NYC: Lady Liberty and Me!

I have wanted to see the Statue of Liberty since I was a little girl. I can still remember my neighbor talking about her trip to New York and in that instant, I made a mental note that one day I too would see Lady Liberty with my own eyes. And I did!

We made the trip from Manhattan to New Jersey were we would catch the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  While we waited for the ferry office to open, we saw this 9/11 Memorial.

And a beautiful view of Manhattan.

 

We eagerly boarded this ferry:

I thought the ferry station was so pretty:

I bravely placed my BGC (big girl camera) on a nearby trashcan, pushed the timer, and ran back for a group picture....it only took us three tries. Oiy!  And again, with the wind and my hair. Oh dear! 

A short ferry ride and we were there.  I could be a puddle on the floor just remembering this wonderful day!

While we waited to get off the ferry, this little bird came and sat by me.  Instantly, I remembered, that His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.  And that we are worth more than the sparrows...He cares about every detail. 

I was crying....okay sobbing at this point at the thought of my family members making their way to America. 

What a beautiful site!

I cried again when I saw these worn benches....benches where family members waited for their names to be called.

So much history in this place!  I had traced my family history and had already found two signatures from my great-grandparents who signed in at this very place.  What a gift freedom is!

Even more so, what a precious gift our Spiritual freedom is for all who will receive it!!!

and then it was time to see Lady Liberty!

What a blessing to be able to see her with my own eyes! That day I posted this on facebook, "I am overwhelmed and filled with gratitude for the blessing of walking where my great-grandparents walked when they entered the United States from Germany and the Ukraine so many years ago. Thanking God for the freedom we are blessed with in the United States of America, but greater still, our freedom in Christ Jesus! God is so good!!!

Whew! What a day to remember!I could have gone home right then...but we were hungry. Go figure!  So we hopped in a car and headed to Gray's Papaya for....wait for it....I can't believe I am going to type this.....seriously.....hot dogs!  UGH!  We didn't go for the hot dogs, let me clarify, we went because this place has been in movies like "Fools Rush In," and "You've Got Mail."

Hot dogs just happened to be on the menu.  I sound like a hot dog snob and I guess that I am.  There is just something about mystery meat, that turns my stomach. They smothered my hot dogs with sauerkraut and I was good to go!

Then we made our way to Serendipity for dessert! Yes!

To our delight they seated us right away.  We all ordered frozen hot chocolate.  It was better than I hoped for.  Yes! They sell packets of this delightful goodness so I took a few packets of the mixture home to my girls.  They enjoyed it too!

And then we shopped a little, ate dinner at a manly steak house (Peter Luger's) where the waiter takes your order, decides if that is what you really want, and then brings you what he knows you will like.  And he was right.  But, I've never seen so much steak in my life...and I've never seen grown men lick the bones quite like they did that night either....I'm just saying.  And sorry, I don't have pictures for that! Ha!

The next morning, we boarded our plane and headed back to Texas. Great food, fun, and company. What a trip!

NYC Part Three

You would think that after getting in so late after our Empire State Building adventure, that we would be sleeping in. But, no! I really don't want to miss anything when we are on a trip, so I was up early. I was nearly dressed for the day when Mr. Incredible woke up. I was nearly out the door to shop at Forever 21 just across the street, but he caught me.

He smiled, and told me to give him a few minutes and jumped in the shower. It didn't take long and we were on our way to shopping for our girls. Hardly anyone was there. They must have all been happily sleeping. Mr. Incredible went will me to all 5 floors. We found a few things for our girls just before the rest of the group called.
 

 

We did a little group shopping at the Cake Boss shop and ate a cannoli for Hannah.  We tried to ship them home to her, but since they are perishable it would never have worked.  Sigh! 

 And then it was time to catch a car and head for lunch at Katz Deli. Yum!

It felt totally New York. I really enjoyed Katz's Deli!

And I thought this guy looked like a New Yorker so I snapped his picture.

While we waited for our order, the waiter brought us pickles. Yum! My mouth is watering as I type. 

Most of us ordered Reuben Sandwiches....just look at all of the meat!  We really should have shared one.  It was way too much for me....and now I want a Reuben Sandwich.  So good!

There was a self serve water station.  It reminded me of Happy Days  so I had to try it out.  I thought it was pretty cool.

After lunch, we made our way to a tour bus stop. On the way, we passed several flower vendors.  I thought they were beautiful. 

After the bus tour, I found a Mac store and tried some new eye shadow.  I smile every time I use that eye shadow.  On our walk back to the hotel, we saw the Naked Cowboy.  Hannah told me that if I saw him on Times Square that she wanted a picture.  I didn't have the nerve to pose with him...this was as close as I got.  Ha!

I crashed for an hour before we changed clothes and headed to dinner. Italianissimos was one of our favorite places to eat! They treated us like we were family! Everything, absolutely everything on the menu was amazing!

 

 But my dessert was the BEST! I could have bathed in it, but that could have been embarrassing...seriously though, it was that good!  I have no idea what it was called, but if we ever get to go back, I'll just bring this picture. Oh my!

