New York City - Day 4

It's time to finish up about our trip to New York.  It has been two weeks since we were there, so I need to write before I start forgetting things!  When we were planning for our vacation, we found out that our friends Jon & Sarah would be in NYC at the same time.  They were planning a trip to watch a couple of days of the U.S. Open and our time in the city was going to overlap.  We talked about meeting up for a meal, or doing something together, and then ended up deciding to go to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  We actually spent most of the day with them...and had so much fun!

We met up and rode the subway down to One World Trade Center.  This building is now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 feet.  It was so crazy standing beneath it and looking up, not being able to really see the top.  We had decided a few days before to buy tickets to the museum ahead of time, just to guarantee that we would be able to go in at the same time and hopefully mean we wouldn't have to wait.  We got there around 9:30am, and after going through security, we were able to go right in.  (By the time we left, it was a pretty long line outside waiting to get in). 

I didn't take very many pictures.  It is a somber place to be....and something you really just need to experience.  We watched a short video before going down to the museum.  You make your way down in the original footprint of the WTC (70 feet down) and pass this remnant of stairs.  The Vesey Street "Survivor" stairs are the way that hundreds escaped by fleeing down these stairs.

There is this incredible mosaic as you make your way downstairs.  My picture doesn't do it justice (bad angle) but the quote is "NO DAY SHALL ERASE YOU FROM THE MEMORY OF TIME" -Virgil.  It is made of about 3000 tiles that signify the clear, blue sky from that morning on September 11th.   

There are some artifacts (like the firetruck up above) out in the walkway of the exhibition level, and places to read about each and every thing that you see.  But then there are two main parts of the museum-- the historical exhibition and the memorial exhibition.  You are not allowed to take pictures in this part of the museum.  We went into the historical exhibition which walks through the entire day of events of 9/11.  It focuses on each of the four planes from that day, talks about the WTC bombing from 1993, NYC before the attacks, NYC after the attacks, the terrorists...pretty much everything.  The memorial exhibition focuses on those that lost their lives that day.  We went through the entire historical exhibition, but did not go through the memorial exhibition.  The website says that the average visit is about two hours.  We had already been there longer than that and honestly, it's something that I can only read and watch for so long.  It is horrible what happened that day.  There has been good to come from it--in stories of heroes and the way people talk about it uniting the city.  All that to say, I don't want it to come across disrespectful that we didn't go through the memorial part.  I definitely have honor for those that lost their lives.

We made our way outside to the memorial fountains.  These two fountains sit in the blueprint of the twin towers and have the names etched around the outside of all of those who died that day.

Another look at One WTC. 

This white building (below) is the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.  It is inspired/designed to look like a bird being released from a child's hand. 

After we finished at the World Trade Center site, we walked towards Battery Park and grabbed lunch at Shake Shack.  I didn't take any pictures there, but the food was really good and we had been told by a lot of people that we needed to eat there.  Thankfully, the Battery Park location was not nearly as busy as several of the other NYC locations that we had passed.

We then made our way down towards the Staten Island ferry, passing the New York Stock Exchange (pictured above) and Wall Street.  We were there the week that things weren't going so hot on Wall Street (maybe that's every week?)  All I know is that I probably wouldn't have wanted to be down there during a stressful business day.  Anyways, back to the ferry.  Several people had talked about how riding the ferry provided a great way to see the Statue of Liberty and for free!  The ferry ride is 25 minutes each way...so we literally rode it to Staten Island, got off, got back on, and rode it back to Manhattan.

After getting off the ferry, we rode the subway back up to Midtown and walked around for a while.  We stopped in Bryant Park and then walked to Grand Central Station.  I just wanted to see the inside of it...and all it's grandness ;)

We finished our time with Jon & Sarah at John's Pizzeria.  They have eaten there before (including the night before), but the food is really good and we ordered pasta instead of pizza.  After dinner, we separated ways-- they needed to prepare for going to the U.S. Open and we needed to find some souvenirs for the boys!  We ended up with a NYC teddy bear, some M&M's from M&M World, and a pullback taxi car.  We also stopped at Junior's to get some cheesecake to go, since I think it's a requirement to have cheesecake while in New York.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

A couple of last pictures of our hotel, the Warwick.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:05 on Monday morning.  We made reservations to have breakfast at Sarah Beth's before leaving on Monday.

