So Happy...

to be home with this little cutie!

Day Eight – Liberty

Our day began at six o’clock this morning – way too early! We had reservations to go to the Statue of Liberty at nine forty-five and they said that you had to be there two hours before. Our train this morning went through Courtland Street which is where the subway collapsed on Nine-Eleven. It was eerie to see it still all torn up.

We got off the subway in Battery Park and that was cool to see because I’ve seen it so many times watching Law and Order. There were statues all over the place. We were so cold on the ferry ride there and we were sitting inside – I can’t even imagine how cold it would have been sitting outside.

I didn’t really think I would be “all into” the Statue, but it was really cool. It looked so small from the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center – but in actuality, it’s huge. There was a museum inside that showed the history of it and I learned a whole lot. The views of the Manhattan skyline from the observation deck were incredible.

After our visit to Lady Liberty, we hopped on the train to Brooklyn and went to get some pizza. It was the best pizza I have ever had – and I really don’t love pizza all that much. They put fresh basil and sliced mozzarella on the pizza and oh my gosh it was yummy. After pizza we went for ice cream and it was so good. The only downside was that I had to use the bathroom while we were there and I got locked in – I could not get the lock to turn! Thankfully it didn’t take too long to get out.

I am so wiped out – it’s only a little after eight and I’m ready to go to bed. We were gone for over twelve hours today.

Day Seven – Busy, busy

We had a very busy day today. Our first stop was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. This was by far the best museum we went to. Some of the wax people were so real you couldn’t tell that they were fake people. We are all such big dorks – we had so much fun posing for pictures with the "celebrities."

Next we went to the Toy’s R Us in Times Square – it is the biggest one there is – its three stories tall. There was a really cool Ferris wheel inside the store. They also had a huge Barbie house, giant Lego figures and a candy land area.

After our window shopping spree, we met up with Susan’s cousin (who coincidentally just happened to be here at the same time as us) and headed off to lunch at Carnagie Deli. Holy cow the food was huge! It was big enough to split and still be full. I am so thankful that I made the intelligent decision and did just that.

We walked to Rockefeller Center for coffee at Starbucks after lunch and then went over to Radio City Music Hall to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. I am totally amazed at how they are so perfectly in sync all the time. I really enjoyed watching the show.

For dinner we went to a place called Crumbs - for cupcakes. They were so yummy and it was fun to eat a cupcake for dinner! Later we went to McDonalds for “dessert.” What a life!

Day Six - Hard Day

Today we visited Ground Zero. Before we went to the actual site, we went to the Ground Zero Museum Workshop. It is a small museum that was created by Gary Suson, the official photographer of Ground Zero (he was the only photographer allowed after week three.) It was surreal looking at his photographs and the artifacts he collected. I learned so much more about that horrific day. One of the things that I learned was that out of all the glass that was on all the buildings, only one percent was left - most of it melted. I could have literally stayed in the one thousand square foot museum all day. Before going to the museum, it was easy for me to question "how could God have let this happen?" Now I am fully positive that He was there while it happened - besides the beams falling into a cross, one of the most remarkable things was that a single page from the Bible (not the whole thing) was found. It was Genesis eleven - the Towers of Babylon and highlighted was "Let us understand each other." How amazing God is! After we left the museum, he headed down to the actual site. It is so hard to see how bad it still looks now and think that it happened over six years ago - I can not even begin to imagine how all the destruction looked right after is happened. Seeing it up close and personal is life changing.

While we were wondering around near Ground Zero, we stumbled upon The Soup Man restaurant. We had planned to eat at a different one earlier in the week, so we decided to have lunch there today. The Soup Man is the restaurant that the "Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld was modeled after. The soup was really good.

For dinner we had reservations at The Hudson Cafeteria inside the Hudson Hotel. Getting there was an adventure all of it's own. We popped out of the subway station and were faced with a street that was a circle with a bunch of arms. The streets were going every which way and we were totally confused. After looking around puzzled for a few minutes, we (and by we I mean Susan) called the place and asked them how to get there. After getting the directions, we were on our way. We found the place, which was still not an easy task - the place has no street numbers or name of any sort on the building! We went in the building that we thought was it (Susan's cousin had told her that the bar had green lights and we saw some green lights) and there was still no indication as to whether or not we were in the right place. We went up an escalator and saw a front desk - and still no sign. We (again, Susan) asked the guy if we were in the right place and thankfully we were. We went to the restaurant, which the only word that comes to mind to describe the place is, well, swanky. I told Susan that I felt totally out of place, like I (we?) weren't hip enough to go there. Although, we did enjoy a wonderful meal of "upscale comfort" food. (And comfort food was much appreciated after such an emotional day!)