I Love New York!!!!

NEW YORK !! We were so excited to finally arrive after a long flight beginning in Monterey changing planes in Los Angeles, and then to JFK. After getting our luggage, and finding out the best way to get to our hotel, we were off for a ride on the subway. It was the fastest and least expensive way to go. We called Nick and Erica who had arrived about an hour before us to see where they were at. They were already checking out Time Square. When we came out of the subway terminal we flagged down a taxi to take us the remainder of the way to our hotel. Yes, getting a taxi was as easy as in the movies!! Wave your hand and they pull over, well most of the time!
After checking in and unpacking a few things Nick and Erica showed up and we were off to see the concrete jungle!! You just can't imagine what it is like to be there with all of the sky scrappers, just building after building. Incredible!! We asked a local where would be a good place to eat dinner and he suggested Carnegie's Deli. They are known for their overstuffed sandwiches! The Pastrami was rated #1 so Steve and Erica had that and Nick and I went for the chicken breast sandwich. guess how much the Pastrami sandwich was....$25.00. If you wanted any mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, etc. that was all extra! So from then on we knew meals were going to be expensive!! They did have really good cheesecake there, in fact I thought it was the best we ate. After dinner we started planning our strategy for the best way to see and do all there is in NY. Since all of my friends and family said the best way to see the city is on the double decker bus we followed that plan. Thursday morning it was the uptown tour, ice cream at Trump Towers and Wicked that night. What a great musical! We all really enjoyed it ! Though I was a little worried that Erica and I might get kicked out for using the men's restroom. Of couse the line for the women's was ridicously long and the intermission was almost over so as soon as the last man came out and assured us no one was in there, I had Erica stand guard while I went in. Pretty soon others followed and the girls had taken over!! One poor guy was complaining to the lady at the door when we walked back in saying," it has to be against the law for a woman to be in the men's restroom." Glad we were out by then, relieved and ready to finish the show!!! Friday we left on an early bus to see the Statue of Liberty, China town and got to eat yummy pizza at Lombardi's in Little Italy. The statue of Liberty was tops on my list of things to see and I was not disappointed. I could just imagine the welcome relief on the immigrants faces as they saw her standing there in the water. It was beautiful!! After careful study of the map our personal tour guide, Nick, decided which subway we needed to take so we could get to the Mets game. Guess who they were playing..the SF Giants. Nick and Erica wore their colors proudly among the Mets fans even though the Giants lost. On our way back we stopped at Grand Central

Terminal(not station as commonly referred to). Supposedly according to one of our tour guides Grand Central Station is actually the post office. Who knew we had been saying it wrong all these years. Saturday was our day to go to the Manhattan Temple.

. We ended up on a spanish session, so I now have a greater empathy for others who have to wear headphones to know what is being said. It was a bit of a challenge to concentrate and if I closed my eyes, I had a hard time staying awake. I eventually figured out how to mange and enjoyed the session. It was a very unique, beautiful Temple and a very spiritual experience for me. We were very glad that we had gone. Plus it rained while we were in there so it kept us from getting all wet. This was our last day on the tour bus and Brooklyn was the next stop on our list. We saw parts of Brooklyn that normally you don't see because our driver got completely off the route and the guide was speechless most of the way because they were in unfamiliar territory. It took us quite a bit longer than expected so by the time we got back to Time Square it was too late to go on any other tours. Well our trip was winding up and we still hadn't gotten to do any shopping, just a little bit of window looking and walking into Bloomingdales and Tiffanys to say we had been there. Steve was looking for a sweatshirt so he was in for a little shopping. We went to Macy's, a few gift shops, the Hershey store and M&M store. In the M&M store we got the only free thing in NY... a sample of a new pretzel M&M. They were really good but I haven't seen them in the store yet. Next we went to the Empire State Building.


What a view that was! We were on the 86th floor out on a observation deck and you could really get the perspective of the whole city with the many lakes, rivers and of course off in the distance the Statue of Liberty. It was quite a windy day and up there, it was really windy.Take a look at my hair in this picture! LOLIn fact the security did come up and close off one side of the building because of the wind. Luckily we got to see it all before that happened. It was a beautiful sight and made us all want to go home and watch the movie Sleepless in Seattle. By the end of this night my feet were really tired. We had been going every morning at about 8:00 am and returning at 11:00pm. with a lot of walking in between. So when we got to the hotel that night I soaked my feet in the tub and Steve gave me a much needed foot massage. Sunday of course we went to church, which was in the same building as the Temple just on a different floor. I was excited to hear the ward sing because a sister at the Temple had told me since a lot of ward members are in the broadway shows or opera they sound wonderful. We did have a sister sitting behind us and she had a beautiful voice so I would just listen to her instead of singing along. After church we took a much needed nap and then went for a walk in Central Park. It is a beautiful park with so many different things going on. We even got to sit and listen to a symphony. I think we saw the tunnel where the bird woman was on the movie, "Home Alone", we took a picture to verify later on. Since today was mother's day we decided to go out for a nice dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant close to our hotel and it was very good. That night we retired early so we could pack and get ready to leave for home. Monday was our last subway ride, under the river to New Jersey. We didn't have a lot of time so we literally just went to the waterfront, took our picture and headed back to the subway to Time Square. Nick and Erica had a later flight so they were going to go to the Broncs after we left. We checked out and took the subway to the airport. On the way there, Stephanie called and said that our flight had been canceled. Oh great!! When we arrived at the airport we were able to get another flight with another airline and also leaving from another airport. So they taxied us over to La Guardia and we were on our way soon to Denver, connecting to Monterey. Unfortunately after about 1 hour of flying the pilot announced that there was a problem with the heating and cooling system and we were on backup but we couldn't stay on backup for the entire flight. We would need to make an emergency landing in Chicago. Unfortunately that made us miss our connecting flight and it was the only flight of the day that went to Monterey. We were able to get another plane in Chicago and continued on our flight to Denver. There we got a flight to Los Angeles where we were put in a hotel for the night, well really about 5 hours, before boarding an early morning flight to Monterey. We arrived at Monterey at about 9:00am and to my surprise, our luggage was there waiting for us. Stephanie picked us up and we left for home. We really appreciated Stephanie coming and taking care of Ashley, the dogs, cat, and house while we were gone. She did a great job and made it easier for us to get away. I think I covered most everything we did, as you can see we packed a lot in the few days we were there!!! I'm so glad that Nick and Erica were able to come. It was fun to be with them, to not have to worry about the maps and where to be, and to know someone else in the Big Apple!!!