I "heart" NY

Well, we've been home for 2 weeks now so its about time to blog about our NY vacation right? Right! I'm trying to make a book out of it too so its also becoming a project :) I warn you, this is a long post. Feel free to just look at the pictures :)

We had a fantastic time in NY. Our whole purpose in going was to see one of James' best friends, Bronson, marry his sweet bride Lori in the Manhattan, NY temple. I can honestly say, the first two days of our vacation, which were pretty much spent at the temple, were the best ones of the whole week we were there. I loved being in that temple! So peaceful! And the ceremony was very sweet and special. Congrats Bronson and Lori!

 It was also fun for us to see friends we've not seen in a long time. Rolf and his wife Kristi also came (Rolf was another best friend of James and also was my home teacher when we were all in the same ward together). Kristi also had their beautiful baby girl Evangaline with them. Such a precious lil thing :)

 One of the funnest parts about the reception was the DJ played the Alicia Keys (I think it's her song) song "New York" and it was a blast bustin' a move with this in the background. Nice!

 The morning dawned bright and beautiful and the temple was a great experience. We then ate sandwiches in Central Park.

After seeing Bronson and Lori off and saying bye to our friends, James and I went off to officially start the "Vacation" part of our vacation :) First stop: the Empire State Building. (And just a word of caution to you future NY goers...don't do the ESB on a Saturday night! Waaaaaay busy!)

  The following pics are fuzzy but they were taken with our cell phones. While we were on the 85th floor, some nice person gave us tickets (that had already been paid for!) to go up to the the 102nd floor observatory. So nice of them! It took a long time to get up there but it was fun to see NYC lit up at night. The first pic is of Times Square. The next one is the Chrysler building.

 I love how the ESB is lit up at night.

Stop #2: Times Square (another no-no on a Saturday night but we did it anyway.) :)

 How could I not get a picture of this! ^ (the line in red)
The MnM World store was a lot of fun too. Look at all the different colors of chocolate-y goodness!

 This section was pretty fun. It was all NY based. For example, they had a mix that was yellow, white and black and it was called "Taxi." There was one that was grey, blue and white and was called "Homerun" (Yankees themed). They had some for the Jets, the Mets, the Giants, the FDNY and the NYPD as well.

 Ah...the Disney store. And I found my princess dress, just 6 sizes too small...(I love Tangled)

 Here is all the official Disney Princesses, and in order of their appearence. Can you name them all?

Stop #3: MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art)
The lovely Monet:

Abstract:

 Lookie! I found where all the Rapunzel lanterns landed!

I thought this was hilarious:

 This is the choreography of brushing your teeth. For a second I felt like buying it to hang in all my offices. But just for a second...

 And this is the kind of art that made me feel like I could totally be an artist. It's a bunch of candy, wrapped and also just the wrappers, piled up into the corner.

Stop #4
An official NYC hot dog in Central Park - the Bethesda Fountain to be exact.

Stop #5
Ground Zero Contruction/Memorial
I don't have many pictures of this but the new Tower is looking great. The memorial building we actually went to on another day but it was a very sobering visit. I couldn't get out of there with dry eyes, it was impossible. I can't wait for the memorial to be done. I'd love to take another trip out there to visit it.

This is what the Tower is supposed to look like when finished.

 Names of those killed on 09/11/01 are on the stripes of this flag.

Stop #6
The infamous Ed Sullivan theatre where the Late Show with David Letterman is filmed. We actually were able to score some tickets to the Monday filming of Thursday's show. It was fun to be in the audience and it was a great show too. The guests included Paul Rudd and the drummer from Santana.

 

Stop #7

The American Museum of Natural History
This one was my favorite museum of the three we went to.

 They had a section on Forests around the nation. One of them was in our own back yard - literally. They highlighted the Saguaro National Forest in Tucson, Arizona. We easily spent 20-30 minutes here. We would point stuff out to the other visitors that stopped and looked too. Honestly, don't you find it funny that we cross the country to see these museums but spend the longest amount of looking time on something we look at every single day.

 Go Cougars! (er...mountain lions...)

Stop #8
Carnegie Deli

Can I have some bread with my sandwich please? And I think I ate the entire cow!
(That burger was as big as my face!)

Stop #9
Liberty and Ellis Island

Stop #10

The Brooklyn Bridge

Stop #11

Coney Island
This roller coaster was so fun and soo rickety! It would shove you down what felt like pure free fall drops and then ram you up the next ramp and then shove you down all over again. So awesome!

 This was called Soarin' Eagle. You'd climb up into these thingers and you'd be vertical. Then they would drop you forward till you were horizontal. You rode the ride on your stomach! It was great! Throw in a couple of barrel rolls and it was a FUN fun ride!

 And the beach. Good ole' Atlantic ocean, good to see you again.

Stop #12 and #13
Washington Square and Jekyll and Hyde Club Restaurant

 We ate at this restaurant when I was a kid and we'd come to NY from FL. They take you in to the restaurant and it's like the Haunted Mansion at Disney. You meet your "guide" and you stand in this room where the ceiling starts to drop on you and you have to scream to get out :) Then, when you've screamed sufficiently loud, you're taken to your tables :) The kid's menu is themed (ex: Fang's Hamburger) and you have characters that will come around and interact with you. Also, they have pictures on the wall where the eyes are constantly moving, masks that will talk, a high maintenance mummy (he ordered a latte and put a curse on James!) and lots of other fun things. The food was delicious too. I think that place is a must for any time NYC is visited.

Stop #14
Metropolitan Museum of Art
This place was HUGE. There were a lot of things in here thought that I studied in my Art History class at BYU. It was neat to actually see the things that I'd studied.

 I told James I want one of these bookshelves...

 These stained glass windows came from some Brooklyn dweller's apartment!

 This is a Commode - pretty huh :)

 A gorgeous piano with Mother of Pearl keys

 Our favorite Monet - we have this print now, a smaller version of it, hanging in our bedroom now

 Degas - he's famous for highlighting dancers.

Stop #15 & #16
Minskoff Theatre and Lindy's
We saw the Lion King on Broadway at the Minskoff theatre. It was fantastic. The things they did to make the animals move and the masks were very fun. We really enjoyed it!

James got the strawberry cheesecake and I got a brownie cheesecake. It was delicious!

 Stop #17
Rockefeller Center

Stop #18
Yankee Stadium
 We were very lucky to be able to go the new Yankee stadium and see the 3 Grand Slam Yankee's vs. Oakland A's!! Yankees kicked tail too! 22 to 9! It was amazing!

 Stop #19
Hoboken, New Jersey

So, a little bit of background for this visit. I'm not sure if you've heard of the TLC show Cake Boss, but he's based out of this little town in New Jersey. His father started and owned Carlos' Bakery Shop on Washington street. So I wanted to try and get into this bakery and taste some of the goodness that comes out of it! So we hopped on a PATH train and headed across the Hudson to Hoboken.

 We waited in a long line - it was about an hour and 20 minutes before we actually made it into the bakery.

 We got to look and decide on what we wanted while we waited another 1/2 hour before our number was called.

 Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, a freshly filled cream-filled canoli, and a lobster tail (a pastry with cream inside shaped like a lobster tail). The other box was 10 differently decorated shortbread cookies. Soooo good!!

 Stop #20
China Town NYC

 We made a brief visit to China town for lunch. It was delicious authentic Chinese food. And looking at all the shops was fun.

This was the most we saw of Little Italy :)

Well, that was our NY trip. We had a fantastic and fabulous time!

Congrats on finishing yet another Tucson Hall loooooong post. Go eat some pie :)