New York City for the Very First Time!

New York City is one place I've always wanted to see, and I was not disappointed! We flew out of Salt Lake City on a red-eye flight to New York and arrived early Friday morning (May 6th).  I officially despise red-eye flights.  Flying without children is infinitely easier than flying with them, but I'm not used to the diminished responsibility.  All I had to worry about was myself! Which is good, but when you're in an uncomfortable airplane seat and you're trying to sleep, all you can think about is how uncomfortable you are.  I almost wished for someone else to tell me they needed something so that I could have the feeling of sacrificing for someone else, instead of just being grumpy because I was grumpy.  I'm not sure if I adequately described the feeling, but there it is.

Now for the fun stuff--New York City! Wow, what an overwhelming place for a small-town girl! The first place we went to, after dropping our stuff at the hotel, was Times Square.  There are just so many people there! And I never realized that the skyscrapers keep going, there's not just one line of them, there's hundreds!  Crazy crazy place.  It really is its own culture--or maybe all cities are like that and it's just the "city" culture.  It's such a radically different lifestyle and social climate than what I'm used to.  I live in a world of playdates, wide open spaces, and one grocery store in my whole town.  They live in a world of $10,000 dresses, street hawkers, the stock exchange, and people everywhere.  As in, you couldn't be alone if you wanted to. I don't think I could ever live there, but it sure was exciting to visit!

Mom, Serena, and Randy riding the subway! It is such an efficient mode of transportation, we were all very impressed at how quickly it got us where we needed to go. 

Times Square

Mom, Dad, and Brian and Jenny, our British friends, riding the Hop-on, Hop-off bus. 

 LOTS and lots of really cool architecture in New York.  The skyscrapers are awesome, but there are a lot of very old buildings with classic architecture too. 

Old meets new: The bottom section of this skyscraper was built in the 1930s, and the rest is obviously modern.

Columbus Plaza

Our first view of Central Park

The only picture I got of the temple.  We didn't actually stop there, or I would have gotten a better one.

The Plaza Hotel

Don't mind the random stranger's head in the corner.

Central Park-- so beautiful!

More Times Square

WHOA.  Huge Post Office.

Yes, it's so tall I couldn't get the top in the photo.

This is called the Flatiron building.

 The hotel we stayed at was literally right next to the World Trade Center site.  As in, we looked out our windows and we could see all the construction and hear the jackhammers.  They don't call it Ground Zero anymore because they are rebuilding.  The two holes where the towers originally stood are being converted into sunk-in fountains, and five Freedom Towers are being constructed around the site, all of varying heights.  The tallest one was not even halfway completed yet, and it's the one most prominent in these photos. They are trying to finish the fountains by September 11th of this year, the 10-year anniversary of the collapse.  The towers will take longer.

These are taken from the balcony on our hotel's 20th floor. That half-finished tower will be the tallest of the Freedom Towers.

Dad and Brian relaxing on the balcony

The view from the opposite balcony of our hotel.

I'm standing 20 stories above the ground in this picture, and I'm still surrounded by massive skyscrapers. 

One of New York's many bridges.  I don't remember what this one was called.

Dinner at Junior's just off of Times Square. Serena looks like she's hiding from the camera!

Then came our night tour of New York City.  It was pretty amazing. 

Times Square at night is even better than during the day.  An explosion of light and color.

It was really cold in the open air on top of a moving bus at night. 

The Empire State Building lit up at night.

This Macy's is unbelievably HUGE.

The Woolworth Building

A great view of the Manhattan night skyline from Brooklyn.

With the Brooklyn Bridge, which was built in the 1800s.

Day 2 in NYC started off with a visit to Battery Park and a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. 

At Battery Park

There she is!

There was a neat monument there with this awesome huge statue of an eagle.

Waiting in line for the ferry to take us to the Statue of Liberty.  It was quite the process.  You go through metal detectors and security, just like the airport--actually, stricter than the airport.  It was kinda crazy. 

The Statue of Liberty!  Awesome.  I have never before seen it in person, so it was a pretty neat experience.  I didn't know that the inner framework of the Statue of Liberty was designed by the same architect who designed the Eiffel Tower. 

The skyline from the ferry.  On the very left hand side you can see those two cranes on top of one of the skyscrapers--that is the Freedom Tower, right next to our hotel. 

Ellis Island from the ferry.

Ellis Island.  It was also a very interesting place to see and experience.  One in three Americans have ancestors that passed through Ellis Island.

After that morning ferry ride, we took the subway back into the city to see a Broadway show.  They sell matinee tickets for half price if you buy them the day of the show (for certain shows), and we got tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera.  Since I have never seen anything resembling a Broadway show, I was suitably impressed.  I especially loved Hugh Panaro, who played the Phantom.  He was absolutely flawless. Unbelievably talented.  I loved it!

Some cool decorative grating in the subway.

Broadway!

After Broadway, we went to Central Park for a couple hours.  Central Park was probably my favorite part of New York.  I could have walked around there all day--and probably not seen it all! We only walked around about 1/4 of the park, and we were there for a couple hours!  It is very beautiful and made more so by being set against the backdrop of the bustling city.

After Central Park, we ate dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant called Carmine's.  It was SO good! This was taken just after dinner as we walked back through Times Square to take the Subway back to the hotel. 

 

The next morning, we packed up our stuff and got on the cruise ship! Goodbye, New York City! I felt like we packed in as much as we could in the 2 days we had there.  It was an awesome trip!