Where has the time gone? (NYC)

Just realized my last post was over a month and 10 days ago. Yikes! To say life has been busy would be somewhat of an understatement. Summer Camps took over, then I took a trip to New York, and when I returned, I jumped right back into work.

Beginning September 1, I will be the Interim Director of Recreation Ministries. In my last post I stated that things were changing. For right now, that will be enough proof that the process of change is starting. I will elaborate more as it happens.

Now, let's talk New York City!!

So much fun! We've been back for about 2 weeks, and I already want to go back. It's just so different from down here. And there's always something to do. For instance...





Food...

The Stardust Diner was a fun place. Mom and I went first night after seeing a show. They waiters and waitresses perform pretty much they entire time you're eating. And they're really good. I had mac and cheese and my mom had a quesadilla.

Union Square was a bit nicer than the Stardust Diner, and much more delicious. Me, my sisters, and my mom went here on our second night in the city. If you want to know what we had, you'll have to ask Anna. She is the food connoisseur. She actually ordered my meal and it was great. The highlight of the night was my consumption of corn ice cream. Tastes just like corn and ice cream. I love both, but I discovered this night that I do not like them together. Still fun to say I tried them.

Next up...BRAVES GAME!

It just so happened that the same weekend we were in NYC the Braves were playing the Mets IN NYC! I was so excited! We go great seats and the Braves won!! My mom and I went to the game together while Mary Alice and Anna went to dinner. They said dinner was awesome, but I wouldn't trade a Braves game for dinner no matter how good it was. It was a little different, obviously, since we were the visiting team. But that really didn't matter when we won 4-0.

Then came the 9/11 Memorial...

This part of the trip was really special. It's hard to believe that when this happened I was in the 9th grade sitting in Dr. Hudson's class. I was definitely old enough to know what was going on. Looking back it doesn't feel like it was almost 11 years ago. At the same time, it feels like it was less than a year ago. 

The museum was still under construction, but they had a gift shop with NYPD and NYFD hats and shirts among other things. It was a pretty packed gift shop. Inside there was a video on a loop. We walked in about the time it started. We all stopped and watched it. At the end, you could hear some sniffles and when I turned around everyone had frozen in their tracks and was looking at the screen. Talk about chills. 

If you go to New York, go here. It's a little sad, but it's still cool to see how far we've come. The memorial waterfall and the names listed of the ones who lost their lives that day will touch you in a way that you'll never forget. If I get to go to New York again, I'll definitely go back there.

And you can't go to New York without seeing a couple of shows...

My mom and I went to see Sister Act our first night there. It was so great! I would absolutely go see it again. Raven-Symone was so hilarious! They stayed pretty close to the Whoopi Goldberg version (minus the musical numbers that didn't include the choir and some line changes). The woman who played Sister Mary Patrick (played by Kathy Najimy in the movie version...and if that doesn't help, the one with the really high pitched voice) was amazing. She sounded just like Kathy Najimy. Goodness, talking about it makes me want to go back and see it.

Once again, can't go to New York without seeing THIS show. So good! I've always wanted to see it, and I was always sad I didn't know about it when Kristen Chenowith and Idina Menzel played the title characters. However, after I got home I watched it when they played them back in 2003-2004 and I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much. The woman who played Glinda (Chandra Lee Schwartz) was so funny. The story itself was just so neat too. I would definitely go see this again. So glad we picked these two to see. 

Right after the show we went to The Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center...

This is really cool if you're not afraid of heights. You get in an elevator that takes you up 60-something floors in about 40 seconds. As you're going up there is a video playing on the ceiling. Made me a little dizzy, but if you like that sort of thing, it's cool. Once you get out there it really is a breathtaking view of the city. I would suggest going at night. I was glad Anna suggested that to us. Seeing NYC all lit up is really special. 

On the last day my mother and I went to Central Park... 

My sisters left early Sunday morning and we got to sleep in. It was great. When we got to Central Park, a cute guy walked up to us and offered to take us on a tour. And he just peddled us through on this neat little contraption---->

It was really worth the money. He didn't just peddle, he pointed out just about everything on the way. He talked about how different movies were filmed in some place, he talked about the famous humongous rocks in the park, and a bunch of fountains, and well, seriously just about everything. Totally worth it. It lasted a little over an hour, I think. It went by so fast because our guy was really good. 

Last but not least I got to see a long lost friend of mine that I met in college...

We hadn't seen each other since probably 2010. He lives in New York and we talked right before I came and planned to go out to lunch. It was really good getting to catch up with an old friend. Especially an old friend who is totally a New Yorker, and that's definitely a compliment.

Well, that's pretty much it. If you've read this far you're either related to me or you're bored. But thank you either way. It was such a fun trip. New York is somewhere you can go a thousand times and do something new each time. I'll be sure tell you about our adventure getting back to Birmingham in another post. We were supposed to get back into Birmingham at 9:00pm Sunday night. We didn't make it back until 4:00pm Monday. Thanks for reading!! Until next time...

Special thanks to my sweet, sweet mother for all of the pictures.