Weekend in NY with the Big Girls

 Alyssa was supposed to have a class trip to NYC with her Classical Conversation class; I quickly, and sacrificially, signed myself up as a chaperone. The trip ended up being cancelled because there weren't enough people willing to go. Since Alyssa and I were disappointed, I decided that we could do our own trip and take her sisters as well. I mistakenly thought we could probably do our own weekend with four for what I would have paid for just Alyssa and I, but everything is crazy expensive in NY. We booked a hotel through Groupon (still not affordable at all!) in uptown Manhattan and looked at travel options. Flying was out, so I asked JD what he thought about us just driving in. Thinking he would laugh at the idea, he shocked us all when he said he thought that would be fine. Driving in was fine, but parking in NYC is nothing to joke about. The $50 a day parking fee was the easiest part about parking. When we finally got  our car in the garage, we didn't go back for it until we were leaving town.

We left at 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning at Alei's request that she drive the first two hours; I'm not a morning person and get elevated anxiety just thinking about getting up at 4! After a few lengthy stops, we arrived in NYC about noon. We left our luggage at the hotel and set out to find our first round of NY pizza and figure out the subway.



We ate pizza all three days at different NY pizza locations.

Day one we hit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour in the afternoon.

Moriah's friend, Esther, that lives there, met us for the day.

Moriah is so intently looking at her pictures that she is unaware of Alyssa and I having our own picture fun.

My three big girls on the ferry

Lady Liberty

 After the cruise up and down the Hudson river, we toured the new World Tower in the spot of the old World Trade Center. It's grand opening was only a few days away. It is huge and still stands much higher than the rest of NY's skyline; I'm not confident that I would have taken that approach. 

World Tower on right

 The spot that the second tower was is a large memorial to the victims that died in 9-11. It is a reflecting pool with an inverted waterfall that lights up at night. It has the names of the people that died carved around it. 

If you have read the book Harbinger (I highly recommend it), I was super interested in visiting the chapel that George Washington dedicated our country to God in. It remained standing in 9-11 in spite of being right by the World Trade Center.

That night we hit China Town and Little Italy.

Saturday I didn't carry my good camera, so everything is cell phone pictures. We started the day with a good walk across Central Park to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; it was a bit over 30 minute walk or a 60 minute subway ride because the subway has to go all the way around. Moriah opted to shop with Esther, but Alei, Alyssa and I loved it.

This is the temple of Dundar; it is actual Egyptian ruins that Egypt presented as a gift to the U.S. after we gave them 17 MILLION to help save it from flooding!

We all enjoy art, but I'm just going to show the one traveling Van Gogh that got the big sign out front. The cell phone picture really doesn't do it justice.

 

In the afternoon, we dressed for Broadway and hit Times Square until time for Momma Mia. I had never been to a Broadway production, so now I understand the difference. It was phenomenal.

In our quest to sample more NY pizza, we found what we thought was the best yet. They had ONE table outside which we somehow scored. When we were wrapping up and gave it to a family that just arrived, they were thrilled. It's tough to feed kids standing on a crowded sidewalk.

Those are cream sodas with the pizza!

This pizza place happened to be next door to the church of Scient*logy. When we wouldn't let Alyssa go talk to them, she asked if she could go talk to the protestors across the street. They let her join in for a bit. They were most entertaining; it was like having a show with dinner.

Our final day in NY consisted of mostly shopping in Times Square before we wandered around with our luggage looking for the parking garage and then detouring around Manhattan since several blocks were closed off for some festival. I'll close with two of my girls; the picture doesn't show the N and Y covered in glitter - (they didn't buy them, it was more a making fun of them deal.) 

 I could totally do that again -