New York City

For our fifteenth wedding anniversary, Spencer took my to New York City!  We went without the kids for almost a whole week!!  We traveled most of the day on Monday.  We arrived in time to check out Times Square at night.  Our hotel was very close by, so we could just walk.

 We both missed the kids right away!  I took the picture of the policeman on the horse to show Maddie. There were police everywhere we went all week long.

 We picked up some treats from the M&M store.

 This is our hotel room.  It was not very big, but it was nice and in a very convenient location.

Our first stop on Tuesday was the Empire State Building.  This was probably my favorite stop all week.  I took a picture from each point of view on the 86th floor.

This is the top of the Empire State Building.

We listened to an audio tour given by Tony Bennett!

 Next stop was Madame Toussaud's.  I was really excited about this place.  Overall it's not that exciting.  It's pretty cool, but not worth a second visit.  I couldn't believe how short most of the actors are!!

Then we stopped by the Cake Boss Cafe for a treat!!  Yum!!

That evening we went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater, just across the street from our hotel!  It was fantastic!! 

This is the view of the street below from the roof of our hotel.  The theater where Wicked plays is just below.

 We then walked around to see what we could find.  We saw the Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

The next morning we got up and walked to Central Park.  We saw the Ed Sullivan Theater on our way there.

Once we got to the park, we rented bikes for the day and started to ride.  

We rode over to the Met, which is on the edge of the park.  I couldn't believe all of the wonderful art.  We could have stayed there all day - maybe two days!!

For lunch we stopped at a stand and got hot dogs and drinks.  We ate them by the Lake in Central Park.  It felt very "New York-ish."

We then continued our ride around the park and detoured to the American Museum of Natural History. This is the Museum from the movie, Night at the Museum.  It was awesome!  

After we finished visiting the museums and riding around the park, we walked over to FAO Schwartz. It was fun.  We loved the Lego statues!

For dinner that night we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner.  The waiters all can sing and do so the whole time.  Apparently, they are all broadway hopefuls.  We ate dinner by these two crazy locals, who tried to help us get cheap tickets to see Motown.  It didn't work out, but we had fun trying.  

Spencer made a valiant effort to get us into the Jimmy Fallon show.  It was a waste of time.  I wish Jimmy would just sell tickets, for crying out loud, and not make us waste so much time trying to get "free" tickets...

We went to the MoMA.  This particular display was incredible - it is a device that is used to detonate abandoned land mines.  The wind pushes this device around until it sets off a bomb.  Isn't that amazing? 

They also had all kinds of video games on display at this museum.  Most of the art I just didn't see the value in, but some where obviously priceless...

That night we went to a nice dinner at Frankie and Johnny's.  It was a small steak place that was delicious.  Then we got tickets to go and see Pippen.  We got box seats, which were comfortable and fun, but not the best view.  

 The next morning we went to Ground Zero.

This building stands 1,776 feet tall.  It's just beautiful.

The footprint of the World Trade Center towers now holds the largest manmade waterfalls in America. It was just awesome to see.

This is special pear tree, called the Survivor Tree.  Apparently, it was a large stump once the debris was removed from Ground Zero.  It was transplanted and well cared for and nursed back to health.  Then a storm came and uprooted the tree.  It was them moved back to ground zero, where it now thrives.  To look at this tree is to love it, it is inspiring.

 That afternoon we walked down to Battery Park to ride a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.

 They had a great tour for us to listen to as we walked around Lady Liberty.  It's really amazing to see in person.

 Unfortunately, Ellis Island was closed.  I really wanted to go and see it, but there is no one on that island now.

 We rode the subway to and from the Ground Zero area.  We were nervous, but it actually wasn't too hard to figure out.  A couple of natives helped us out.

Not sure why I made that weird face, but this is what it looks like in the subway station.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted!  We packed up and slept well.  We got to the airport the next morning and traveled home.  A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the kids all week for us.  We sure missed them.  And here's to another great fifteen years!!