I know it has been a long time coming, but I am FINALLY posting about Chad and My trip to NYC. Brace yourselves, its a long one!
New York Day 1:
We arrived at JFK on Thursday at 5:15 am (that equals 2:15 am california time) So, needless to say we were pretty tired. Doug picked us up and when we arrived in Astoria we sacked out on the couch for a while. A delightful hour or so later we were woken up by cute Leah and Paige, who were both a little sick. While Chad slept and snored I spent some quality time with my nieces and bro playing. Leah kept checking on Chad to see when he was gonna wake up and dubbed him 'Panda Bear'! I am guessing because he snores like a bear, and was wearing a black t-shirt? A few hours later we got up and going and decided since it was sunny to do to visit miss Liberty!
We hopped on the subway and headed to battery park. As we approached the park we see this hideously long line for the statue. Chad waited in the crazy long line, and I waited in the other crazy long line for tickets. While in line we realized that we may have been the ONLY Americans actually stupid enough to wait in a long line for the sake of Lady Liberty, and we also took some sneaky pictures of this ridiculous Ms. Liberty impersonator. He actually caught us and literally, I kid you not, shook his finger at us! COME ON! We are 'MERICANS we can do whatever we want right? Another highlight of our 2 hour line excursion was our first (and our last) New York dirty water dogs! (THanks for the tip Chris).
After about 2 hours we got onto the boat and it was such a relief, to feel the nice brisk breeze. After all our hours of waiting we decided that it gave us the true 'huddled masses' experience. Our measly two hours in line, being packed like sardines to the different islands were nothing compared to what actual immigrants had to deal with.
Chad and I both have immigrant heritage so it was a really great experience to visit Miss Liberty and Ellis Island. It really made us grateful for our blessings and the opportunities we have because of our ancestors sacrifices! It was a beautiful sunny day and we were pretty happy to leave the lines behind us. (Or so we thought!)
In the late afternoon we headed up toward times square and the theater district so we could be around for the wicked lottery. We ate dinner at a small and overpriced (imagine that?) deli near times square. We took in capitalism in all its splendor! The last time Chad was in Times Square it was pretty run down when he visited it on his Mission. It is so clean and fun now, although it may have lost some of its original character!
After looking around we headed to the theater where Wicked was playing and put our names in the Lottery. Oddly enough about 3 different people right next to us ended up winning the lottery but we left empty handed. :( Since I really had my heart set on seeing a broadway show we decided to check out some of the other theaters for student rush tickets and the TKTS booth. No luck, so we thought we would take in the Empire state building at night. (At this point we were pretty beat, from all the walking and standing, and very little sleep). When we arrived at the Empire State Building we saw a HUGE line wrapping around the building, not unlike the one that we spent most of our day in at battery park.
We were both exausted and I was pretty grumpy because we didn't win tickets so we resigned ourselves to buying a McDonald's ice cream cone, across the street from the ESB just so we could sit down. We decided to call it a night and head back to queens. When we got back, my mom was there (she was visiting Doug and Amber the same weekend for easter). We spent time just chatting and chilling with Doug and Amber and Mom. It was just so great at the end of our day to put up our feet and be with family!
New York Day 2:
We started off the day bright and early, although we did get to sleep in a little bit. We headed with the Family to Doug and Amber's Church building where we ate a yummy breakfast and got to hang out with the girls, and Everyone before the left for Cape Cod and we left for the city. Amber planned a fun Easter ward activity, It was fun to see all the cute games and crafts that Amber put together for the kids.
The first thing we did when we headed into the city was to visit Grand Central Station. Chad had never been there, and I had been their but never actually been in the main hall. It was HUGE! It definitely reminded me more of a european rail station in its grandeur and old architecture.
We also checked out the Chrysler Building and enjoyed seeing all the different subway murals.
