New York!

Ryan's parents were so kind to offer to watch the kids for a whole day (5:45 am until almost midnight!) while Ryan and I rode the train(s) into the city to celebrate our 13th anniversary. It was a long, long day and we filled it as much as we could. I really wanted to do a session in the Manhattan temple, but as luck would have it, the time we were there was during their annual cleaning. We managed to fill our day with other fun  activities...

After our three hour commute (via a train from Old Saybrook to Stamford and then another train to NYC) we arrived! I love the hustle and bustle of the city (although I am not sure I would thrive living there...). We relied on the subway and our feet to take us where we needed to go. Despite a blister on my foot from all the walking it was the perfect way to get around. Our first stop was the TKTS booth to see what Broadway show we might be able to find discount tickets for. We stood in line next to a nice guy from Long Island who chatted with us for the whole 40 minutes that we were in line. Our photo made it onto the jumbo tron (maybe you can see us in the bottom left corner if you click on the photo to enlarge it? Maybe not...). The guy was colorful in his language and felt sheepish after we had talked long enough to realize we were from Utah... his question was funny to me... "You aren't one of those Mormons, are you?" to which I confidently responded that "Yes, yes I am." He apologized for his language and kept it fairly clean for the remainder of the time. They had so many tickets available... and we settled on Evita. If we are honest, Ryan let me pick Evita even though he really, really wanted to see Spiderman (because he loves me so much, I am sure). Hopefully he wasn't disappointed. After we had our tickets in hand (and a lot less cash, even at the discounted price) we moved on to the favorite store in  Ryan's world... B&H Photos. It is a multi-level store that is like a little city complete with a conveyor belt to carry your things to the checkout area. The workers are so helpful too! Then we went to visit some of his old coworkers from his previous job (The Cable Building is shown in the bottom right photo) and went to lunch with one of them. It was fun to see them again and we ate at a tasty little bistro in SoHo. We had to get an authentic Black & White cookie from a bakery... admittedly it wasn't as good as the ones that Ryan's parents bought at Costco (go figure!) but still fun to eat :).

After lunch we made our way back to Broadway just in time to see Ricky Martin and Michael Cerveris rock the parts of Che and Juan Peron in Evita. The music was amazing... and a man sitting behind us made the accurate statement that, "Wow, she really just slept her way to the top, didn't she?" Probably not the best example of moral purity... but still an entertaining story and moving music. After the show we rode the subway to the site of the World Trade Center. They have constructed an amazing memorial there to honor all of the victims of 9/11 and the earlier bombing of the WTC. There are two pools/fountains where each of the towers stood with each name engraved around the pools. The Memorial is still under construction and we did a whole lot of walking to get into and out of it, but it was worth it. There was a light rain while we were there and it seemed like such a peaceful place. While we don't have direct ties to anyone who lost their life in any of the attacks, I still felt a profound sense of loss as I read the names and thought about the people that were left behind to mourn their loved ones. I also felt a strong sense of resiliency... as a nation we will not be beaten down. I am so glad it worked out to go there.

Our final stop was an indulgence for me... I love the show "The Cake Boss" which is set in Hoboken, NJ. It is a short train ride away from the WTC site. When we got there we realized that there is probably never a slow time for business for Carlo's Bake Shop so we took a number and waited to GET INSIDE the building. Once inside we were sardined together with so many other adoring fans of Buddy and his family. We had plenty of time to look over all of the lovely creations and when it came time to order we just about took home one of everything :). We decided that we weren't going to take home NYC souvenirs, but we could always look on our tummy rolls with fondness and give credit for at least a part of them to the $50 worth of pastries we purchased. (We did haul them all back to Ryan's parents and the kids... so we didn't eat ALL of them by ourselves :).) Favorites were the cannolis and lobster tails... the cupcakes (caramel, PB cup, carrot, and red velvet)were pretty tasty too and I loved the cream puffs. Someone in front of us in line bought the last eclairs, so we missed out on those. Only the chocolate dipped cookies disappointed.... I thought they would be like shortbread or an almond butter cookie with dark chocolate, but they weren't that tasty, kind of pasty and bland. At any rate, we had enough for many tastes of these sweet treats when we got home and some for breakfast the next morning too :).

We sped back to Grand Central Station and for dinner ate crusty baguette bread and NY Style Cheesecake for dinner that we purchased on the fly. Our long train ride home was a good time to think back on our fun-filled, exhausting day in a fun, energetic, and vibrant city.

I'm not sure when our next trip to New York will be... but I'm determined to go to the temple and to Central Park to sit and read and people-watch the next time I get there! We are so thankful that Ryan's mom and dad were such good sports taking us to and from the train station and entertaining our kiddos while we were gone.