I'm leaving today....
I want to be a part of it..
New York! New York!
As we took off yesterday for our trip to New York, that song came on the radio. I thought it was quite coincidental considering that's not a song you hear often on radio stations. (And no, it was not one of those weird 'musical' stations either). So off we went to New York.
We actually parked in New Jersey and took the train over into the city. Jax thought it was pretty neat. We thought it was not so neat taking the stroller up and down all those stairs in the stations and through the little people counters. The trains were really nice, though.
Many of the department stores had Christmas displays in their windows. Jax loved them. They were really cool. Wish we would have had time to see more windows, but they were kindof all over the city.
There was a lot of snow there. Now, I know Utah gets a lot of snow. But in NY, there is no where to put it or push it. There were tons of cars completely covered and stuck along the streets because they were plowed in with the snow. Since the snow took up the parking spots along the side, cars would park in the furthest lane over, leaving less lanes to drive in. Traffic in turn was nuts, as I'm sure it always is. They piled up the snow anywhere they could.
Probably our favorite part of the trip was Central Park. It was just like what we've seen in the movies. So pretty. Lots of bridges and hills and OPEN SPACE!!! That's one thing that we really miss out here in Philly is big parks and space and being able to see further than across the street. There were
hundreds of sledders in the park, and we wished we would have packed our sled, too (ya know, we could have just thrown it in the bottom of the stroller..... :) After seeing those bridges we were tempted to have a snowball fight like in ELF. "Make as many snowballs as you can!"
There were also little snowmen EVERYWHERE! If you look closely in this picture below, there are at least 6 snowmen (all in different stages mind you) on the ground. So funny.
Most the sidewalks in downtown NY were cleared. But when we were away from town a bit, and when we walked through the park, the sidewalks were definitely NOT cleared. They were slick, sometimes icy, and always super slushy. Strollers are super hard to push in slush and snow. Just in case you wondered.
This was the most awesome wreath I have ever seen. It looks pretty average until you look at the SIZE of the PEOPLE below it.
We made a stop at Trump Tower, and would have liked to go inside, but Jax was having a fit by then, so we just opted for a quick picture out front.
Times Square-ish.
We hopped on a subway (by hopped I mean dragged a stroller and baby onto an already packed train) and went up near the Manhattan Temple. I didn't realize how many people you can really fit onto a subway. It was like hugging by best friend, except they were complete strangers and I wasn't hugging them, I was being squished. In very close quarters. We started walking around looking for the temple. We found the Juliard School of Music (below). It was really beautiful. We asked some security guy for directions, and asked if he had ever heard of the temple. He acted like he knew what he was talking about and said he thought it was "up that way". Well, turns out we walked right past it and didn't even notice while walking out of the subway. (And the guys directions were completely wrong).
Here is a shot of the temple. It was strange to see a temple like this because it was really quite hard to see. It is just stuck in the middle of all these crazy tall buildings and sky-scrapers, as opposed to ontop of a hill like they usually are. It was nice to be able to walk in the lobby and escape the dirt and grime and craziness of New York, at least for a few minutes. Hope we can get back there sometime and actually do a session.
Here's another from central park of my good-looking husband. Aren't you jealous?
Empire State Building shot
Here is the famous Christmas tree. Huge, and way pretty. But we were here during Jax's panic attack so we didn't stay long.
There is an ice-skating rink at the Rockefeller Plaza, and you can watch people skate from inside. Jax really enjoyed watching them all.
Here's my cute boy.
This is about as close as we got to the Statue of Liberty, unfortunately. Too bad, JD. Maybe next time.
There were so many neat light shows and displays in New York. I am so glad we got to go at Christmastime to see it all. Maybe next year someone else will join us? Hint, hint.
I Love JD so much. I am so happy to be able to be here in Philly to be able to go and do fun things like this together. We love going on adventures, and this was definitely one to remember!
