New York

When we decided to move to Baltimore, New York City was at the top of my list of places to visit. Luckily we made it there just before we moved. We had two crazy, but fun, days there with Barrett's parents. We got up really early Monday morning to drive to the bus stop where we rode 4 hours to get to New York City. I won't tell all the details about the not so great bus company we went with, but after a little scare we did get to ride on the bus we had tickets for, although split apart from each other. 

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel our first stop was walking through Central Park. First, let me say that the skyline and size of New York City really is amazing! I was actually surprised with how familiar every place was that we visited because you constantly see pictures and videos of all the famous places in New York City. Although I was seeing these places for the first time, it felt like I had already experienced them before. This definitely didn't take the excitement or awe away. I had a great time! Anyway, back to Central Park. The park is such a spectacular contrast to the city. I can see why that area is so beloved.

Next we walked to see the Manhattan temple and ate lunch at the cafè next to it.

I had to post a picture waiting for the Subway since we were on it constantly going from place to place. Again, this is one of those places that you always hear about, and it is as cool as you think it should be. An amazing way to get around the city.

We stopped in to see Grand Central Station.

I expected to see a flash dance start up or Harry Potter walk in, ha ha.

Lily had fun walking around, and thought the ceiling was pretty neat too.

Then we went to Times Square and saw the famous billboards, stores, and bought some souvenir "I heart NY" shirts.

Warning: don't agree to take pictures with the giant cartoon characters; they expect a tip for the honor of standing with them :) I guess Lily liked seeing "Melmo".

After a great dinner in Times Square, Barrett and I went to my first Broadway play!

Day 2 started out a few blocks away from our hotel at the Empire State Building. From the ground you would have no idea you're next to it because every building seems huge. But when you get up there the view is beautiful and you can tell how high up you are.

Good thing there are bars, ha ha.

A pretzel stop along the way to the World Trade Center memorial.

I hadn't seen pictures of the finished memorial and I loved it. There is a hole for each building and the waterfall dumping into it so vividly represents healing from the attack. I thought it was a beautiful memorial. Sadly, we missed the new museum opening by 1 day! We peaked through the windows and it looks pretty amazing inside. I guess we'll have to make another trip someday... ;)

The new One World Trade Center building is almost complete.

You can't go to New York City without eating pizza. This pizza place was at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We had another great view of the skyline while walking across the bridge.

Lily took a much needed nap while we walked.

I love this picture! The missionaries' (Isaac and Morgan) emails came in so they needed to take a little while to read and soak them in :) We sat on the curb and watched them stand in a huddle to read for a little bit.

We weren't originally planning to make it to the Statue of Liberty, but believe it or not, after all that we saw, we still had plenty of time before the bus left.

Barrett caught me sleeping as we rode the ferry to Liberty Island, ha ha.

Most people talk about how much smaller the Statue of Liberty is when you see it in person, and I guess compared to the skyline it is rather small, especially when you see it from a distance on the Empire State Building. But when I actually got up to it, it was still pretty big.

A nice Statue of Liberty selfie...

A great picture of Lily and Papa!

Lily really did SO well during the busy two days with little sleep. She tried to get comfortable in the stroller as you can see below.

Our final stop was enjoying a nice dinner in Little Italy. Other than Lily's recent need to roam restaurants rather than sit in the high chair, it was a very pleasant end to the trip.

We made it back to pick up our stuff and wait in line to board our 8pm train back to Baltimore. We got back to our apartment really late and had a day to recover before Barrett's graduation.