Since I have well over 500 pictures of our recent trip to New York, I thought I'd share our first and last day in the city. Sandwiched between our days in NYC we spent time all around New York and New Jersey!
We arrived in New York City at 8 am after a 2 hour flight and an hour drive to the airport. (So yeah, we woke up at 2 am that day!) Determined to get the most of our day we popped into a cramped french bakery in Queens for breakfast and then we headed to Battery Park. We went with our good friends Laura and Damon and her girls Bradley and Callie. I swear, just watching those girls have a good time was enough for me!
After exploring Battery Park, we took a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were SO many people! My favorite part, by far, was watching everyone try to get a good photo with the Statue of Liberty. People were laying on the ground and contorting their bodies every which way to get the shot! It was great.
Ellis Island was very interesting! The building itself was fascinating, and the stories it had to tell were amazing. Life used to be very hard for people, and it really wasn't all that long ago. You do have to pay to research your own family. My mom let me know that our family didn't come to America through Ellis Island so I knew that ahead of time. One day I'd like to do a big research project about that!
These girls had at least 3,000 more steps than us at the end of the day...
Since we were flying out of JFK we spent our last day in the city as well. The majority of our day was spent at The MET! We did a tour, but I swear we only saw 5% of what that museum had to offer. You could get lost in there for days.
After our tour we walked through Central Park, which was something I'd never done. It's huge! People watching is one of my top ten favorite activities, so I fully enjoyed that aspect. After a trip to Bethesda fountain and an ice cream cone, we had to get back to the airport.
This last picture that Laura snapped is so funny to me, because it shows how badly we didn't want to leave our friends! We don't get to see each other nearly enough, and we always have so much to say! They are constantly trying to get us to move up there, and I think they had me almost convinced in this conversation.
The thing is, we were there in June...but our last trip to NYC was in March, and it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. I'm a Florida girl...I really don't think I can live in that!
Gosh, I have so much more to share, but I think I will leave it at that. Most importantly we left feeling refreshed and motivated! And we are still friends! Everyone has such a different traveling style, so it's awesome that everything worked out so well on this trip! My favorite thing by far was watching these girls take their first airplane ride. So much joy! I really wish adults still got excited like that.
We've been planning this trip for at least a year, so I can't believe it's over. We had a great time, and really made the most of our days. And coming home to excited pugs was really nice too!
