New York City

This past weekend my mom and my 3 sisters packed up and headed to the Big Apple.  This was my first trip and let me just tell you, I hope it was not my last....  I will have to break this blog up into a couple different posts.  Let's start at Day 1.
When we got to New York City, before setting out to do some walking through the city.... food.  After traveling, we were pretty hungry.  After a whirlwind through Penn Station (okay, so we got lost down in the bottom somewhere), we found our luncheon destination.  We ate at Lugo Cafe which we found on the web site, Yelp.  Very cool website.  It's where we found all our eating destinations.  What did we do before SmartPhones? Anyway.  Here we are with our bellies full ready to walk the streets of NYC.

We stayed in Manhattan right beside Madison Square Garden. We walked to Times Square and around that area to Rockefeller Center, etc... stopping in and out of shops on the way.  My first impression - LOUD.  I am not into loud but it's the city so what do you do??

Top - mom and my sisses in Times Square, Bottom - me in Times Square

We stopped in the M&M store to buy our kiddos an NYC M&M treat... on the way out of the store, my sister, Abby pulled this out of her purse...

Her napkin from Lugo Cafe...  first souvenir!

Next we stopped at St Peters Cathedral (my mom the cathedral lover, had to go in)  It was nice.  I could not get a decent pic of the inside because of lighting but here is Abby, Nell, and mom outside of it

Then to Rockefeller Center.... more on this later.  We visited the Today Show on Sunday and let's just say we got a cameo on
it...  stay tuned for that.

We had tickets to the 9-11 Memorial that evening... So, it was off to that... here we are in line

The fountain of the North Tower... This was pretty surreal standing at the fountain.  It was so gorgeous and to think this was the exact spot where the building fell.  I was tearful and moved by the beauty of the fountain and the meaning behind it.  I am so glad we were able to see this...  I hope to go back when the museum is finished to see it.  Everyone should go visit this memorial

This is the South Tower... It is half way complete which I found to be amazing because at even half way up it was taller then the buildings surrounding it.  It's going to be so beautiful.

The new North Tower being built.  It's not quite as complete as the South Tower

Just some touching shots of some items left around some of the names on the memorial....

This was one of my favorite things that we did....  Like I said, everyone should go see this.

On to Day 2....

First stop... a subway ride to Central Park.  When I got off the subway and walked up the stairs my first reaction was how quite it was uptown..  I LOVED this part of town - Park Avenue, Central Park.  Awesome!  If I lived in NYC this is where I would live.  But, I need about a Bazillion dollars to do it, so not happening.

Nell and Mom....

The Park was seriously so serene and quite and beautiful.  I've heard it said before how crazy it is to have all that right smack dab in the middle of the city but I did not know just how crazy.  It is straight up nature right in the middle of all the concrete.  I mean a scene such as this with those sky scrapers in the background.. craziness!

Me and Nell

LOVE IT!!!  Turtles sunbathing on a rock.  For those of you who don't know, I love Turtles.  I try to buy a turtle nick knack where ever I go.  Good news, I found a cute one in NYC so I have another for my collection from NYC.

Kate, Nell, and mom

Next stop - lunch at Alice's Tea Cup.  This was my favorite place we ate at.  I love all the places but this was super quaint and delicious.  We had all you can eat Scones, sandwiches, tea, and cakes/cookies.  I am not a fan of scones but evidently I have not had one from here.  I now LOVES scones - if they are made correctly  Who knew???

Here we are after lunch :) Stuffed!

The next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was neat but not my favorite thing.  I don't know why, but I was glad we went.  After that was dinner at DB Moderne Bistro.  DELICIOUS!  We saw Mario Batali there - in his black t-shirt, bright orange shorts, and orange crocs.  It was a nice place too but he was all decked out in his usual. 

He did not look much different then this (minus the shoulder bag and his shorts were the same orange as his shoes and hair)....I thought this was his TV look but not so.  He dresses like this everywhere he goes (apparently).

That wraps up day 1 and 2....  So far, it's been fun.  Stay tuned for Day 3 and 4 :)