Sarah Beth's - Central Park location

Farmer's Omelette (leeks, ham, potato, gruyere) and pumpkin muffin

Fat & Fluffy French Toast with strawberries

Farewell NYC!

So there is the rundown of our first trip to New York City.  We had so much fun...and thankfully walked a ton to help with all of our shakes, cheesecake, pizza, etc.  One thing we didn't get to see (that was on our list) was the Flatiron building, and one thing that we didn't eat that was recommended was a deli.  Neither of us love deli sandwiches....so we skipped that NYC thing.  We had planned to try to get tickets to see Jimmy Fallon, and actually made it into the reservation calendar (this whole process that you have to try for tickets a month in advance), but then he wasn't taping on the Friday that we were there.  Boo!  If we end up back in the Big Apple, we definitely would go see another (or several) Broadway shows.  I think we would both be interested in going to Ellis Island too.  We had both sides of people telling us to go see it/best thing ever and skip it/takes all day long.  We were trying to cram so many things into our short time there that we didn't feel like taking an entire day to do that.  But next time!  I'd also be interested in going to a Yankees or Mets game, since I think it's fun to go to different baseball parks.  We also thought it would be fun to watch a movie in Central Park, but we weren't interested in the movie that was showing while we were there.  Let me know if you have any questions from our trip...or if I didn't explain anything well enough.  I also want to say that we are so thankful for grandparents that are willing to watch our boys and give us a little time to get away.  I know the boys can be a lot to keep up with and we are so grateful for our parents taking off work and rearranging their lives around our little guys.  Both sets of grandparents watched our boys in August for an extended period of time....so grateful! 

Thanks for reading along with the #BigAppleBarbs :)



And here are the links back to the previous days of our trip:
Day 1 - click here
Day 2 - click here
Day 3 - click here

New York City - Day 3

We had a few places to visit for Saturday and one item that I wanted to check off my bucket list... run in Central Park!  We started our morning by putting on our running shoes and walking the five short blocks from our hotel to Central Park.  Once we got in the park, we spent time walking around and seeing some of the more famous parts.  We were there for a couple of hours and ran our way out of the park back to the south end.

Alice in Wonderland statue

Bow Bridge

(I didn't realize he was taking a picture)

After we went back and showered and changed, we took the subway to the Chelsea Market.  We wanted to check out the market, grab lunch, and then walk the High Line.  Chelsea Market is like an urban food court.  It has a bunch of restaurants and some shopping as well.  There are also some media/production companies there.  We passed MLB.com and some of the Food Network shows are filmed in Chelsea Market.  We got lunch at Los Tacos No. 1.  It might have been my facorite meal from our entire trip.  We both had a steak taco and chicken quesadilla, and then shared some chips and salsa.  We could hardly eat the chips and salsa because the salsa was so spicy...but the food was so good!

The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line and is elevated above the streets of Manhattan's west side (Chelsea area).

We walked most of the high line (I think a little part is closed right now).  It was starting to get pretty hot and we were already tired from all our of walking/running, so we headed back to our hotel for rest and then to get ready for Saturday night.  One of our must-do items was to see a Broadway Show.  In all of my research/looking at shows, I decided that I wanted to see Finding Neverland.  It has only been on Broadway since April, but the reviews were great and it is starring Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schuester on Glee).  Kelsey Grammar was also on the original cast, but took an abrupt hiatus this summer and said he would be back in the fall.  [Side note: I just read that Kelsey Grammar is not returning as intended this week...but might at the end of the summer.]  He was replaced by Anthony Warlow who did an incredible job as Charles Frohman and Captain Hook.  Who needs Kelsey Grammar?  So the show?..... it was SOOOO good!  If you find yourself able to see it at some point, do it!  We watched the movie (with Johnny Depp) just a few days before we left.  Neither of us had seen it before, but it helped knowing part of the story line ahead of time, so we were able to just take in the entire musical (of course there were some differences in the Broadway musical and the film).  There are kids in the show and they were incredible!  We talked about after the fact that since it was our first Broadway show, we probably would have loved whatever we saw.  That is probably true, but I still insist that this one is amazing!

