When Zac and I first got married, we had grand ambitions to visit Argentina. I use the word grand because our thought was that we would go before we had kids. Little did we realize that this thing called life, school, student loans, and living off one income would thwart this. We decided to plunge ourselves into the world of airline miles associated with credit cards and within about two years had enough points to get to Argentina! What we didn't have was money for hotels, food, transportation, and anything else. So we saved these miles and each year have purchased more just to keep them from going inactive and losing all of them. We decided it was going to be MANY years before we jetted off to the land of milanesas and decided we should use these miles. Our ten year anniversary was coming up so we talked about the places we would want to visit in America. The number one for both of us was New York City. We thought it was a good time in our lives to do this so we cashed in our miles and traveled to the BIG apple. One of the reasons we really decided to do this was because one of Zac's favorite mission companions lived close to the city and actually works close to Time Square. They shacked us up for three nights so it wasn't as expensive as it could've been! Onto the pictures and stories!
First off, the day before....YES the day before we left I decided it would be awesome to throw my back out lifting weights (it wasn't even that much weight....I previously hurt it that summer being an idiot and diving off of something too high into a pool). So I had a MAJOR back problem but stocked up on Ibuprofen and Icy Hot patches to plow through it! We also didn't take the kids on this one and Baba came to watch them for the week we were gone. She is the best!
This is the first selfie of many. This was on our anniversary in Grand Central Station trying to figure out what train went to Tuckahoe (the village Dave and his family lived in). We figured it out and it was a very smooth 30 minute ride north of the bustling city.
I really loved Tuckahoe. It was so nice to be able to get out of the city and see some trees and grass. and two story buildings. The city kinda made me claustrophobic sometimes so it was nice to escape the few times we did.
This is the park right by Dave and Cassie's home. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful time to go. Since we don't get much of a fall/autumn here in the great Valley of the Sun, this was such a fun thing to see, smell, and hear.
I was absolutely FASCINATED by the subway system....lets just say it blew my mind. I have taken public transit in a few larger cities (mine included), but those are dwarfed by the absolute madness that exists in these tunnels. There are colors, number, letters associated to all the trains and we had fun trying to decipher it. Fun story--Our first, yes first, subway ride we got onto the car and I was holding onto Zac's backpack as he moved to some open spaces. I was all up on him as close as I could be so I would a) not fall b) not get pick pocketed and c) stay as close to him as possible. So when I see an open seat that he steers away from I of course think he is being gentlemanly like and letting me sit in the open seat. No sooner than I go to sit down I feel/hear a squish at my feet. I am scared to look down and when I do it is what I feared the most. Puke. Yep, I stepped in puke and then proceed to nervously giggle so I myself don't puke. Zac couldn't believe it and had the audacity to blame it on me when in real fact he led me straight into the said pile of vomit. It was so gross but makes for a funny story now.
New York is fun to visit. New York is more fun to visit when you have someone who works there and has connections to say the NFL headquarters. We got to tour the NFL headquarters and see some pretty amazing stuff. This is one of the original Lombardi trophies next to the Superbowl MVP trophy--both made by Tiffany Co. FYI.
They had all the Superbowl rings lining the wall behind the trophies and it was absolutely amazing to see. '97 and '98 were good years.
I guess '85 was too.
One of my favorite things was seeing the review room. When any play in the NFL is challenged it is sent to this specific room in NYC. The room was patterned after the Pentagon and had probably 15 stations all equipped with four screens at each section so they could view every angle of the play and hopefully get it right. Now when we are watching football and the announcer says "Let's send it to New York for review" I know exactly where that is and what it looks like.
No visit to NYC is complete without seeing the mayhem that is Time Square. Classic tourist photo!
Best overwhelmed looking face. It was such an overload of lights, and screens, and people, and weirdos in costumes. It reminded me a lot of Vegas actually.
This is where President Washington was sworn into office as the first president of the USA. That homeless guy at the bottom played "God Bless America" on repeat. I don't know how he didn't pass out.
The Gold Bull on Wall Street. The Asian tourists loved taking pictures of their faces by its testicles. So weird.
I thought this picture was cool. Old with the new.
On our way to World Trade Center One. You can barely see it as the farther building away.
You have no idea how massive something you see on TV is until you are standing at the base of it. The building looked like it went forever. I was drawn to this place the second I saw it. The tragic events of 9/11 are forever burned into my mind and I wanted to see the actual place thousands of my fellow Americans were taken to show my respects.
It was SO BIG. When you are looking down into the skeleton of what once was a building that stood as tall as Word Trade Center One, it is hard to fathom how all this happened. Very sobering and surreal.
This is under World Trade Center One. I liked the picture.
This is of course in front of 30 Rockefeller Place. Anytime I saw this building or we were close to it I kept singing the theme song to 30 Rock. I started to annoy myself by the end but you only see 30 Rock once so I made the most of it.
Something that was a little more pricey (and I thought before we did it wasn't going to be worth it) was going to the top of 30 Rock. It was something stupid like $30 to go to the top of a building, but it was SO worth it! We went right at sunset and got some amazing pictures as well as perspective on the island of Manhattan. I really enjoyed it!
Central Park View
Empire State Building View
They were just starting to decorate for Christmas when we got there so we got to see some of the lights and decorations. It wasn't that bad of weather when we were there too which was nice for someone who has thinned blood.
Our hosts not only provided us a place to stay and food to eat, they also insisted on taking us to Jersey Boys. I could tell that Zac was not too pumped about going to a musical but was very surprised on how much he enjoyed it! It was amazing to see such talent on a Broadway stage. Very good show!!
Dave also knew where this little attraction was. The one and only restaurant on Seinfeld.
We of course did the tourist thing and road around on a tourist bus for one day. It was fun to learn about some of the history I didn't know and see much of Manhattan and Brooklyn. I am singing into my brush in this picture.
Tourists.
We of course had to walk the Brooklyn Bridge which had some amazing views of the skyline. It is also an amazing bridge esthetically too.
Enjoying the sunshine on our tour of Brooklyn. It has changed a ton even in just the past 10 years and has cleaned up nice. Way to go Giuliani.
Got to see this icon up close and personal! It is crazy to see things you have seen your whole life on TV and in the movies and then be there. This was one of those moments.
In hindsight, I wouldn't have gotten off at Liberty Island. It was great to see the statue but not that wonderful of a tour. This picture is kinda neat though.
This was one of my favorite spots historically speaking. This is the main room in Ellis Island. This was a fascinating tour and I am really glad we did it.
Here we are on Ellis Island with Manhattan behind us. Look how big World Trade Center One is. Seriously ginormous.
We also took a tour of one of the biggest cathedrals in the world. It was SO big and contained almost everything I learned about cathedrals in Art 101. This is Zac sitting on some choir seats that were on display from Germany that were from the 15th century.
Cool picture.
I was amazed at all the detail that was on every part of this building. But I also like to look at Zac.
We also had the chance to be in NYC during veterans day. We walked past the memorial again and every veteran who died in the 9/11 attacks had a yellow rose in their name.
One of the nuttier parts of this trip was meeting up with my brother Roger! He was in the city for two of the same days we were for a work trip. We decided to put our name in the lottery drawing for Wicked and made Roger come with us to see if we won. Wouldn't you know it? We won! We got front stinkin row seats for $30. I could've tripped people if I really wanted to. It was fun to see my brother and catch up a bit in the big city!
These were our seats. A flying monkey was on that rope in front of us at the beginning and swung across the audience. If I didn't duck he might have hit me in the head.
We went in not knowing anything about the show so I was very surprised on how much I enjoyed it! A crazy production and a very cute story to boot.
When we booked our tickets, we had enough to fly one way first class. I didn't think I would ever fly first class so we took some pictures and felt completely out of place.
Here is Zac not knowing what to do with a hot towel.
The guy on the very front of the plane to the left was our star struck moment. We were standing in line to get on the plane and Zac noticed this guy looked a lot like the character Gale on "Breaking Bad". So Zac asked him when we got on the plane if it was him and sure enough it was! He was super nice and introduced himself and asked our names.
We also didn't know you got full course meals in first class and ate way too much and drank way too much Coke.
The pictures from the plane in first class are even better.
Meanwhile at home, Baba got to wrangle the two kids all week while mom and dad played. Let's just say they didn't get bored.
Here they are at the Chandler train soaking it up.
Hittin up the park.
Carousel ride? Why not!
Movie night with popcorn is a must.
Bahama bucks with their OWN cups. I always make them share.
They even each made chains to count down the days until mom and dad came home.
Baba was a lifesaver and such a treat for the kids. We are so grateful she was wiling to help us out while we got away from life for a bit. It was truly a wonderful time and I am so glad we went. People ask me if I would go again and the answer is definitely a yes. We saw a lot but just scratched the surface of that place. I was glad to get home to huge interstate highways, 7 lanes on the road, horizons, mountains, and the smell of sage rather than the smell of deep fried oil mixed with cigarette smoke, mixed with trash, mixed with bagels. I am so glad we got to go!
