New York City-Day 2

Friday, we walked through Times Square on our way to breakfast.  We took a picture by the famous red stairs.  Then we headed to breakfast at Westway Diner.

Times Square during the day

We told our tour guide we had breakfast here.  He told us this is where Jerry Seinfeld met with the producers the first time to discuss his show.  They modeled the diner in the show after this one.

We had a 3 1/2 hour walking tour that morning.  Our guide, Nathan, was great and full of information. Here are some highlights from our tour.  We met at Paramount Plaza.  From there our first stop was Central Park by way of the subway.

My first ride on the subway

This is The Lake.  They were real original with names.  You could rent canoes if you wanted.

Bow Bridge

 

 

The two pictures above are The Dakota. In front of that gate is where John Lennon was shot and killed.  Yoko Ono still lives there on the whole 7th floor. She can look into Central Park and see Strawberry Fields-a memorial to John Lennon that she had made.  It's in the shape of a tear drop. 

I'll have more pictures from Central Park on the day 3 post since we took a 2 hour bike tour through Central Park.

Bryant Park.  There's a big open field in the back where they have lawn movie during the summer.

We went through Rockefeller Plaza again.  Rockefeller Center is the tall building in the back that we went up in Thursday night.

Our guide pointed out some of the cool buildings and architecture.  

 

This is the New York Public Library.  Dana and I both love to read, so we enjoyed the library.  There are two lions in front named Patience and Fortitude.  That's us by one of them.

We ended at Grand Central Station.  It is huge.  There are floors with just shops, floors with just restaurants, and of course all the terminals.  We had lunch there at New York Central Market.  I had this delicious sandwich.

Dana and I at lunch

After the tour, we took the subway by ourselves to the 9/11 Memorial.  We saw the One World Trade Center and water display outside.  Then we went through the tour inside. It was a big exhibit with lots of artifacts-piece of the building, planes, pictures, things from the two towers, first responder's calls and vehicles, and so much more.  There was a wall with a picture of everyone that passed away and you could go to touch screen to learn about them.  It was a very solemn experience.

This is the Last Column.  Recovery workers, first responders, volunteers, and victims' relatives all signed the column before it was removed.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our nice dinner and Broadway show.

 

We put on heels for the picture.  Then they went in our bag and we put on comfortable shoes to walk to dinner.  Same thing for walking to the theater.  It would have been dreadful walking so much in heels.  We looked pretty stylish in comfy shoes with our dresses. 

We had a delicious seafood dinner at Oceana. 

This may not be the best picture, but I had the blackened Mahi Mahi with a pineapple sauce and roasted carrots.  It was all wonderful!!

Deanna and I saw Jersey Boys, while Dana saw Wicked.  Deanna and I have both seen Wicked twice and Dana didn't mind seeing it by herself.  Our theaters were close too, which was nice.  Our show was wonderful!  The singing was so good. 

The shows didn't get out till 10:30ish, so we just headed back to the hotel to rest up for our busy Saturday.

New York City-Day 1

It's hard to believe that a week ago at this time I was in New York. I went with my good friend, Dana, from Houston and her sister Deanna.  We were there from Thursday-Sunday.  We had planned and planned and it all went smoothly.  We saw and did a ton.  Yesterday was the first day my legs did not hurt from all the walking.  I'm going to do a post about each day.  One big post would just be too long.

Thursday, I had a 6:00 am flight to Newark.  Once there I had to take the air train to the NJ Transit and then take that to Penn Station.  From there I caught a cab to the hotel.  We stayed at the Omni Berkshire Hotel.  It was very nice and in a great location.  I arrived around 1:00.  Dana and Deanna arrived around 3:00.  We walked up and down 5th Ave. that afternoon.  We were near Million Dollar Row which had stores like Tiffany's, Cartier, Prada, Coach...we mostly window shopped and found some yummy pizza.

This is my selfie while out exploring

New York really is the city that never sleeps.  It was so busy, so many people and traffic.

I loved the shops selling flowers

Delicious Pizza!!

 

 St. Patrick's Church.  It was beautiful.

We changed for dinner that evening and then went to Top of the Rock, Times Square, and Juniors for cheesecake. We ate at St. Patrick's Pub and Grill.  It was delicious.  I had a chicken wrap and fries that were amazing.

Next we went to Rockefeller Center.  There's lots of shopping there and where they'd have the ice rink in the winter, are places to eat.

The Rockefeller Center is behind us.

 

This is where the ice rink will be in the winter

When we were finished with Top of the Rock, the place was lit up.  So pretty!

 

The Empire State Building.  We went around sunset, but it was cloudy and we didn't get a great sunset, so we stayed till it got dark out.  It was neat to be up so high and look out all over New York.

This is the opposite side from the Empire State Building and it shows how big Central Park is.

Next, we walked to Times Square.  It was at least 10:00 and full of people.  We got cheesecake at the famous Juniors Bakery. 

 I know these aren't the best pictures, but it was dark and they're with my phone. 

 

That was our day.  It was back to the hotel afterwards since we needed to leave by 8:00 the next morning.

Cooking Camp and Biking

Last week, Molly had her cooking camp and she loved it.  I snapped one picture and her teacher sent another one.  They made blueberry muffins, pink pancakes, and pizza.  They played games and read a few stories to go along with what they made.  It was a cute camp.

 

While Molly was at cooking camp, Tyler and I brought our bikes and went to the Leon Creek bike trail.  It's a paved trail and was a lot of fun.  We went Monday and Thursday.  Thursday his friend, Kyle, came with too.  We went off the trial with them to hike a little and play in the creek.