And One More Thing

Did I mention the Cupcakes? To Die For.

Our Final Day & a Half or All the Famous People we Saw

Our trip was coming to an end. We only had a day and a morning to fit
in the last of what we wanted to see. First off was Battery Park.

This globe was at the World Trade Center when the towers fell. You can see the damage.

Here we all are at the wharf.

MiL & I with that Famous Statue in the background.

We decided to take the ferry out to see it. We discovered it's quite large.

SiL & I at the entrance to Battery Park

This is Fraunces Tavern where George Washington bid farewell
to his troops after the Revolutionary War.

The New York Stock Exchange. It amazes me how it's just squished
in between some buildings on a little street.

SiL with George Washington where he was sworn in as first President of the US

Trinity Church. Absolutely gorgeous but it is also squished in between
a bunch of buildings and this was the best picture we could get.

The side of the church. There's a lot of famous people buried here
including Alexander Hamilton and Jerry Orbach.

Spongebob on the Street!

SiL with a firefighter that is featured in the 2011 Firefighter Hunks Calendar

MiL and I with the same guy

NYC Fire Department Ladder Co #10. I don't know if it's operational or not
but there's a lot of remembrances for the fallen firefighters.

The scene of the World Trade Center as seen from the 2nd floor of the adjacent Burger King

Next we went to Paul's Cathedral.

This is where the Rescue Workers from 9/11 rested. The first room has
been turned into a memorial for the rescue workers, the fallen,
and the support they received from around the world.

There was such a feeling in this room. I couldn't handle it for very long.

All of the mementos of the rescue effort and the fallen was just too much to bear.

I love how everyone always comes together in a crisis.

Guess what? The NY Yankees won the World Series while we were there!

Remember the Ticker Tape Parade we missed?

Even though the city had been cleaned up, not everything had been
gotten yet and we could see remnants all over.

These are right in front of City Hall

Me & SiL with some parade mementos

And then, of course, we had to hike the Brooklyn Bridge

We're such tourists. I'm not sure why a local would come here but there were
runners and bikers crossing this bridge and fighting all the tourists who were
busy snapping pictures and not watching who was coming at them full speed.

An awesome shot of all those wires

This is where they film Law & Order, one of my favorite shows.

Over on the left you will see a white-haired gentleman. That is John Slattery from Mad Men. He was filming a new Matt Damon movie in the bar. Unfortunately Matt Damon wasn't around.

And we had to visit the Paul Frank store. This flag is rather weathered
and I almost thought someone had just hung it off their balcony.

A Suit of Armor and I

As we were headed home for our last (sob) night (sob) we decided to get some pics of the Play sign. Guess what!?! Daniel Craig & Hugh Jackman were leaving! SiL snapped this pic of Daniel Craig, just like everyone else, hand held high and no idea of what is in the frame. Daniel Craig has the black beret hat on his head, just in case you didn't know. And yes, he's sporting a hideous, monstrous mustache.

Hugh Jackman was a little more elusive. He is wearing the NYC hat.
He waved and told everyone Thank You before getting in his car and racing off.

Our last morning, we got up early and headed west to see the USS New York,
made from World Trade Center steel.

It was only in town for a few days and we didn't have time to see it, it was only open
twice for a few hours each while we were there. It really is a magnificent ship.

And of course the USS Intrepid was pretty awesome also.

The propellers are huge!

And the last shop before we headed home was the cupcake shop!
If I could have brought one thing home, the Cupcake Shop (sigh), Crumbs.

Goodbye NYC! I love you and will be back as soon as possible. I will not be a fickle lover!

Day 2 and How We Had Way Too Much Fun in a Museum

The second full day in NYC found us waking up early, again! Wow, we must have had a lot to do to get up early so often. The night before we had Grand Visions of going to the Ticker-Tape Parade for the NY Mets who had just won the World Series Wednesday night. But as we were watching the Thursday evening news to find out location, time, etc, we saw scads of people sleeping overnight in order to get a good seat for the parade. Then it hit us, We are in a City 10 times more populated than our whole state. Like we would ever get close enough to even see anything! We quickly changed plans and decided to avoid Downtown at all costs. So we headed North. First stop was the LDS temple in NYC. The cool thing is that not only does this building house a temple but also a meeting house.

Then we walked to the American Museum of Natural History

We were greeted at the front door by this giant, headless skeleton!

Oh, wait, he does have a head! It's just way up in the clouds. "How's the weather up there?"

MiL by some Ancient Tablet

Helkp! We're surrounded by Roving Elephants!

And monstrous tusks!

Dum Dum wants some Gum Gum.
Sent this to Middle Child and he violated every cell phone rule
at school and was a big hit with everyone who'd seen Night at the Museum.

Hopefully this guy won't eat us! He's pretty big!

Giant, extinct turtle about to give me a kiss!

MiL & SiL amongst the Mammoths

I told them not to get so close, it's spearing them like marshmallows!

Hope I don't see any of these monstrous moose in our mountains!

Giant Scary Shark, please don't eat us!

Ginormous crab walking our way!

Then we went and stood in a freezing line to get tickets for Mary Poppins. Afterwards we got Pizza to warm our chilly bones. It worked. Unfortunately this is the only pic we got of the place. It was huge and busy. Help! I'm not in Kansas anymore!

Mary Poppins!

The theater was so cute!

Look at all the pretty details!

SiL & I enjoying the show

Then, since we were already in Times Square we got some more cupcakes. Yummm......

Aren't you jealous? If I could bring one thing home with me for keeps.
Then it was off to bed with full tummies for another busy day tomorrow!