NYC: Day Five

On Tuesday of last week, we went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty!  Of course, it was the only day on our trip that it rained, but really I shouldn't complain because we had truly great weather considering how long we were there and the time of year!  We woke up and made our way to the Ferry, having to stop along the way for an extra umbrella and a few panchos.  Jonathan ran into Walgreens while I got us some coffee from Starbucks, and he came out with two bright yellow, I <3 NY panchos with hoodies.  Let me just tell you....we looked HOT!  And NOT AT ALL like tourists!!!  HAHA!

Anyway, we boarded the ferry and our first stop was at the Statue of Liberty.  Jonathan had planned ahead and ordered us an audio tour for both the Statue and Ellis Island, and I am so glad he did!  We had the best time listening to the history behind such a monumental time in our nation's history and all about the way the Statue of Liberty was made.  Did you know that Lady Liberty was a gift from France?  I guess I always assumed she was something we Americans came up with and decided to build, but no!  Several French politicians decided to give her to us as a gift (and as a political message to England that France was on our side regarding our independence).  And, all of the details about the building of the statue was just incredible!

After our Statue tour, we grabbed some lunch, then hopped on the ferry to Ellis Island.  Again, amazing!  The audio tour was so educational and had so many awesome features such as personal stories of actual immigrants that came to the island before getting approval to remain in the U.S.  I loved learning about our nation's history and standing in the very place that hundreds of thousands of early immigrants stood.  It must have been such a scary yet exciting time for them!

I would say that seeing the Statue of Liberty and being able to walk up to the top of her pedestal and the tour through Ellis Island were some of my favorite moments in our trip to NYC.  We loved it, rain and all!

When that was all done and we made it back to land, Jonathan and I ventured back to our hotel in the pouring rain.  We took a breather, changed some clothes, and then went to pick up our tickets at Rockefeller Center for the NBC Studio Tour that we were taking the next morning.  After doing a little shopping there, we got dressed and grabbed some dinner at a pub next door to our hotel.

THEN!  (drum roll please......)

We went to see WICKED!

AAHHHH!  It was just wonderful.  I had heard that seeing Wicked was worth the trip alone!  We were on the first row of the balcony, and Jonathan and I both loved it.  The music, the plot, the cast, the set!  It was all phenomenal.  Seriously, if Wicked comes to a theater near you. GO SEE IT!  I want to see it again so badly, and I just heard that it is coming to Atlanta sometime in the near future, so maybe we can arrange for it.  We had such a great time, and I am so thankful Jonathan took us!

After the theater, we crashed!  So tired, yet still one more full day of sight-seeing and exploring to do!

Here are a few pictures that I managed to capture of our time on the ferry and near the Statue of Liberty.  Because it was raining so hard, I was forced to wrap my camera in a plastic back and stuff in our backpack.  I can't get it too wet!  These will have to do:

We can see her in the distance as we approach.

Day 6:  Fitting in the rest!

NYC: Day Four

On Monday, our fourth day in NYC, my sister Emily graduated from The Pratt Institute.  For the past three years or so, she's been working on her degree in English Writing with an emphasis in poetry, and while we were planning our trip, we realized that we could plan things so that we could actually attend her graduation.  Since she's been in New York, we've not been able to come and visit, so I wanted to be sure to be up there for her big day since she's not sure how much longer she'll be living in New York.  Anyway, her graduation ceremony was at Radio City Music Hall!  (How many people can say that?)

We woke up, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast and then raced to make our way in line at RCMH.  My dad got there first to be sure we got some decent seats, and he said the line was about 5 blocks long!  Thankfully, he got there at a good time, and we had wonderful seats.  Radio City Music Hall is gorgeous!  It's like something out of the movies!  I didn't take but a few pictures, but the place is just so regal and reminded me of Old Hollywood!

Now we all know that graduations are not the funnest things in the world, but I would say that for a graduation, this one was pretty cool.  The whole name calling thing took FOREVER, but all in all, it was pretty cool.  The Pratt Institute gives out several honorary degrees at their graduations, and so they gave out about 6-7 to some pretty reputable people, and each honoree gave a speech!  I don't remember  all the people that got degrees, but of the people that received them was director/Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh who directed several movies including Erin Brockovich and the Ocean Eleven movies.  (He was really funny!)  Also, singer/songwriter/poet Patti Smith was awarded one, and she gave the commencement address.  To be honest, I had no idea who she was, but we were googling her during the ceremony and found out who she was....and seriously, she looks like she never left the 60s.  She is such a hippy, but it was really cool to hear her tell her story and sing several songs!  Oh, and one other guy that was honored is the architect whose bid was selected for the new building designs for the World Trade Center towers.  It was cool!

Patti Smith!

After the graduation ceremony, my parents, my sisters, and Jonathan and I went out to eat at Morton's Steak House!  We had such a fun time together.  We got to the restaurant around 2:30, and needless to say there was NO ONE there.  I teased Emily and told her that we had the restaurant completely rented out in her honor so we could have a private celebration.  We toasted her with some champagne and had a great time spending time together as a family, which is a really rare opportunity these days!  I didn't realize how much I had missed my family until we were all together!

