The Big Apple: Day One

Spring Break was three weeks ago? Two weeks ago? Not sure, but a lot of time has elapsed between then and now, so it's kind of strange for me to be blogging about the trip. My excuse is that I had no pictures therefore, I could not blog. Now that the pictures are on my computer, I will begin.

The flight out of Salt Lake City was at 7:05 in the morning, so the alarm clock started buzzing (or playing music as mine does) around 4:00 A.M. I don't know what it is about trips and having to catch a flight, but things always, always without fail get stressful! The first stressor of the day was my temple recommend. We were planning on going to do baptisms (more on that later) while in the city, so I kind of needed that little thing. I had been up until midnight the night before looking for it and not until right before we left did I find it. It was kind of a miracle actually. I had looked and looked and looked but couldn't find it. My dad was the one who actually found it.
The day consisted of all flying. Seven hours to be exact. We didn't get off the plane once and my butt was pretty much or close to numb when I got off in New York. The flight was so worth it, though. We drove in the car rental shuttle to go get the, you guessed it, car we were renting, and seriously, I felt like I was going to to die. Nobody follows the rules of the road. Not even the police officers. We made it to the destination, though, and we got our red van and hurried off to our hotel which was in White Plains. A town just outside of the city. When we got there after, again, seeing my life flash before my eyes and being honked at a few times, we made our journey to the nearest Applebee's. We ate our dinner and headed, in the rain, back to the hotel. It was pretty much pouring plus being windy and my umbrella was flipping inside out. This breaks the thing and since it was brand new, I didn't want to break it. So, I just went ahead and let it down and my hair get wet. I was soaking by the time I got back to the hotel.
The next day, we all packed ourselves into the van and zoomed off to Washington Irvings Estate. Man, I want one of these places!

We then drove all the way back to the hotel, parked our car in the parking lot, and walked over to the nearest train station (different from subway) and rode into Grand Central Station in the long awaited New York City!

Here's us girls in the station. Plus some strange man who thought we were taking a picture of him too.

Anyway, you can see the clock in the background and I felt like the animals off of Madagascar were going to jump out any second!

We exited the station and entered the busy, busy streets of New York, and boy are they busy! Movies don't even cut it. You see the actors all walking down the street happy-go-lucky, no worries. I tell you, they are lies.

Cars were coming when I leaned out to get this picture. I, again for like the third time, was scared for my life.

We walked on 5th Avenue (I was really sad I didn't see Justin Bieber. Or any celebrity for that matter) to get to the MOMA-Museum of Modern Art. It was cool, and I have bragging rights saying that I got to see a bunch of Monet and Picasso, but really, not my idea of fun. It might just be the fact that I know absolutely nothing about art, but hey, it's all in the experience and I'm glad I got to go.

Next, we made our way to Times Square! We walked and walked and walked like the pioneers to this monumental destination and boy is it amazing!

After we had walked and walked and walked, we walked back to this little authentic Italian restaurant. It was soooo delicious! I wish I could tell you the name of it, but since it is in Italian, I kind of forgot. My dad made a friend, though. This guy was outside the door trying to get people to come eat at the restaurant and I guess it worked because we did!

We went into the Hershey's Chocolate store and found a huge bottle of chocolate syrup. Except, it was empty and it was supposed to be a piggy bank.

We also went to the M&M's Factory, but we were way too busy taking it all in, we forgot about the camera. That place seriously is heaven on earth. The people are nice there too! Unlike all the other stores. The cashier liked my flower. :)

And the very last thing we did was see The Lion King. This play is amazing and I recommend it to EVERYONE! Each costume is meticulously made so every person on stage looks like the animal they are supposed to depict. The music was amazing; the music was amazing before, but hearing it performed live, man, it really takes your breath away and makes you appreciate the pure talent the world can have.