Before the show, we had dinner reservations at Bar Americain.  It is a Bobby Flay restaurant and it was good.  Eric had the special, which was a Philadelphia style strip steak with provolone cheese sauce and caramelized onions.  I had grilled asparagus-ricotta crepes, which are served with a crushed tomato sauce and squash blossom.  We shared a side of sweet potato gratin and a dessert of hazelnut profiteroles.  I wasn't sure what a profiterole was, but thankfully my husband has seen a lot of cooking shows and made a good choice in picking that dessert.  It is kind of like a cream puff, and ours had hazelnut ice cream, chocolate sauce, and hazelnut praline.  The food was good.  It probably wasn't the best meal I've ever eaten, and I think when I eat at somewhere more expensive (than where I usually eat), I expect to be blown away.  So there's that.  Give me more of the $3.75 tacos from lunch ;)

Leaving our room at the Warwick

Dinner at Bar Americain

Finding Neverland at Lunt-Fontanne theater

Almost time to start!

Another day down.  Good night NYC!

To check out our first two days in the city, click here:  Day 1 and Day 2

New York City - Day 2

On Thursday evening, we made a last minute decision to get up early on Friday morning and go to the Today Show.  We checked online and found out that Darius Rucker would be in concert on the Plaza.  They have where you can RSVP, but there weren't any reservations still available.  So we got up at 5:00am and planned to be in line by 6:00am.  Our hotel was only 6 blocks from 48th street, so it was a quick walk.  We stood in line behind two couples from Houston and talked to them about our trip and plans.  When it was time to go through security and get on the plaza, the security guard had remembered those couples from when they had stopped by the day before and asked some questions.  He pulled them aside to take them up next to the concert stage.   They said that we were with them and so we got to stand up with them next to the stage.  It was fun to be close to the action and in our own little area. 

Waiting in line

Darius Rucker rehearsal

Several friends asked/told us about Jen Hatmaker being on the Today Show that same day.  I think most of my Christian women friends between the ages of 27-47 were most excited about the chance that we might see her.  She is quite the Christian celebrity.  She came out on the Plaza right before her segment and we snapped her picture to show everyone that we did see her.  (I actually sat next to her at a conference last year and have seen her speak a few times.  I also finished her new book "For the Love" on the plane.  It's good! )

Jen Hatmaker

Darius Rucker- handing out picks and signing autographs

I was most excited to see Matt Lauer!  I've watched the Today Show for a long time...and was a pretty big Matt Lauer and Katie Couric fan from my junior high, high school, and college days.  We saw Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Tamron Hall, Willie Geist, and Carson Daly.  Willie's family was there watching the concert so he came down and hung out with them for a little while.  The crowd was disappointed that Al was broadcasting from New Orleans, in honor of the Hurricane Katrina anniversary.  The hosts made a comment about how Darius Rucker is one of the nicest and most genuine performers that they have on their show, and it was true.  He was handing out autographs, guitar picks, and taking pictures with people.  He was quick to talk to the audience and seemed friendly. 

Tamron, Savannah, Matt, & Carson

Screenshot from TV (we are right under the blue dot in the upper left area)

After our morning at the Today Show (which it's now only 9:00 in the morning), we grabbed some breakfast and headed back to our hotel to change into more comfortable shoes.  I went ahead and changed into a t-shirt too...since it was warming up from the 64 degrees that it was when we had left that morning, and I figured I wouldn't want to wear a black cardigan all day!   The only set plan we had was to ride the subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge, walk across it, eat Grimaldi's Pizza, and then explore a little around Brooklyn.  We also got ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.  We stayed there until about 2:30 and by that time I was ready for a nap.  The nice thing about vacation is that naps are equally valuable!  It had been a long day already from our 5:00am (4:00 central) wake up time.

2nd pizza meal in under 24 hours

Mozzarella slices on the pizza...yum!

When we left, there was a line waiting to get in

Walking around Brooklyn Bridge Park

We rode the subway from Brooklyn back to Manhattan and had nap time.  We then decided to go back to Brooklyn that night...all the way down to Coney Island.  It was an hour ride on the subway.  We got there and had Nathan's hot dogs...the original hot dog.  We didn't participate in any hot dog eating contests though ;)

After eating, we walked the boardwalk along the beach, checked out some shops, and rode the Wonder Wheel.  Coney Island had fireworks every Friday night of the summer.  They were supposed to start at 9:30.  We waited around, and after about 20 minutes, we decided to just head back to the subway.  There were SO many people and it was just getting later and later....and we knew we had an hour back on the subway.  The fireworks ended up starting shortly after that, so we saw them on our walk back to the subway and as we left Coney Island.  We ended up getting to our room around 11:15.  It was a long and good day! 

You can see a recap of Day 1 here.