Tuesday, November 18, 2008

New York, New York!!!

For our birthdays in Oct, Ski suggested that he and I take a trip. In a few months it's going to be hard enough to go to the store with 4 kids, let alone a trip by ourselves! At first he said Vegas but we have been there several times already and I wanted to go somewhere new. Then I got this great idea - lets go to New York!!! We've never been there and always wanted to go so I got on the internet and researched nonstop for days!!!! Ski's mom Judy and his Grandma Audrey drove all the way from Ohio just to watch our kids for us while we were gone. It was so awesome of them to do that and while we didn't get to spend very much time with them, they were so excited to be able to spend time with Jacqui, Matt and Cadence since we all live so far apart. Because they were taking the time out of their schedules to do this favor for us, we waited til November to go because it worked out better with Judy's work schedule. So November 13 -16, it was me and Ski and the big city of New York!!!

This was our hotel - The Hotel Chandler! What a GREAT hotel this was!



The rooms were a little small but they were perfect for just the two of us! Especially since we spent most of the time site seeing anyway!



This was the weather while we were there - displayed digitally in Time Square. Notice it rained the whole time. That happened to us when we went on our last vacation (just the two of us) to "Seoul Korea" in Sept of 2000.


This was Time Square all lit up with the hazy sky. Ski loves this picture!



Broadway advertisements! We didn't see any of these but we did see the Broadway show "All my Son's" with Katie Holmes. It was so awesome!!!


Me in the M&M store in Time Square.


The Empire State Building!


We also went to see Rockefeller Center and went to "The Top of the Rock"


Rockefeller Center


The infamous Skating Rink at Rockefeller Center



On this particular day, they were setting up the tree that sits in front of Rockefeller center. I wish we could have been there to see it get lit up!


The view from the "Top of the Rock" This is the Empire State building.


You didn't know I had this kind of power did you?


A view of Central Park. Unfortunately since we were only there for 4 days, we didn't have enough time to go through it.



The day we went to see the Statue of Liberty it was raining. We decided just to take the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of liberty because it was free and it wasn't an all day thing. Right as we were passing it, there was this huge rain storm (as you can see below in the picture that Ski is in) and when Ski put our umbrella up, it broke and went inside out from the wind so we had to throw it away!

See that umbrella sitting next to that man? It was ours, it was broke and that man had just pulled it out of the garbage and kept it!!!!


The beautiful Statue of Liberty - even in the wind and rain!


This was the original Heisman award that sits in the Sports Museum that we walked through!!!



The whole time we were there, all Ski wanted to do was get a hot dog from a hot dog vendor. This was me trying to get his picture with his hot dog and him asking me if I wanted one.

Wall Street - we didn't expect it to be so compacted and scrunched together like that!

The New York Stock Exchange - I guess you probably could have read that for yourself though huh!




The Federal Building where George Washington was inaugurated as our first president.


This statue is in a park right next to the World Trade Center site. When the towers fell and the debris settled, people thought there was a real person frozen underneath all the dust and debris!!!


Where the World Trade Center used to be.


The construction going on now.


I looked up at this building and told Ski "This is no where near the size of the World Trade Center but I couldn't imagine it just falling!"

After seeing Ground Zero we went to this AWESOME museum. It's very small - what you see here is pretty much the entire museum. It is pictures from the recovery period down in Ground Zero. They allowed Gary Susone down there and he was the only photographer allowed during that 9 month recovery period. He put together this museum workshop as a way to help people understand what went on at that time. You won't see buildings falling or planes flying into the towers. He wanted this to be more about healing. You walk around the museum with headphones and a pad that you can punch in numbers. Next to each picture there is a number. The device will tell a story about each picture.



This was the largest peice of glass recovered. They said that 99% of the glass was either melted or crushed when the towers fell. This particular peice is believed to be from the higher levels because it was so heavy and the glass at the higher levels needed to be heavy to withstand the winds and weather. This was 120lbs and it took three fireman to carry it out.





This clock was found frozen in time with the exact time that one of the towers fell.


We were so happy to be able to catch up with our friend Kevin. He was a Marine stationed in Beaufort SC with Ski and made the trip all the way to Rogers City Mi for our wedding. At the very last minute he stepped in as an usher in our wedding. This is him with his girlfriend Chris. She can tell you just about anything you want to know about New York - when a building was biult or the history behind it. She was a great tour guide and we were lucky to have met her!

After eating dinner at one of the best pizza places I've ever been to (Grimaldi's in Brooklyn) they took us to an area where we got a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge.


Ski and I at the pizza place. My hair took a beating that day in the weather.


Unfortunately the 4 days FLEW by and we had to go home. I took his picture of my handsome husband at the airport waiting to leave. Isn't he adorable!!!


One of the best parts about the trip was when we would come back to the hotel after a long day of walking and site seeing, and they would have our bed turned down with these mint chocolates waiting for us!!!!


I mentioned it to Ski and when we got home, this is how I found our bed. He even put little chocolates on the bed!!!! I'm a very lucky woman!!!!



Thanks for the GREAT trip babe!!!! I love you and had so much fun!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You went all the way with the photos this time. The one of the Empire State Building is magnificent!