New York City

After going to Riviera Maya, Mexico in March of 2006, I can officially say I was bit by the travel bug. I wanted to see MORE! So in September when I graduated from college, we went to New York City as my graduation gift. We only stayed two nights, but we were able to do all the cliche things that I've always wanted. 

We stayed in New York in September 2006 and it was freakishly warm that weekend and we were not packed appropriately. We stayed at The Hotel Edison only 2 blocks off times square so that was our first stop. I was SO excited to finally stand right there!

We walked around the city and just took everything in. I had read about the Naked Cowboy online and I actually got to see him in action. It was pretty funny to see everyone crowd around him and take pictures. 

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe...of course! This was by far the largest HRC that we had been too. They apparently have full on concerts here and host massive group parties too. There was a table of 200 ahead of us so we wandered around and found the bar.

(That was not a typo, there was a screen of who was waiting and there was literally a party of 200 that was ahead of us so we ordered the second we sat at the bar)

 That evening we took a horse drawn carriage ride around central park. It was very romantic but Jim and I both would have rather done it during the day so that we could have seen all the sights in the Park. It was still fun, but when we go again, we will definitely do it during the day. 

  

NYC at night!

 The next morning we got started early. We decided to start walking to the subway station and try and find some breakfast. We saw a sign outside of a restaurant advertising breakfast specials that included coffee and juice. We thought it was such a great deal till we saw the size of the juice! Seriously...it was like a shot...of juice.  Oh well, at least the breakfast was good.

Afterwards we took the subway and headed to the the site of the World Trade Center, Wall Street, The Empire State Building and The Statue of Liberty. Yes, we did all of that in one day. 

Since it was the 5 year anniversary of 9/11, we decided to stop at the world trade center site first thing in the morning. It was such an eerie feeling being there and reading all the stories, but it was moving and made you appreciate everything. 

One of the many pictures all around the area. 

Looking out into the construction area.  

 After that, we headed to Wall Street. As a finance professional, I had to walk around for a little while and see all the things we had always talked about in class. It was fun, but then we were on the next place.

Next stop, the Statue of Liberty. When we got to the pier, we learned that there was a three hour wait just to get a boat ride onto the island. We then were informed that since 9/11 you were not able to climb to the top of the Statue, you were only allowed in the base of the statue. Lame. So we decided to take a boat tour around the island and just take some pictures and take in the view. It was worth it. I hear you can go to the top of the statue now so we hope to do that when we go back in the future. 

After our boat ride, we got a quick lunch and headed to the Empire State Building. There wasn't a long wait and we were up at the top in no time. It was such a beautiful day with clear skies so it made for an amazing view of the city!

At the top of the Empire State Building

 After the Empire State building, we walked around the city, had dinner and just explored. We stopped at a small bar and had a few drinks. My husband loved the wall of Fake ID's. Some were pretty good but some were flat out horrible. We had a great night exploring the city at night and checking out a few local bars.

 On Sunday we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp before heading to the airport. We had a great view of times square and enjoyed a good lunch. We were sad to go, but we were happy that we fit so much into two short days. We can't wait to go back one day and take Zachary with us to explore!

New York is awesome and there is SO much to see. We seriously didn't even scratch the surface. We will without a doubt be back one day. We still want to see the museums, more of central park, and some shows. Till the next time NYC.