd just been had by a NYC taxi driver. YUP! Anyway, after 3 tries, we got another taxi who took us to our destination and was nice to us. We had an amazing fancy dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the theater. We went in and found our seats, almost to the front. The Phantom of the Opera was incredible! I absolutely loved it, it moved me so much! Then we walked back to our hotel, amazed at how many thousands of people were still roaming around at midnight!!!

Saturday, we went touring around on foot and on the top of one of those tourist buses. It was so much fun. We walked to Central Park, walked over to the Manhattan Temple, down into Times Square again, and then on the bus. We stopped at the Empire State Building..(side note on the ESB...waited for 3 1/2 hours, paid $45 to get to the 80-something floor and look out over NYC for 5 minutes. Total waste of money and time in my opinion...especially after seeing Tokyo from the City view tower, way better!!!) Anyway, we went all the way down to Battery Park, by the UN building and Ground Zero. We saw so much of NYC, it was great! (Note: At Bowling Green down by Battery Park, we saw the fountain where the opening credits sequence for FRIENDS was filmed! :)

On top of our tour bus. After a long day of sight seeing, we wanted to try and get tickets for another Broadway show. We went to the last minute ticket booth and Marriott Marquis and got tickets for Hairspray. So, we rushed over there just in time for the 8 pm show. I've seen the movie, but the show was just soooo much fun! We loved being able to see that show, too! After we walked through Times Square again to find somewhere to eat. We saw the Olive Garden and tried to get in, but at 11:30 pm the wait time was over an HOUR!!!! So, we ate at some other steak house place, terribly overpriced, but pretty good food!

Me in Times Square at midnight.
On Sunday, we got up early and went to Battery Park to start our day trek to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The security lines are amazing, even at 8:30 in the morning! We got to Liberty Island and looked around for a while and then went to get in the line for the statue tour, which only goes into the base of the statue. We waited in line for about 2 hours and went through 3 different security tents. Crazy. We walked up the 50+ stairs to the deck just below where the statue sits. When we first got to the island, I thought Lady Liberty looked kind of small, but when we got right up to her, she's very giant! It was wonderful to see her and know what she stands for and how many millions have called her name in excitement when coming to America.

At Liberty Island.


From Lady Liberty with Manhattan in the skyline.
After Liberty Island, we went to Ellis Island. It was a very emotional and awe inspiring place. It's so amazing to me what people gave up and left behind for the promise of freedom. It's such a blessing to be born in and live in a free country, with opportunity and daily bread. I loved being at Ellis Island, we stayed there and read everything we could for almost 5 hours!

The main room, in the height of it's glory was filled with 5,000 people a day waiting for their turn to be admitted in the USA.
After a long day at Ellis and Liberty Island, we headed back to Manhattan. As we were walking out of Battery Park looking for the subway station, we walked up on a commercial or something being filmed. A bunch of very beautiful people in nice clothes were being pampered in the middle of the street, while some guy on the side was working a smoke machine, and another guy was yelling at the models where to stand and then action. I'm not sure what it was for, we couldn't ever tell, but it was fun to watch for a while and we thought it was a fitting tribute to the city we were in! We made it on the subway, no problem and got out at Grand Central Station. It's pretty amazing, too! I just kept thinking about that part in Armageddon movie with Bruce Willis when Grand Central station was leveled by a meteor...cool!

On Sunday night we finally got to eat at Olive Garden, my first time in about 6 years, and it was sure yummy. Monday morning we were kind of lazy about getting up and getting going. We got packed up and made our way back to Penn Station to get the Amtrak back to RI. We had another nice trip back, and the kids and David were happy to have us home. I missed them!

Some goings on at the ginormous Toys R' Us in Times Square, I couldn't resist taking a picture.
This whole trip, to D.C. and to NYC was such a blessing! Mostly because I got some time with my husband and also with my mom and I got to see some of our country's amazing places! Now on to new adventures...Abby starts Kindergarten, Jacob starts 3rd grade, Jackson will be the dreaded 2, and I'm starting college again!!!! Stay tuned!!