Thanks to my dear brother (who watched the kiddos-what a brave brother I have), my good friend Brenda (who let us stay with her) and the Chinatown bus ($35 round trip fare from DC to NYC), Scott and I were able to visit New York City last week. It was a much needed little vacation for Scott and I...and now I can understand why people say I LOVE NY and most every other movie takes place there.
I have been trying to think of adjectives to accurately describe New York City and the only one that I think comes close to it, is:
Spectacular.
Scott and I were able to stay with my good college friend Brenda. I'm sure some of you have heard of Brenda before as my friend who comes from a family of 13 children-all red-heads. She is a farm girl, living in NYC! I have always loved Brenda. She lived next door to us, but she was basically our 7th roommate. She is a superb cook, flawless seamstress, a great conversationalist, a professional accountant working in NYC, and a wonderful friend...oh! and she is a night-owl, just like me!
Our first night there, Brenda was kind enough to show us around her neighborhood. She lives right on Wall Street. I loved seeing and being part of Brenda's life, just for a couple of days. It seems, like yesterday when we used to sit around the kitchen table in our Beehive Manor apartment in Rexburg, talking about life.
Pictures don't do justice. This bull is enormous! It was late enough that we were the only ones around the bull. Brenda was answering all sorts of questions that Scott was asking her about New York City! She was an awesome tour guide!
After our little tour, of Brenda's neighborhood, she made us tacos, Scottie stayed up talking for a while and went to bed. Brenda and I stayed up talking until almost 3 in the morning!
The next day, after eating our delicious crepes breakfast with bananas and homemade whipped cream, that Brenda so kindly fixed for us, Scott and I headed to the Rockefeller Center, to the Top of the Rock.
The view was amazing!
New York City is just an out-of-this-world city. It's like in the movies, but better. When you are there, you get to experience, everything. The smells, the people, the busyness...it was very interesting to me...I bet sociologists LOVE this city...there's a contrast of superficiality (fashion and money) but there's also so much charm....I LOVED the way New Yorkers talk with so much expression...
The Top of the Rock was definitely worth it! :)
This is a fun light room on top of the rock, the lights follow you along as you walk around the room. Scott thought this was so cool!
NYC in all its glory.
On the way down, we grabbed a Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate. It was delicious!
After the Rockefeller Center, we headed to Central Park.
I had to take a bunch of pictures along the way...
A hot dog stand.
Beautiful architecture...and lots of yellow taxis.
People and cars, everywhere.
Daija told me about FAO Schwarz, so we had to go in, it's right in front of Central Park. It's where they have that big piano and lots and lots of toys. Brielle and Braden would have been in heaven here!
Scott was in heaven when he saw all the varieties of legos they had...he started dreaming about the day he and Braden will be able to do intricate lego designs.
Central Park is HUGE! I totally didn't realize how huge it is! It's like over 800 acres of park. It's a much needed area with trees and grass and some open spaces in such a big and busy city!
It's beautiful and full of charm.
The guy with the saxophone was really good.
...and then we saw Spiderman! ha ha! totally random!!!
After walking around Central Park, we decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After trying to find the Subway FOREVER!...we couldn't find it and couldn't figure out how to get from Central Park to the Met...we finally asked this nice New Yorker and she told us to take the bus. We were on 66th and we had almost 20 blocks to the Met, so the bus was perfect.
Scott was VERY excited to have finally made it to the Met!!!
By the way, that man (Scott) makes me laugh! He made me laugh our whole trip! It was fun to be with him and spend time alone with him. I am so in love with him. :)
The Met was beautiful. I think it is one of the most beautiful museums I have ever visited.
They have some amazing collections.
We saw Monet and Van Gogh...Picasso. It was just beautiful... we saw a lot of nakedness though...:)
I love how open it is there.
After walking around admiring all of the beautiful and interesting art, we were so tired and hungry.
We decided to head to Times Square for dinner.
The Subway was good to us...a lot cheaper than here in D.C. and we had free entertainment!
This little boy was amazing!
Then we got to Times Square...
My camera did not capture what my eye was seeing.
Times Square is simply, SPECTACULAR...
...and there are hundreds and hundreds of people every where you turn.
We stopped for a few seconds trying to figure out where to start heading to eat...and this lady told us:
"You can't stand in the middle of the sidewalk like that! You are on Times Square!!!"
