The Big Apple

On September 15th we left our kids for the first time and flew across the country to New York. We had a great time, but it was extremely exhausting! I don't know if I've been that tired since I had a newborn baby. We were gone for 8 days so this is going to be a long post, consider yourself warned. My mom had our kids for 5 days and Nate and Malinda had them for the other 3. We are lucky to have such great family that made this trip possible, thanks again! Now on to the pictures!
Wednesday-
The first 4 nights we stayed with Ryan and Katie on Staten Island so this was the first of many ferry rides over to Manhattan from Staten Island and our first view of the city skyline. It made me mad that I will never get to see that view in person with the twin towers, I was surprised at how much I thought about 9/11.
We got off the ferry and walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge and then walked across it in to Brooklyn. I bet we walked around 10 miles most of the days we were there. The bridge was amazing! I couldn't believe how many people were biking or running across it.
Over in Brooklyn we went to Grimaldi's for dinner, there was a huge line on the street in front of it. It was one of my favorite places we went to eat.
The amazing view of the city on our way back.
Thursday-
Ryan and Katie's kids wake up quite early so me and Katie decided to go for a nice run. They have a great park by their house with a cool little trail, I loved the time we had together.
Even though you can't go in and see all of the trading that's done on the floors, it was pretty incredible knowing the power that was contained in that building. I couldn't believe all of the security around it.
Across the street from the New York Stock Exchange is Federal Hall with the stone that George Washington stood on when he took the oath of the President of the United States.
For lunch we ate at the Halal cart on the street; they had the best gyros we've ever had.
We took a ferry from Battery Park over to the Statue of Liberty. It was amazing to see her in person and to learn more about her and the work it took to build her. Unfortunately it was a rainy, overcast day so we didn't get as good of pictures as we had hoped, but it was still amazing! We were able to walk up to the base which was incredible (even though I strained my calf muscle huffing it up all of those stairs), but we unfortunately didn't get to climb to the torch because it was sold out 3 months in advance.
The torch that she used to hold until they replaced it.
Looking up in to the statue.
Ellis Island
The hall where all of the immigrants entered before they were checked to see if they would be permitted in to the country.
Wall Street bull
We met up with Ryan for dinner in China Town. He took us to some hole in the wall restaurant that had the best Chinese food I've ever had! Aaron said it tasted just as good as the food in Taiwan, I don't think his Chinese taste buds have been that happy in years.
Friday-
I have never thought of New York as being along the coast so when we were usually a short walk away from the ocean it was so weird to me. These pictures are from Coney Island. I loved hearing the sound of the waves and smelling the seawater! Who knew I would get my ocean fix in New York. It was chilly and there was glass all over the beach so we didn't stay there long.
The boardwalk.
The Cyclone. Aaron was bummed to find out that it only runs on the weekends this time of year; me not so much, I do not like wooden roller coasters.
One of the main reasons for our trip to Coney Island. One of the things I loved about New York was most of the places we went, next to the food item on the menu it would have the calories listed. I know most of you are rolling your eyes at me, but I wish they did that everywhere! Not like it helped me much there since I came home with 5 extra lb. on my body, but if I wouldn't have been on vacation I would have totally utilized that! The retarded thing is Aaron lost weight! I went from eating healthy and exercising a ton to eating crap and not exercising as much where as Aaron went from eating ok and not exercising to eating a bit worse and walking a ton. Doesn't really seem fair if you ask me! :)
Washington Square up by NYU. We enjoyed having some time to just walk around a bit and relax.
Grand Central Station with The Chrysler Building in the background. This shows you a little bit of how tall everything is.
The interior of Grand Central Station was so gorgeous and ornate. I couldn't believe all of the detail. It was really hard to get good pictures because of the lighting so you'll just have to squint.
Aaron having fun playing with the camera.
We met up with Ryan over by the United Nations after, but we didn't get any pictures of that.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, there were quite a few beautiful cathedrals in NY that we saw or walked past.
Ryan decided to make it his personal mission to take pictures of us in front of everything so there was proof that we were there. So here is Rockefeller Center.
Times Square, it is more incredible than I could describe it. I've never seen so many people constantly no matter what time of day and at night it's amazing how lit up it is.
Ryan and Aaron's dreams come true- finding the naked cowboy. :)
Katie came and met us in the city and we went to Junior's for dinner. Don't waste your time or money on the food, but the cheesecake- to die for! Aaron who doesn't like cheesecake wouldn't even share any of his with me. :( I still dream of it and of the banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery- amazing!
Then we went to Mary Poppins. We liked it, but it definitely didn't even compare to Wicked for me. As we were riding the subway back to the ferry we realized that we were cutting it really close to making it to the ferry on time (if we didn't make it then we would have to wait an hour for the next one and you generally only have a time frame of a couple of minutes to make it). So we decided we better run there- it was at least 1 1/2 miles away. I'm sure we were quite the sight to see! When we got there we had a huge staircase that we had to go up so I was running up the stairs holding my bag in front of me which meant I couldn't see my feet and I totally missed a stair and came down REALLY HARD on my knee. I could barely walk the rest of the night and still a month later it's bruised, but I'm happy to say we made it to the ferry! Katie even made it without peeing her pants (she's pregnant) and Aaron found if he has no choice he can run without dying. :)
Saturday-
We decided to spend the day hanging out with Ryan and Katie so after me and Katie went for our last run together we went to Statten Island beach; being around their kids made me miss mine like crazy! They are very similar to our kids and have a lot of the same interests, I was very home sick for my little ones!
Verrazano bridge, there are so many cool bridges there.
Ryan sporting his favorite hat.
Then we dropped off the kids and Ryan and headed in to the city with Katie to walk around and explore.
Columbus Circle
It's amazing how the temple is just right in the middle of everything.
Central Park- Katie, that fountain we saw isn't the Friends fountain, it's a little bit over to the side of it. (But Aaron found out neither of them really are.)
Big Piano in FAO Schwarz
The Subway. We bought a week pass which was a great idea. It's an ingenious system and despite the few rats we saw we really didn't have any complaints about it.
We finished the night going to China Town and Little Italy. The crowds in Little Italy were horrendous, but we still had a great time. Aaron loved being in China Town, he said it felt just like Taiwan and it was hilarious to see the people's faces when he would start talking to them in Mandarin.
Other half- to be continued...