This year's family vacation was supposed to be a Church History tour from Palmyra to Nauvoo. It is the last year that church pageants will be performed, so we wanted to see them. I had the whole thing planned out for July, and then we found out that Gavin couldn't get any time off of work in July. The Palmyra pageant only runs in July. So, we had a family meeting to decide where we should go instead. Everything I threw out got shot down! Even Hawaii! Then Cali mentioned New York and all of sudden everyone (except Brody, because he didn't want to go anywhere!), was on board. So I spent most of the Spring trying to get this trip all booked. But I was able to secure a reputable Airbnb (after multiple cancellations from others), inexpensive airfare (thanks JetBlue) and we picked a week in June to make it all happen. We were so excited. Until about a month out, Gavin found out that he couldn't get the time off (grrrrrr!). We were so bummed! But I couldn't cancel the airfare, so we decided to go anyway.
On Saturday, June15th, 5 of us, boarded our plane and headed for NYC!
We got to JFK late at night. So we stayed at a hotel near the airport. Which worked out good, because I was so tired and had a terrible headache. Jeremy found a pizza place close to the hotel and got us food. The kids had their own room down the hall from us. It was weird sleeping seperate from them. But it all worked out great.
Sunday - Day 1
We woke up in Queens to a gray, sprinkly day. We got breakfast from Burger King and then Ubered to FiDi to our Airbnb. We met our awesome host and he took us up to the 5th floor penthouse of a cool building on Water Street. It was perfect!
It was 4 bedrooms. The boys shared a tiny room with a bunk bed, Cali got a nice toom with a view of the Statue of Liberty, The Master was huge with a view of Lady Liberty and the East River. We had an extra room, because Gav wasn't with us and the kitchen was stocked with everything we needed. There was just one tiny bathroom, but we made it work! We loved our little home away from home!
Sunday waas also Fathers Day! So we brought some little things for our dad to hopefully make him feel special and to thank him for all he does and how hard he works, so that we could take this trip together.
Once we got all settled, we took a nice walk down to Battery Park.
Then we headed over to Stone Street (the first paved road in NYC), right around the corner from our house, and had a delicious Fathers Day feast at the Stone Street Tavern.
It was such a great first day!
Then, late that night, around 11:30 PM, a taxi pulled up downstairs and delivered Nana & Papa to us! When they heard we had an extra room, they literally booked a flight the day before! How awesome is that?
Monday-
We started the day with a boat tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
It was a nice cool day and we really enjoyed learning and seeing so much!
Once we were back at Battery Park, we walked up to the 9/11 Memorial.
This part of the trip was very emotional for me. Even before setting foot on the property, I started to cry. It is such a somber feeling when you walk along the fountains. All the memories of that day came flooding back. The memorial museum is very neat. If I spoke at all while walking through, it was a whisper. I can't say that being there was awesome. But I am so glad we visited. We can never forget what happened that day and make sure it never happens again. I'm glad the kids got to see it too. Even if it was hard, they needed to see and hear about it all.
To cheer up afterwards, we found some yummy delicious NY pizza at Picasso's in Battery Park Village.
Then we walked along the waterfront home.
Tuesday-
We woke up to rain. Lots of rain. And we had tickets for a hop on/hop off bus tour! So, we braved the rain, they gave us ponchos, and we headed up town!
We were getting soaked! And hungry! So, we hopped off in Hell's Kitchen and went into a diner to eat and escape the rain.
The rain let up a little and we walked down to Times Square.
We walked into some shops in Times Square to get dry and to pass time. Then we hopped back on the bus. The rain stopped and we enjoyed our ride back to Bowling Green. Papa really wanted to see Wall Street and the Bull, so we took a little walk up that way.
On the way to Wall Street, we paid our respects to the Hamilton family at Trinity Church.
Happy Papa!
The kids and grandparents were beat that night. So, Jer and I went out on the town (to a little pub right down the street from our house). We had a fun dinner and a nice walk along the waterfront. It was so nice to have a NYC date night together!
Wednesday-
Everyone's first time on the Subway! ( Except me).
Everyone did great and we rode it up to Colombus Circle.
Then we spent a good amount of the day strolling through Central Park!
Brody made a friend at the lake.
We ended our park day at the Central Park Zoo. We didn't go in, but enjoyed the exhibits outside.
And Brody got himself another penguin.
We trekked up 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Plaza. We walked through some shops and took in the sights. Then the rain came again!
We were able to hop on the Subway at my favorite stop and head home.
That night, these guys came in and cuddled up with me. We talked and had so much fun together. This might have been my favorite moment of the whole week!
Thursday-
We all got up and put our church clothes on. We hopped back on the Subway and headed to the Manhattan temple to do baptisms!
Nana & Papa hung out in the Family History Center while we did baptisms. It was such a neat experience and a highlight of the trip for sure!
We headed over to the Undergorund Marketplace for lunch and had ourselves more yummy pizza.
And then, in classic Trish fashion, I was checking our theater tickets to make sure we were all good to go, and realized that I had bought tickets for the wrong day. A week before. Doh!
Luckily, the guy at the Box Office was totally helpful and traded those tickets for Thursday and even gave us an upgrade. We had wonderful seats for Phantom of the Opera. It was amazing!
We walked out after the show to a torrential downpour! We went to get dinner at the Stardust Diner. Then we realized what a rip off it was, so we got soaked walking down the streets, to find food and shelter at Black Tap! This place was delicious and so fun! So glad we found it!
Friday-
We hopped on a ferry and headed to Brooklyn!
There were these really cool parks right where we got off the ferry that we played at for a bit.
Then we walked up to Adam Yauch Park.
We walked along the Brooklyn Waterfront trail. It was a beautiful day!
After lunch at the Shake Shack, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.
I've always wanted to do this and it was so fun to do with these guys!
We walked all the way back to our house and rested up a bit.
Then it was back on the Subway to the Bronx!
We went to a Yankees Game!
We got to see the Yankees beat the Astros and it was free cup night!
Saturday-
Nana and Papa left us early in the morning. We slept in, packed up and cleaned the house. We checked out around 11. It was a sunshiney day and hot! We had a wonderful walk through Battery Park Village.
Stopped to see the Irish Famine Memorial. It was beautiful and sad. And had a beautiful view of the Hudson River.
We killed time before our flight home seeing Toy Story 4.
Such a good movie and we all balled our eyes out!
We walked back to our house one last time, to grab our luggage and say goodbye. I'm really going to miss this place. It was perfect for us!
Everything about this trip was perfect. The only thing that could have mde it better would have been having Gavin with us. We saw amazing things and made amazing memories!
