Three years ago my kid's school started offering class trips back east. I told the girls that if they had 6 quarters of straight A's in middle school I would pay for them to go on the trip in 8th grade. Rebecca went with her class to Washington DC, but Sara's class trip got cancelled because not enough students signed up. She had earned the trip so I asked her where she wanted to go and she choose New York City. So we started making plans and were lucky enough to have Jaime and Grandma join us.
Here we are, waiting to get on the plane. We were both super excited.
After a day of flying, and finally getting settled into our condo, we decided to get something to eat. Sara wanted New York Pizza. We went to this great little place just down the street from where we were staying and it was REALLY good. I didn't think you could make a better pizza than the ones I had already tried, but this one beat them all.
On day two we decided to conquer the subways. My mom woke up about an hour and a half before the rest of us so that she could map out our entire day. She's awesome. We left after a quick muffin from the corner store and went to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
I loved the way this picture of the flag turned out. It reminds me of the song, "America the Beautiful" where the words, "God shed His grace on thee" are sung. The morning had been a little drizzly but when we reached the island, the clouds had begun to part and we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day.
Stop number two was Ellis Island. Its amazing to think that people made such incredible sacrifices to come to our country and have freedoms they lacked in their own. Their stories are humbling.
Inside the museum we took the citizenship test. I took the test and got 9/10, Sara took it and got 9/10, Jaime took it and got 9/10, and then Grandma took it and got 10/10. So, the good news is, we could all be citizens.
The New York City Skyline from Ellis Island.
After our busy day, we went to a wonderful Mexican Restaurant for dinner (Rosa Mexicano) and then to Phantom of the Opera. The show was amazing and the perfect ending to an incredible day.
On day three we went to the Museum of Natural History. Its HUGE! Sara had fun pointing out all the exhibits that were used in the "Night at the Museum" movie, but three hours later we had only skimmed the surface.
After a quick sandwich, we took a walk through one of Central Park's Botanical Gardens. The park is beautiful right now. I think it was about 65 degrees outside and GREEN! When you live in the desert, you learn not to take greenery for granted.
Then Jaime led us to one spot on her bucket list, "Serendipity" for our dessert dinner.
Serendipity happened to be down the street from Dillon's Candy Bar, a place Sara was hoping we'd discover on our journey around the city. We had to stop in and ended up getting some chocolate bars with pop rocks in them for the kiddos back home. Imagine three stories of every type of candy you can imagine, plus a dessert bar where they sell Mocktails and ice cream. Not to bad!
We thought we were doing good with our time but when we arrived back at our condo, we realized that we were seeing Aladdin not Wicked Thursday night and that it started at 7 not 8. It was 7 when we discovered our mistake, so we ran to the subway, ran to show and ended up only missing the first 4 songs. The show was INCREDIBLE! We were lucky enough to catch the show with its original cast and so that made it even more fun.
After the show it was off to the Empire State Building and Wow, what a view. I think my mom enjoyed the walk down time Square almost as much as the view of the city. Looking at the same thing from two different perspectives was a lot of fun.
Day Four began with an exploration of downtown NYC.
We visited a rather famous cathedral and the Federal Building. We walked down wall street and past the NYC Stock Exchange. Then we spent the afternoon at the 9/11 memorial museum.
I don't think anyone who is old enough to remember 9/11 will ever forget where they were or what they were doing when they heard the news about the planes crashing through the twin towers. Re-living that moment brought back a lot of the feelings I had on that fateful day. Our country changed, and for a time people came together in a way I don't think I've ever seen.
After a somber afternoon it was time for some FUN! So we went and checked out the Stardust Diner.
The waiters and waitresses all sang and danced while we ate. Most had been in Broadway shows and were trying to get into new ones, so they were crazy talented. The meal definitely lightened the mood and got us ready to go see our final show, "Wicked." SOOOOOOO FUN!!!
Day Five was to be our last day in the City and so we spent the morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not only were the exhibits incredible, but you couldn't even begin to see everything so we will have to plan a trip back in the future.
I had to take a picture of mom asking for directions, because she would ask for directions any chance she got. We didn't do a really good job of blending in and NOT looking like tourists, but that's okay, at least we never got really lost. (Every so often Jaime just had to pretend like she didn't know us.)
Its hard to believe that the trip we'd spent the last several months preparing for is over. What a fun way to start our summer break. Me, Sara, Mom, and Jaime. I'm so glad we were able to go.
Just in case you are feeling bad for Chad and the other kids we left behind, DON'T! They went to Disneyland while we were gone, so everyone had a little summer fun last week. (And Carlee has officially survived the Tower of Terror or as she says, the ride with the Green Missionaries.)
