Monday, June 15, 2009

New York Today - Tomorrow the World!

We love NYC! Wow - what a place. We ended up jumping on a commuter bus in Pennsylvania for the 2 hour excursion to the Big Apple. Finding a hotel is a bit of a challenge here - did you know the average price for a hotel room is $400 a night. Ray found a deal, a great hotel with a 2 room suite in a perfect "Uptown" location.

We spent 2 action packed days taking in all the city sites. Here are the highlights:


*Central Park - Is lovely and much to Emma and Leah's dismay we missed seeing the live concert in the park featuring the Jonas Brothers by minutes! Also saw the John Lennon Memorial "Stawberry Fields" and later walked in front of the apartment where he was shot and killed.


*9-11 Memorial - Very powerful and emotional to see the stories from this tragic experience. NYC is in the process of rebuilding a whole new complex and park as a tribute to 9-11.




*Restaurants - There was this great little diner just by our hotel - lots of character and yummy food.
*Broadway - We stood in line in the rain for 2 hours to get discount tickets to Mary Poppins (no Wicked tickets were available). Mary Poppins was great fun - Chim Chimney, Chim Chim Chero.




*Times Square - I think it's even more overwhelming live in person - big tv screens and flashy lights everywhere and lots and lots of people.
*Subway - We spent lots of time travelling on the subway which certainly was a efficient and safe way to get around but are the subway stations yucky - very dark, dirty, dingy and stinky - I could just imagine the rats!
*Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building - are amazing to see in person.

*Ethnic Areas - Nyc has some strong ethnic areas so we toured both "Little Italy" and "China Town" which was really neat to see.

*Atmosphere and People - Much to our surprise, we always felt very safe and the people were very friendly and helpful.

So all in all a fun little excursion. We are right at the Massachusetts/Vermont border and just had a visit with some Strolling of the Heifers folks.

About the Amish trivia question - Grandma was right - this was a picture of a "Pennsylvania Phone Booth" - where the Amish families have phones for their businesses.

Bye for now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! New York - New York - please tell me you had pizza there!!! This is one place that I must get to see. Emma lets book our tickets to Wicked now!!! Maybe by the time you are 16 we could get them!!!! I MUST SEE THAT SHOW!!! I am wanting to see Mary Poppins this fall!! I heard that it will be in Edmonton. :)
How very powerful for you have been where the towers stood. tear -tear - still very emotional for me..

So looking forward to you being back home. I do miss you so.
Love, Auntie

Anonymous said...

I would like to make it to New York. How many people live there Leah??
I see home land security had 3 of new yorks finest keeping their eyes on Ray, one on horse back even! Sorry to hear about Carmens uncle.
Did you hit any antique shops while you were in NYC?
Bring back some old car traders and Rv trader from NYC.

Paul

Anonymous said...

Wow I would have never guessed a phone booth. I acually thought it was a outhouse. So when are you going to come back??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
-Nicole