Scott and I were laughing our heads off!
We finally found a place to eat. This cute little restaurant called Bella Vita.
We ordered pizza and it was the best pizza I have ever had!
Scott and I ate the whole thing!
We walked around for a little longer, admiring advertisement at its best. I'm telling you, I'm sure sociologists love this city!!! You are literally BOMBARDED with advertisements! Amazingly HUGE screens everywhere!
There is this cool area with chairs and tables.
You just kind of have to sit down and absorb it all...what all of this flashiness means.
These guys were playing for charity.
After eating our yummy dinner we headed back to Brenda's, we were so exhausted, we were literally on our feet for almost 12 hours!!!
We decided to go to bed early, at least that was our intention...we ended up going to to bed after midnight!
On Sunday, we slept in. Brenda made these AMAZING raspberry bran muffins for breakfast. We decided to skip church (we were naughty, I know...) we had such limited time, our trip was definitely not long enough!!!
We said goodbye to Brenda and her roommate (who by the way is a dance student at Julliard!!!) I kept telling her that she is living my dream!!!...
...and we headed to the the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
On the way to the ferry, I noticed this sign. All I have to say is,
City Life.
The Staten Island Ferry is awesome because it's free and you get a pretty nice view of the Statue of Liberty.
It was so windy and cold!!!
Beautiful.
We were glad that we did the ferry!
I saw an Asian tourist doing this and I thought it was awesome!
Asian tourists always have the best poses!!!:)
After the ferry, we headed to:
To see these guys:
We could have gone to see more, like the Brooklyn Bridge (which I'm sad I missed)...but we HAD to go see these guys in Queens. Out of all the places in this world, meeting Justin and Stacey in Queens was awesome!!!:) Stacey's parents are serving a mission there. It was nice to see them all and spend a couple of hours with them. Stacey's mom made such a yummy dinner, I was a complete glutton! It was hard to resist!
Queens is a little ways from Manhattan and we barely made it to our bus in Chinatown!
We had to take a cab. I think, taking the cab, completed our NYC experience.
I'm glad that we got to see Brenda one last time before we left!
...and now Scottie and I can say that,
We {heart} NYC!
9 comments:
Denisse! I loved having you and Scott visit, it was simply wonderful! I'm glad you fell in love with NYC because maybe this will make it so you have to visit again ;) Love you!
What a great visit. And knowing people who you can stay with makes it even better on the pocketbook! Happy you enjoyed it. I love visiting NYC. Great city with SO much to see and do. Man, now I'm in the mood to go up there again!
Sounds and looks like an amazing trip. All that in just a weekend...you guys should be our tour guides next time. Last time I was in NYC is was more of a passing through thing, just trying to get to family for a baby blessing...wish I had toured a bit more. Looks like the two of you spent a well needed break together. Amazing Kem to the rescue for babysitting...how did he do? He survive? J/K...I'm sure he did great...he's wonderful with kids. Love you all!
What a fun trip! We lived in NYC for 3 months and it was the most fun 3 months of our lives. It really is such an amazing city. Great pictures! And how fun to see the Heaton's there!
Loved the trip down memory lane. Having Brenda live there makes it so much more fun. Kevin and I would have been totally lost had we not had Brenda for our tour guide! Glad you guys could go too. Yay for Brenda!!
Crystal
Wait were you there the Sunday before Thanksgiving?? We just went to NYC that Sunday-Monday. If there weren't sooo many people I might have run into you. :) Great pictures, I know what you mean about not capturing all that your seeing.... so fun and crazy. What a nice getaway for you two.
Denisse! I was ten minutes away! I could have come and said Hi while you took the grand tour of the Staten Island side of the SI Ferry tour (all 3 minutes of it I'm sure). You and Scott really captured NY well. I want to be able to tour the city sometime, with my husband, ALONE! If you ever come up again, let us know and we'll come and meet you somewhere (or you could stay with us, but we can't compete with Wall street real estate, it's nice to have prime location like that when touring the city). One of these days we're coming down to DC (it's on the to-do list) and I'll have to research your blog for all the best things to see!
WOW! What an amazing experience you guys had! I'm so glad you got a break away and time to enjoy good places and good friends. :)
LOVED your post. Your pictures are so great! And I am SO happy that you guys spent your afternoon with us. We love seeing you any chance we get!
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