New York, New York

     Today I'm going to cover in more detail part of our three-week long trip in July. I wrote an article about our trip at TAJ News Blog a month or so ago, so if you want to check that out, it might put some context on this post. :) Today (as the title says) I'm going to cover our a little less than two day hiatus in New York City.

     While I'm on the subject of old posts, I also wrote this post and this post about our past road trips and the states I've visited. Anyways...


     We drove into New York, and boy did it feel like home. XD Meaning there was traffic. That was awesome but really not awesome at the same time. We got to our hotel and carried our bags up three flights of stars (I developed some serious muscles on this trip!) and organized our room. We headed out almost right away to cram as much as we could in the remainder of the afternoon.

     We took our hotel shuttle to the subway entrance, which was really dirty and kinda gross. I rode on the subway for the first time. That was fun but also kinda awkward. All those people sitting right beside each other and not even recognizing each other in any form. Seriously - I think I only saw three people who weren't on their phone or had ear buds in their ears. And one lady looked like she was sleeping. XD

     Next, we went to Central Park. It's crazy how much green is in the middle of so much grey. If you didn't look up, it's almost like you're in the middle of nowhere (with bunches of people and well kept trails). We saw five raccoons, some ducks (and ducklings!) and a squirrel.

     We visited Trump Tower and Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Trump really likes his name over everything. It's almost not funny. Saint Patrick's Cathedral was really beautiful, even though it was filled with statues of saints. Meaning idol worship was all over. It was gorgeous, though.

Sorry for the bad picture - it was taken in a rush.

The organ in St. Patrick's Cathedral

     Next was the American Girl Doll place. This was a must for me, because I've always wanted to visit the one in NY since I was little. I've been to the one in Chicago, and the one in Los Angeles, so this was the last one for me. Now I've hit the three biggest American Girl stores in the country!!

     Another little bit of home followed. Chick-fil-A!! It was sooo good and familiar.

     Times Square followed, which honestly wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. It's not really square, and there were just a bunch of people and it was dirty and just kinda icky. We also visited Grand Central Station, and I don't really have any good pictures. My camera was almost out of battery at this point. XD

      We walked to the Empire State Building, and on the way we passed this scene from Avengers:

     See it?? See the building!!?? That may have been the coolest part of New York. Top five, probably.

     Next was the Empire State building. For Percy Jackson lovers: Olympus, home of the gods. ;) So I got some kinda random pictures of the top of the building and the elevators. These will only be 'cool' if you've read Percy Jackson. If not, just scroll down. :)

The elevators!! Percy Jackson reference...

     The next morning was another highlight of the trip: the Statue of Liberty. This was my first view of it:

     Can I say it looks a lot smaller than I thought it would? There was also a globe that used to be in between the Twin Towers. It was recovered from the wreckage and rebuilt near where you load onto the boats to go to the Statue.

     The Statue was pretty cool. I got several neat photos:

     We also visited Ellis Island, and didn't spend nearly enough time there. I would love to go back and look at all the displays (and actually read them!). I did get several pictures, though. Here's one:

      For our next stop, we walked to where the Twin Towers used to stand. The memorial there is pretty cool. They have these giant holes, where the two foundations used to be, and water comes down into the pool from the edges. Around the pool they have a black 'railing' kinda, that has all the names of the people who died in the towers. It was cool, but sad at the same time. There was also a tree that survived the attack, which was amazing.

     Our final stop was Wall Street, where we saw a giant statue of George Washington. I think he was sworn in as president at that building or near there.

The statue is the dark thing in the middle of the building.

     So that's our trip to New York! It was fun, but smelly and crowded. I wouldn't like to live there. There are just too many people, and it's kinda gross.

     Finally: our quote of the week.

     "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord stands forever." - Isaiah 40:8

      There is a Seeds Family Worship song they based off of this one, and it's really fun. We've done it for several of our VBS at church.

     Thanks for reading!!