Seven

Celebrating 4 years in New York

Our trip was so much fun. I think we probably walked over 100 blocks. The city was everything I thought it would be and more. I think the thing that amazed me was how huge everything was and how packed together the buildings were. On TV the city looks big, but when you are driving in and you see the whole thing it stretches all the way to the left and right and you can't see anything but city. It was amazing!

We saw so much stuff. When we first arrived at the airport, we had been trying to decide how to get to our hotel. BJ doesn't do well in Cabs and the subway would have been too long of a drive. So we decided that we would just do the airport shuttle or taxi if we absolutely had to. So we walk into the airport and there is a guy standing there with our name and I was like, um Bj that guy has a sign with your name on it. do you think that the hotel sent a car or something?? and I looked at him and he had a silly grin on his face and I knew he had done that. He had rented us a LIMO to ride into the city for our anniversary.
So much fun and a lot less scary then cabs! We arrived early evening so we checked into our beautiful hotel ,The Waldorf Astoria, right on Park Avenue. And when we got there they had strawberries and champagne for us since it was our anniversary. I thought that was a very nice gesture! That night we went out to eat at this place called Goodburger. And it was good indeed.

Friday walked all around and saw Times Square, the Chrysler Building, the MTV building, Macy's, the Empire state building, Radio City, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral,the hugest Toys R Us ever (it had a Ferris wheel inside of it), we walked down Madison avenue and saw all the nice high end stores and then later that evening we ordered out from Fred's at Barney's. Yum!

St. Paul's Cathedral


BJ just wanting to be a toys R us kid by the Ferris wheel




Me at the top of the empire state building

The next day we went down by subway to Ground Zero. I was overwhelmed at how big the area that was wiped out was. You think in your mind two buildings but really it was more than that. And the size of the site is unbelievable. We saw the plans for what they are doing for a memorial and it is going to be amazing. I want to go back when it is finished to see Freedom tower. Then we walked over to the esplanade and saw the statue of liberty, which surprisingly was a lot smaller than I always imagined.

We saw Ellis Island and some smaller parks that were beautiful. Then we went to this massive store called Century 21. It was like the biggest Ross/Kohls you have ever seen. They had great prices on everything, including high end brands. Bj got a really nice watch and some shoes for his father's day gift and I got Hayden some pink curious George pj's :) That is when the trip took a strange turn. We left Century 21 and walked around some more and saw the place that George Washington said his oath as the first president and we saw Wall street. Then we started heading to the subway tunnel nearest to us. When we got there it was closed, so we found the next one on the map (which happened to be right next to Century 21) and started making our way there. On the way there, we passed a drug store and BJ needed some Dramamine for the subway ride so we stopped in there. I had been using the same card for the whole trip and when I got my wallet out to pay it was gone. I FREAKED! I knew that I had put my wallet back right away in the store and then hadn't taken it out since then. So I was thinking that the cashier must have never given it back to me and I just got caught up in paying and signing and whatever and didn't realize. So we sat down and I checked all my pockets, and my entire purse and then decided to call Century 21. They looked for my card but could not find it. My heart sunk. Then the guy asked me one more time what department I had last been in and I told him men's shoes and he said, Oh, I checked women's shoes. So he comes back on the line and they have my card. I almost screamed! Thank you Jesus. So we hurried back and got it and then the second we came out it started pouring down rain. We had to run to three different subway tunnels because the one we were trying to get to was closed, as were the next two. So by the time we finally found one that was open we were soaked to the bone and freezing cold. I'm just glad that the trip didn't turn totally bad and me never find my card and have to go through that whole ordeal!

Sunday we slept in because we were both so exhausted. Then we got out and walked to Central Park and it was so beautiful.

We saw the Plaza Hotel, which is where I really wanted to stay but they have closed it to turn it into private residences. (This is the hotel on Home Alone2) It was really nice. We also saw Grand Central Station. Then we walked over to Serendipity 3. The restaurant from Serendipity. It was so cute and we had their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate. SOOOOOO Yummy!!!

We found out that we were sitting at the table that Jim Carey likes to sit at when he comes there. Pretty cool!

One of the best parts of the trip was the amazing weather. There was NO humidity and the first day it was actually chilly at first. I was in heaven! It was like in the 80's yet it felt wonderful! I never broke a sweat!

Something funny I thought was that you know how we have the Texas Whopper at Burger King, well in New York you can order the Texas Whopper except they call it the Western Whopper. Makes us sound like such cowboys.

And lastly...while we were there we picked a second boy name...whoohoo....Bj hasn't said for sure that is the name, but I LOVE it. So if we find out we are for sure having boys we only have to think of one more middle name for the second son because we already have the first name. Whoohoo!! I love knowing their names already :) Then we can start figuring out how to tell all of you :) and no...it won't be early or anything!