And then I just might have smoked a cigar like a boss....or not?!  When in New York...

While we waited for the car, I looked across the street.  Doesn't it look like the Huxtable house from the Cosby Show?!  Claire and Heathecliff sadly were not home though.

We did a bit more souvenir shopping for our girls and then headed back to the hotel.

NBC-Was Fun For Me

I know, I know lame title. That's all that I could think of. Ha!

We got off the bus and found the NBC store and Rockefeller Plaza.  Since Christina, CeeLo, Blake, and Adam were out, we took a spin in their chairs...because we are cool like that!

My sister-in-law took these for us.  We giggled at Mr. Incredible.

And Matt Lauer was kind enough to pose with my sister-in-law.  Ha!


We had enough time to get back to the Marriott, take a 30 minute siesta (we were up a the crack of dawn because I can't sleep in when I'm on vacation for fear that I will miss something. It's a sickness, I know), and freshened up a bit.

We waded through a crowd of well to do New Yorkers and made our reservation on time at Sardi's restaurant....note to self, don't ever get the stuffed chicken there again, and then made our way to our first Broadway show.

The birthday girl picked Mary Poppins...so off we went!

 

The theater was beautiful and the show was fantastic. My brother-in-law just might have taken a good nap, I'm just saying.

Our waiter at the View, the night before, gave us a wonderful piece of wisdom. He explained that if we wanted to see the Empire State Building, it would be best to wait until around 10:00 P.M.  And he was right.  We didn't wait in a single line!

Not wanting to walk thirty million blocks, we thought it would be fun to take three pedi-cabs.  Looks innocent right?  We now refer to our ride as the ride of terror.  A pregnant woman, not anyone in our group, stepped out into the street in front of us, our "driver" swerved to miss her and then we were nearly run over by a taxi cab driver.  Oh my!

Thankfully, we made it.  Mr. Incredible sprung for the extra Empire State Building upper floor tickets. The view was amazing.  We could see for miles!

On the first deck, we were frozen.  It was cold and the wind was really blowing.  Despite the huge winds and it being so dark, I was able to get a group image:

 

and then I handed my camera to my sister-in-law, and this is what she captured.  Lovely!

 

It makes me giggle every time that I see it.  Can you tell it was windy and we were frozen??? Me too!

And no, did not take a pedi-cab ride/ride of terror back to the hotel.  Ha!

NYC Adventure Day 2

We woke up bright and early and ready to see New York City in the daylight. I cannot believe we were hungry, but we were. We followed the scent of delicious bagels around the corner.

The waiter took us upstairs where the men in our group feasted on platters of locks and bagels. Um, fish in the morning just isn't my cup of tea, so I ordered a cup of coffee and a southwestern omelet instead. Here is my man strategically placing capers on his cream cheese bagel right before adding the locks:

There were not a lot of people out this morning.  In fact, there were more people out and about at three in the morning than there were at ten.  I know because I was looked out our window around that time just to see if anyone was out.  There were people everywhere.  Wow! Those people must have been sleeping because it wasn't overly crowded after breakfast.

While we waited for the tour bus to pick us up, we found our way to Hershey's.  Yum! The smell was incredible. They pass out samples at the door....I like this store!  My sister in law found a chocolate bar that is Emma-sized.  Emma is one of the cousins who adores anything chocolate.  She is a kindergartner this year. She would have loved this store!

On the bus tour, we saw a lot of buildings and then rounded the corner to see the Empire State building in the distance. 

This next image is iconic New York with all of the taxis:

If you are ever in NYC, the taxis are okay, the drivers can be a bit rude, but download the Uber app and you will have drivers close by whenever you need one.  One of the drivers had just dropped off Alex Rodriguez, the baseball player, before picking us up. That's pretty cool!

One of the neat things I noticed on the bus tour of the city, is there are churches amid the sea of buildings.  Beautiful churches with much history.

We were all getting a bit cool being on top of the tour buses so we decided to hop off and see if we could find gloves and hats for the men in our group and a scarf for the ladies.  I liked the displays.

Shane found a hat and was even willing to model it for me.

After having lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, deliciousness, We found another blue tour bus and hopped on. 

Have you read the Harbinger book yet?  If you have, you will recognize this church pictured below.  The new Freedom Tower is going up next to it.

We saw a lot of people and sites on the bus tour.  But, this one was funny to all of us:

How would you park your car there? About this time, Mr. Incredible and I kept seeing our brother-in-law pop out of his chair.  Every time he would stand up, he threw his ear buds in his chair and my radio connection would change channels.  On this tour bus, a lady would talk into a microphone and we could hear here through the on board station if we had our ear buds plugged into it. 

This happened several times, before he stood up, grabbed his ears and launched his ear buds.  I am laughing as I'm typing, and probably not doing the story justice.  Long story short, his radio channel/ear buds would short out and send him a pretty good shock which caused our channels to change. It was hilarious.  And he tells the story way better than I do.

I'll close for today, I loved seeing all of the American flags proudly displayed across the city!