We got back on the subway and headed downtown to visit the Old St. Pauls Church and the World Trade Center site. Last time I went to the site of the WWTC was March 2002, and they still had a wall of memorabilia up for those who died. It was a very emotional and heart wrenching day for me so I was a bit apprehensive to go back. However, Chad wanted to go, so we went and visited St. Pauls Church, The oldest building in NYC that has remained in continuous use. It was also miraculously not damaged AT ALL when all the buildings fell down around it. It was neat to see the graveyard where old revolutionary war people were buried and to see the memorabilia and cards and expressions of love that was set up inside the Church as a type of memorial.
After Visiting the Church we walked over to the harbor to see the Brooklyn Bridge.
We were going to walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, but we were beat, and under time constraints. So we took some time to check out the little shops, rest our feet, see the old tall ships (similar to the Ship Brooklyn). Since Chad was grown quite the sea fairing beard, we took a picture of him in front of the ship in honor of our Ship Brooklyn ancestors!
After checking out the Bridge and harbor we decided to grab a couple slices of pizza. It was this tiny little joint down the road from the BB and it was true to the thin, cheesy, folding slice type pizza. You may think this was like any other eating experience but sadly it ended in tragedy and personal injury.
The slice of pizza shown above is EVIL, great tasting, but EVIL to the core. Why you ask? Well, as we were waiting for our hot slices too cool off I decided to take just a small nibble to test the temperature. As I took a bite (note: most people who know me, know that I have a problem with food dropping on my *cough* upper shelf), I feel something hot squirt right down my shirt. It is piping hot pizza sauce!!! It burned SOOOOO bad and I was so shocked that I couldn't even tell Chad what was wrong as I fumbled for napkins. I instantly wiped it off and within minutes I had an angry red blister to show for my delicious NY pizza experience. I got a cup of ice and throughout the rest of the day was feeding small ice chips down my shirt, I am sure anyone who caught me doing this on the subway or street thought I was an absolute looney! As a result, hot pizza sauce is now considered my mortal enemy.
After the Pizza drama-rama we headed back uptown to the LDS Temple located near the Lincoln Center. The frantic business at lunch and all the noise of the city was washed away as we stepped into the Temple. The LDS Temple was constructed as a building within a building so when you enter is is totally quiet and you cannot hear the city at all. It was so nice to be in a calm, peaceful, and quiet place after all the running around all day. It was also a pleasant surprise to run into some old friends from Utah. The world is small when you are Mormon! We ran into Lanny and Sherry Norris who were serving a Mission in NY (they are parents to my good friend Rachel growing up!) It was a small comfort that in such a large and nosy city that you can go to the Temple and find friends there! It was Wonderful!
After the beautiful and relaxing time spent in the Temple we headed to the Gershwin Theater for Wicked Lottery Round 2. The day before I had REALLY got my hopes up to win, because I am generally a lucky person. Because we were so let down the night before we had VERY SLIM hopes that we would win because there were about 3 times more people on Friday night than there were on Thursday. We entered our names, and waited. They started calling names, and as the got to the second to last name, and we had lost all hope, they called out EMILY TIMMRECK! I totally screamed out like a little girl and ran up in line. I feel bad for the other people waiting around but I could not help giggling for joy! After all front and second row seats to Boardway's hottest musical for 26 bucks each! That is like a Christmas miracle!
I guess I am a lucky person after all! We got the tickets and they gave me a cute pin as PROOF that I had in fact won the WICKED lottery! We grabbed a quick, and yes overpriced, dinner and headed to the Theater. I want to tell you all how wonderful my husband is because he came to Wicked with me. A- He's not exactly a lover of musicals and B- I think he was born hating the 'Wizard of Oz', I am not sure why, but Chad is really creeped out by OZ and everything to do with it. Because of this I applaud him for humoring me in all my fanatic giddiness in winning the lottery.
The show was AMAZING! The set was so well done! The Orchestra pit was awesome to see the players sectioned off into glass sound boxes! The Costumes were so intricately detailed! The shoes were, FABULOUS! The singing and acting was stellar. I have to admit my favorite part of experiencing WICKED from the 2nd row was being able to see the glimmer of the actors eyes! I know it sounds terribly cheesy but it was so thrilling to see the emotion on the faces from that close! It was everything I had hoped for and more!
New York Day 3: Stay Tuned