Waiting for Emily to meet up with us.  We got bored, so we decided to do some "photo shoots."

Demented

Contemplative

Normal, happy self

New York business man, waiting impatiently for a client.

You're Fired!  (The Donald)

All of our feet in a picture

Here she comes!

The Graduate!

Family Pics!

After lunch, we were all EXHAUSTED, so we went to our hotels and took a little nap.  However, Jonathan wouldn't sit still too long, so we got out and about and wondered around.  We ventured over to Rockefeller Center and went to the Top of the Rock!  Also, we got tickets to get a tour of the NBC studios on Wednesday.

Around 7 pm, we met my folks at their hotel and then took the subway over to Union Station, which is where the movie theaters are.  We all went to a movie together!  We saw a movie called Death at a Funeral (or something like that) that had Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence in it.  It was one of the only movies there that somebody in our group had not already seen.  I hadn't been to a movie in a while, so it was relaxing and fun.

That's about it for Day Four.  It was probably one of the slowest paced days we had while there, which was great!  Just the kind of day we needed!

Day Five to come:  Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty!

NYC: Day Three

Sunday morning we woke up and got dressed so that we could meet up with my family and head over to the Brooklyn Tabernacle.  We planned to go to the 12:00 noon service, but apparently you need to be there about 1.5 hours before it begins, so we got there early.  We ate breakfast at a little diner next door to the church with my mom, dad, and sisters.  My dad seriously thinks diners are the best (ahem, greasiest) places on earth.  I think the combo of going to TBT, having all of his girls and his favorite son-in-law with him, and breakfast at a diner made him the happiest person on earth that day.

Church was wonderful.  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside the building, so I don't have any to share, but the choir is phenomenal and the pastor, Jim Cymbala, was an incredible speaker.  He has such a heart for the city and for outreach.  It was great, and everyone was so warm and welcoming there.  I got a ton of hugs from complete strangers!

After church, we took cabs to my sister's new apartment in Brooklyn.  That's when we met Fernando.  He was our cabbie from the Brooklyn Tabernacle to my sister's place in Buschwick.  Apparently, Emily and Fernando are neighbors because he lives just a few blocks from her, and since they were neighbors, that instantly made us BFF.  He taught us all about cab driving and gave us a tour the whole way.  I felt like I was on one of those double-decker bus tours that are all over NYC.  He was hilarious! And just the sweetest man ever.

 We saw Em's place, which is tiny!!!!  After that, Jonathan and I decided to head our separate way.  We were hoping to find some half-price Broadway show tickets for that night, so we headed to the South Seaport where there's a place you can get them.   Once we got back over to Manhattan, I was STARVING, and for some reason, I just had to have a slice of pizza.  So, that was my mission.  I found some random little pizzeria and devoured a slice of NY style cheese pizza, and although it was probably no different than a slice of Sbarro that you'd find at any mall, it was great.

We attempted to find the half-price ticket booth, but we missed it because they closed just about 20 minutes before we arrived.  Instead, we explored the South Seaport for a while.  

It was wonderful!  The weather was just perfect which made strolling around and sight-seeing a dream.  As we were heading out of there, Jonathan got hungry and decided that he needed to have at least one hot dog from a street vendor while we were there.  Yum Yum!

Next on my list was Soho!  I wanted to walk through there and see what all the buzz was about.  Soho is one of my mom's and my sister's favorite spots in NYC, so I dragged JB with me.  Again, the weather was just superb, so we window shopped, walked in and out of several stores that were appealing to us: Crate and Barrel, CB2, H&M, and many others.  There were lots of big name stores in the area like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and more, but who has money to spend in stores like that? Not us!

As it got closer to dinner time, we realized that if we wanted to make our dinner reservations we were going to have to leave Soho.  We were having such a great time, that we decided we would cancel and just continue walking around and decide on dinner when we got hungry.

THEN, I had a great idea.  I thought that we should walk over to Little Italy again (because it was only a few blocks away......really, this wasn't another Empire State Building walk or anything).  So, when we finished shopping, we made our way to Little Italy.

UGHHH!  Favorite part of the trip.

They completely block the streets off around supper time and all the restaurants that line the main street open their doors and have tables outside.  As you walk through Little Italy you are engulfed with such wonderful aromas and such a feeling of romance.  We decided on a restaurant that had seating available outside.  We ordered a bottle of white wine, and sat in the beautiful evening air and talked and people-watched while we waited for our food.  It was such a great night!  We both had an amazing time.  I ordered cheese ravioli and Jonathan had the chicken Parmesan and we shared a Caesar salad.  It was great!

After dinner, the sun had gone down, and everything was lit up!  We walked the main street of Little Italy and found some gelato to snack on while we made our way back to the subway!  It was a perfect night!  And we were not at all sorry that we had cancelled our reservations for another restaurant!  It was a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary!