The first thing that we did was go to 5th avenue where all the fancy shops were. We saw Tiffanys and even went into the store. It was so fun to walk around and release that there was not even a key chain I could afford.
We then went to Central Park. You hear about Central Park in the movies all the time so it was so fun to work around Central Park. We went and saw Strawberry fields which was a memorial to the Beatles and John Lennon. We then walked to see the Alice in Wonderland statue along the way we saw so many of the things that you see in the movies. Bridges you have seen in movies, other beautiful statues, and the pond when they sail little tiny boats. Central Park was large but it was so cool I wish we could have seen more of it, but my legs and feet gave out.
CJ so wanted to go to the American Girl Doll store in New York so we went to Rockefeller Center where the store was. She was so excited to get there she did not want to wait and almost ran into the store. I walked around in aw. She was a little disappointed that in this store they had all the displays under covers so you could not play with the toys. That did not matter so much to CJ she was just happy to be there and say that she was in the New York American Girl Store.
These stores were all in Time square. Time Square was the most amazing place I have ever seen. All the lights and people everywhere. Everywhere you looked there were lights. I could not even talk all I could do was look around and be amazed at all that I saw.
We then notice it was getting late and we needed to get back to the hotel and official check-in. So we took the subway back and relieved on the way that we were on a different subway. When we came out we were right at Trinty Church where Alexander Hamilton was buried. Elinor and Millie have seen the play "Hamilton" and so wanted to see where he was buried. CJ and I just love history and since Hamilton was our first Secretary of the treasury, helped write the federalist papers, and on the $10 bill, it was fun to see where he was buried.
We then checked into the hotel officially. It was a beautiful room with a great view of the Hudson River and Ellis Island. We also got a bottle of wine with our check-in. We were very tired from being up very early and walking all over New York so we just decided to have dinner in the hotel at Bills Burgers. It was very good. The next day, we got up had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Holocaust Museum. They had a special Auschwitz exhibit and it was very emotional.
We got then went back to the hotel and relaxed and get ready to go to uptown so that CJ and I could go to Temple and Millie and Elinor could go to see a play. We had time before Temple so after Elinor got her tickets to the play we walked to Central Park and let the girls ride the carousel. This is another thing that you always hear about in movies so it was really neat to see the girls getting to ride the carousel in Central Park.
After we left the park we did not have to walk too far to where the temple was. We went to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. It was a very beautiful temple but every different the main doors were locked and you had to go in the side through a metal detector. Everyone was very nice at the temple. I was very nervous that CJ would like it because the prayers were not in the tunes that we know and everything was song no chanting and no English readings. The temple had two canters and two Rabbis. They also had a band to accompany the singing of the prays. After services, I asked CJ what she thought. She said that she loved it. She loved all the contemporary music and she liked the hallah after services because it was not Public's hallah. She even asked for seconds.
After temple, we talked around a bit. I think that we got a little lost but that was ok. We then were going to meet Elinor and Millie at the McDonalds. At the McDonald was the first time I found a really rude person. Some man came and sat near us that he was on his phone cursing and talking bad about the president so I told CJ that we needed to move. He was like ya move and I told him that my daughter did not need to hear all the cursing and he told me to deal with it she was in New York. He was the only person that was like that in New York. We then met up with Elinor and Millie and decided to take the girls to Carlos' bakery. CJ had never since "Cake Boss" but I had and was very excited about getting to go. CJ had a personal cheesecake.
We rode the fairy over to The Statue. We were not able to go up to the top because all the tickets were sold out but we walked around and went into the museum.
We then went over to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was so full of immigration history. I was shocked at want people had to go through at Ellis Island. They even had to take intelligence tests so see if they were smart enough to stay in the United States. When I was a kid Ellis Island was closed to the public, so to me getting to see it was amazing.
CJ and Millie were so cute waiting for the boat to come to get us. I just love watching them goof around.
When we got back to the mainland we were all hungry and decided that we would go to the Shake Shack for dinner. This is a place that we do not have here but Elinor loves. The burgers and fries were very good. After dinner, we walked around a little and found this really neat park in the middle of the street and it was in the air. The park was a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine and hunger around the world. We walked to the top where it had a great view of the Huson river and the Freedom Tower.
As we talked back I saw that in the mall they had Sprinkles cupcakes. I had to go. CJ had I have watched a lot of "Cupcakes Wars" and one of the judges owns Sprinkle cupcakes.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the 9/11 memorial. It was very sad and impressive. As I was looking at the memorial I notice this young man next to me looking at a name on the memorial. It was rubbing water over the name and when he took his sunglasses off I noticed tears. I wanted so badly to go over and give him a hug and when I pointed him out to Elinor so did she, but we did not think that would be good with the girls around. So we did not talk to him. I sometimes wish that we would have. But after he left we looked at the name and it looked like it was a firefighter that he was looking at.
When we were at the Seaglass Carousel we found out that at night it is all light up so we went back to battery park at night so that the girls could ride the Carousel again. They so loved that and it was really neat at night.
The next day was the museum day. We went to the Natural history museum and the MET. CJ was not as interested in the Natural history museum as the rest of us. I loved seeing all the dinosaur bones and of course the things that were featured in the movie " Night at the Museum". We saw the 3D film "Out Blue Planet" I think that it made CJ a little sick because she was grumpy after it. I gave her an Advil to help with the headache and she was a little better. I think that CJ's favorite part of the museum was going to the gift shop. She has so much fun in the store looking around and wanted so much.
We then had lunch at Andy's Deli. It was like this very small grocery store that had a deli corner where you can get sandwiches. CJ just wanted a bagel with lex and cream cheese. I had a Rubin which was greasy and wonderful. We then sat it the park and eat before heading to the MET.
We got to the MET and we did not have a lot of time so we just selected a couple of areas that we wanted to see. CJ went crazy over modern art. She just did not understand how something so simple could be art. I told her it was the writing that went with it was the true art. I was so amazed at seeing a suit of armor that was worn by King Henry the VIII, as well as Van Gogh's, Riberants, Georgia O'Keef, Pablo Pacheco, Diego Riveria, and so many more very famous painter that I grow up learning about. I think that CJ enjoyed this museum much more even though we were very tired at this point.
After the Museums, I know that I could not work the 30 blocks down to the Empire state building so we took the subway. We then went to the top of the Empire state building and got to see the whole city. CJ is afraid of heights so she did not look over the edge as much as we did and was not as impressed as I was. I was so amazing to see the whole city like that.
After the Empire state building, we went to his cute little restaurant call Luke's Lobster. CJ said that the lobster sandwich she had was so good. We sat outside and had the most beautiful view of the sunset over the full moon. We then after walking almost 9 miles that day went back to the hotel very tired and crashed.
The next day we got up and decided to walk the Brooklyn bridge. On the way to the bridge, we went by New York's town hall it was a beautiful building and the park that was by it had a beautiful fountain. The bridge was amazing, you could see all of lower Manhattan. The bridge itself was just amazing. The movement from the cars and the swaying of the bridge as well the heights was scaring CJ and she got so upset that she started to cry. We did not finish walking the bridge. We got halfway and I told Elinor and Millie that I was going to take CJ back and they could finish walking the rest of the bridge. CJ and I went back and I got her an ice cream which calmed her down.
After the bridge, we went to see the Wall Street Bull and lunch with Elinor's cousin. She took us to this little hole in the wall place where you had to walk downstairs to find it. The pizza was so good and it was not expensive at all. Elinor's cousin was so nice and we had a great time at lunch.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel to relax before dinner and the play. CJ has been so looking forward to this night and getting to see "Phantom of the Opera." We got all dressed up and went to this very fancy restaurant " Carmines. It was an Italian restaurant and so good. We decided to have chicken parmesan. CJ does not like spaghetti so she was trying to talk me into letting her have stuffed mushrooms. Millie does not like mushrooms and I could not eat the pork that was in them so I told her no. Elinor told her that she could have them as her birthday present. So she got her stuffed mushrooms. The dinner was great and at the end, they came and sang happy birthday to CJ and have her a thing of ice cream. Elinor kept asking how they knew it was CJ birthday coming up. We told her that she told them when she said that CJ could have the mushrooms for her birthday. We all got a big laugh out of that.
