Travel Day (Birthday trip Day 3)

I am finally ready to continue my wonderful, fabulous, magnificent birthday trip story. The day started out with my mom and I dropping dad off at work, then we were off to find a store that sold comfy shoes. (Boston did a little number on our feet... we started to care a lot less what we looked like and a lot more about how comfortable we were going to be)  and we needed to kill some time as we waited for Dad to be done with his final touch ups at work. Well we thought we would check out a shop next to our hotel before we found some shoes. It is this little place called Cracker Barrel. I told my mom that we have some in Utah, but we had never been in one so we thought we would check it out. Well for those of you who don't know. IT is Utah. Don't believe me look at this:

In case you can't read  what is under Family it says "Family. Forever, for always.... and no matter what." On top of this there was country music in the background and lots of very crafty homey I made this at enrichment things. We were laughing so hard. This is proof. Boston loves Utah.

Well you will never guess where we ended up after that. LOWELL. What really Lowell. This place truly is a black hole of a place, sucking us in.

 We found some shoes and wandered around good ol' target until it was time to pick up Dad and get on the road. As we were getting off the freeway we saw a TURKEY. A real live wild turkey just chilling off the side of the road. I am not sure 1. I have ever seen a live turkey 2. I know I have never seen one roaming the streets 3. Is it legal?  I was shocked and in awe. Apparently my Dad said he had seen a few going to work. Weird.

After picking up Dad we had one last VERY Boston stop to make. Dunkin' Donuts. They were everywhere. On every corner of every street. And in the morning there was a huge line for the drive through. Well it is not like I had never had DD before but it was a must have Boston treat.

 After our fill of donuts our travels to NYC began. I was so excited. We hopped in the car and were off. We had long drive ahead of us and we used the time to plan out our trip, nap, and well drive. Somewhere in Connecticut we got a little lost  and were driving on this beautiful winding road through lovely countryside, little town and forested areas. It was fun. We stopped to fill up our car at a little town and the gas station didn't have a bathroom, so they told us to go to the next town to "The Big Cone." ok so we were thinking that was the name of the mini-mart or gas station or something like that. Then we came across this:

 The BIG Cone. Literally it was a big Cone. We were dying with laughter. It was one of the funniest things EVER. The big cone. I will tell you what not only did they have a bathroom but they had some fantastic ice cream (I mean how can you not try the ice cream at a place with this Cone-lady out front.) Our lost adventure continued when we saw a sign for Woodstock. Well this part makes us all sound a little dumb, but it is an easy mistake to make right. We thought it was the real Woodstock. We thought for a minute "I didn't remember it being in Connecticut" but were so pumped that we went with it anyway, pointing to any field and saying, it could have happened right there. I switched on the 60/70's channel on the satalite radio and we were jamming out laughing and my 3G wasn't working so we couldn't check if it was the real Woodstock but at that point we didn't care. For us right then and there it was the real Woodstock. We pulled to the side of the road and took a few pictures. It wasn't until after we got out of the country side we found out the truth.

I don't care where it really took place. In my heart it took place right here in this field. Can't you feel the love and music pulsating out of it. 

We finally made it to New York. The excitement was building up inside of me. We drove through the Bronx and I was so excited I started looking up the history of NYC random facts so I could feel more informed and a part of the city but mostly to pass time. Driving into Manhattan was like walking down Main Street in Disneyland. It was magical, I was moving from side to side of the car to see everything I could. I was in Love right from the start. New York is everything I ever dream it to be. Just thinking about it right now gets me all excited. I hadn't even stepped foot out of the car and I already knew I was born to be a New Yorker. 

My favorite building was probably the Chrysler Building. It is beautiful. After we checked into our hotel we were off. 

First stop food. We came fairly prepared with places we wanted to try and lucky for us there was one of the reccommeded places a few blocks from our hotel. Cosi. This food was enchanting. The best part of this was we sat looking out of the window and just watched as people walked by. I love people watching and people watching in a city is the best kind! One thing I loved about the whole east coast is how much style everyone had. Everyone's personality came out through their clothing. It was fantastic. I felt like I belonged there. 

After shoving food down as fast as I could and patiently (ok maybe not so patiently) waited for my parents to finish we hit the streets. We just started wandering. We didn't know where we wanted to go we just went. Well we only made it down about 25 steps before I had to step inside of Zara. LOVE. Lots of shopping took place on this trip. Give me a break it is NYC. I had to shop.  Here we are on the streets of New York. 

We walked around, visiting Grand Central, a few stores, and then walked down to the Empire State Building. I couldn't believe I was standing in front of it. We walked inside and took a couple pictures, and decided that we didn't need to go to the top. Since we were only in New York for a little over a day we had to come up with our top things we wanted to do so we could fit it all in! 

After we did some more shopping... ya more shopping, and more site seeing by foot we walked by:

and went in here: (ps although this may be the largest store it has nothing on Harrods)

There was a really cool fashion walk thing with really cool mannequins dressed in various different things. This was one of my favorite. 

And there is Times Square. WOW. Times Square. It is crazy. People everywhere, flashing lights, noise coming from everywhere, shops, theatres, everything is AWESOME. I was so overwhelmed and happy and  couldn't focus on just one thing. It was beyond anything I could have imagined.

We had to grab a NY pretzel!

Our last stop before going back to our hotel was Rockefeller Center. This building was HUGE. We all tried to imagine where the huge tree would go and how much fun ice skating would be. It is on my list of things to do before I die. 

I climbed into my bed so excited for tomorrow. A full day of New York.