We then went to the play. It was in the Majestic which was a big beautiful theater. CJ was on the edge of her seat through the whole play she was amazed by everything and loved the music as much as the story.
After the play, we went to Rockafeller center to the Top of the Rock. Again CJ was not happy about the heights. I made her come out and take some pictures with us then let her go back inside and it in the glass area to look at the view. It was so amazing to see the city at night. The view of the city at night was so different than the view during the day. All the lights of the city were so beautiful. I could have stayed out there looking at the view for hours but did not what to leave CJ alone too long. So I left Elinor and Millie to continue to admire the view and I went back inside to sit with CJ.
The next day was the day that we were to leave, but we still had so much to see. We slept in and then got up and went to the 9/11 museum. The 9/11 museum was so emotional because I remember when this happened and how scary it was and I did not even live in New York. It was just that we knew our country had been attacked and that we would be going to war. While we were at the museum we looked up the name of the firefighter that the young man was crying over a couple of days ago. They had pictures of his family and 2 sons. We thought about the young man and that must have been his dad because one of the young boys in the picture looks like him. It was just so sad. We also walked over to look at a place on the fire station that was right next to towers. The names on the plaque were listed by rank. We were told that the plaque was first put up before 9/11 and then was added to after. I could not say much it was just so emotional.
We then went to the Oculus which was just a mall with fancy stores in it. It was all white and on the outside was to look like an angel but it looks more like the skeleton of the build after 9/11 then an angel. After just walking through the mall we took the girls to Shack shake for lunch and got them Haagen Dazs ice cream.
We then went back to the hotel packed and checked out. We then headed to the airport. It was almost sad that this wonderful trip was over.
We got home late so the next day I just rested we had walked an average of 8 miles every day and the blisters on my feet told me that I needed a rest. I was so proud of myself for being able to do that with my hip still not at 100%. This was the best trip ever. I am almost glad that CJ's 8th-grade field trip with canceled we never could have done all we did and had so much fun on a school field trip.
When we got home I did not do much until Saturday. CJ had her American Girl club meeting and I was to do my first crochet class. We had 6 people sign up to take the class and not a one showed up. I was so disappointed. CJ, on the other hand, taught her girls to make whirligigs. They loved her craft as always.
We spent the next week at home not doing much but watching TV. Friday we went to Temple and Saturday I spent the day making cupcakes and a cake for CJ's birthday. CJ wanted cactus cupcakes for her birthday. So I made her the cupcakes. I had seen a Stranger Things Cake and knew how much she loves the show Stranger Things, so I decided that I would make the cupcakes for the choir and not tell CJ about the Stranger Things cake, making that cake a surprise. So with the help of Jay and CJ's best friend Millie I was able to make the cake and surprise CJ with it. On Saturday Millie came to spend the night and Sunday I took CJ to choir practice. CJ was worried about me giving all the cupcakes away to the Choir. She thought that there was not going to be enough for her friends at home. I told her not to worry about it we had more at home. After choir, I took some of CJ's friends to do an Escape room. They loved it even though they did not make it out of the room in the hour they had. They laughed and talked about it all the way home.
When Jay got home he told us that he really did not have anything bad to say about his new job that it went well and everyone was very nice. He just wished that it paid more. We then went to a new restaurant for CJ's birthday. She wanted Pho for her birthday so we went for Vietnamese. The people at the restaurant were very nice and even gave CJ a banana BoBa for her birthday. It was a very nice evening.
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