A day of New York: Day 4

Someday I am going to wake up in New York because I live there. I am excited for that day. Until then this day was pretty close to perfect. We started by getting some breakfast and headed over to Tiffany's so I could  eat my breakfast there just like Audrey. On our way we window shopped, because all of the stores were still closed. It was fantastic. I think New York may have the best window shopping. Here are some of our favorites: 

Here I am with my breakfast and Tiffany & Co. I about died when I stepped inside this store. LOVE.

Then we went for a walk in Central Park. This park is Huge. We only touched the tip of it and I easily could have spent the whole day here. 

It was so fun to see the skyscrapers popping out from the tops of the trees. So cool.

My mom needed to stop by and see the Temple. It is also very unique, just stuck right there in the middle of the city. And as soon as you walk in it is so quiet and peaceful, a huge difference from the hustle and bustle of the city. 

On our way back we stopped by FAO swartz. It was much smaller then I thought it would be and well we kept comparing it to things in London and it was no where near  as cool as Hamleys. But this was a sweet toy. Beamz. Look it up. 

Next was a stop by Dylan's Candy Bar. I don't know what drove us here but why not. A store dedicated to Candy. Deal. I think we needed to go because it is Dylan's. and we like Dylan.

Mid day snack-Lunch in between some shopping and walking. Hot Dogs. Well my mom got the vendors last polish and my dad and I were stuck with regular hot dogs which tasted like, well regular hot dogs. Hers was much better. But it was on my list. Finally after years I got to eat a Hot Dog in New York.

My Favorite part of the day was the MOMA. I bet you were expecting shopping huh... Nope. I am in love with this museum. We all some how got lost in the shuffle of the art and I spent most of the time listening to my little headset and wandering through some of my favorite artists. I also could have spent all day here. It was so hard for me to pick what museum I wanted to go to (museum was my number one so I got to pick!) and I am so so so glad I picked this one. I loved seeing Van Gough, and Picasso and Warhol and Dali and Matisse and Seurat, and Cezanne and Monet and well basically it was beautiful and wonderful to see works I have studied and learned about. Love this place. We were getting very tired at this point. So much walking and seeing and doing.

This is Yoko Ono's Wish tree. I love this idea. Write you wish on a peice of paper and put it on the tree and hope it comes true. I want one. 

Next stop FIT. I have dreamed about going to FIT for a very long time. I was afraid if I saw it I might never want to leave. We went to their little fashion museum and I loved it. I would love to be able to attend any fashion school, especially in NY, and even more especially FIT. Someday? I am putting that on my dream tree.

After this we split up.My mom and I did a little more shopping. I had to step foot in a Topshop because I miss it. and my dad wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. So we split. We headed to soho and did a little more shopping. I loved the vibe and feel of soho and greenwich village. I could live there. (I could live anywhere on Manhattan and be happy I think.)
The place to catch the ferry to Staten Island.

This was about what my view of Lady Liberty was like, probably even smaller.

This was my Dads. He loved his boat ride. I am kinda sad I didn't go with him, but I also knew I would be sad not going to Topshop. Next time.

After we shopped until we could no longer stand, quite litterally we went back to our bus to meet my dad. We saw a bus coming our way and were on the other side of the street and for fear that we would have to walk further we ran to catch the bus. (at this point I am not sure why we didn't take a taxi but somehow it was easier to take a bus?) After making it on the bus after we ran for it we felt pretty accomplished. It is not everyday you catch a bus like that. We met up with my dad walked through the Wallstreet area, very businessy, and put together area, saw "ground zero" which now is a construction site, because there are building some memorial/building something. We were starting to get to the Feed Me Now point. There were NO resturants in the area so we had to come up with a plan. I was starting to feel sick, and tired. I was so sad I was feeling sick, which probably made me even more sick and only made the FMN (feed me now) even worse. So we got a couple drinks and some fries here. Come on, what is more American than McDonalds.

The Bull. I guess if you touch it you will have financial luck. I will let you know how that works out. Also lots of people take pictures coming out of it's butt. That was funny. We did not.

Then around 1030 or so at night we finally made it to one of the places on our list to eat. Katz's. WOW. Best sandwich ever. I could try and describe it to you but words aren't there. Just think of the best pastrami sandwich in the history of your life, now multiple it by 100. That is Katz's.

Look at the size of that thing. I was still feeling sick but I downed my part. Delicious isn't a good enough word for this sandwich.

YUM.

We got out of there pretty late and it was amazing. People were getting ready to go out and the town was as busy as it was that afternoon. Oh the city that nevers sleeps. Amazing. Well we were not ready to stay up all night. We headed back, my dad to get the car and my mom and I to Times square to get some last minute souvenirs. (the traditional I &hearts NY shirts) Once again I was baffled and overwhelmed with the lights and sounds. It looked like it was day time. We hopped in the car. I was as happy as I could be. My NYC experience everything I wanted and only left me wanting more. I was sad to leave but so tired I was soon asleep. We arrived in Boston at who knows what hour. My mom and I took turns talking to my dad to keep him awake. I slept like a baby. It was AMAZING. 

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. 

September was full of fun.

Don't worry everyone, I haven't forgotten about the rest of my Boston/New York trip. That will come soon. I promise. Moving on to the next segment of my year 10. September. September was a lot of fun. I hadn't been sucked into school too much, so we packed as much as possible into the month we could. 

We went to the fair.  Some sailors sang for us. We danced for them. 

There were animals. They smelled, but we still had fun.

Themes are a very important part of my life, and R usually agrees with me. We were so excited for the new season of glee we just had to have a themed party to celebrate. Our theme: New York. Then we thought, how ever will we decorate.... oh I know let's make Broadway musical posters featuring US. So we did, at 3 am. We opened up her costume box, and went to town.
Our favorite:
Wicked.

Practically Perfect in Mary Poppins

Clearly this is Lion King. I know, my mane is great. 

We are the coolest Cats around

For the party we dressed up as New York as we could. I went with Vanessa from Gossip Girl. Carly is wearing the traditional all black of a true New Yorker.

Blair, Artist, Vanessa and Serena

Another List item was to ride the Sundance full moon lift. Another thing I had never done before and it was a lot of fun. We thought it was really cold. If only we could go back to that weather. It is much colder now. 

 R. knew a guy on the inside and we got to ride for free!

 I was dared to put my hand in the ice for 30 seconds. Deal. Not even hard.

It is not a great September with out a celbration for Caity's birthday. We had to out-do last years awesome Vegas Themed Party, and after a lot of thought we came up with the perfect theme. All things England. 

My dad made this awesome Mural for our wall, with all of the best parts of London! He was so great he even came down to do caricatures throughout the whole party thanks Dad! (check out his awesome art work here)

 This was our tribute to the West End.

 A party is only as good as it's playlist. We listened to only British artists.

Magical Harry Potter food.

Cauldron Cakes

Chocolate Frogs

We even had Butterbeer, (and really classy cups....) 

Some of the guest included JR Tolkien 

The Spice Girls, well at least Sporty, Scary and Posh.

Cho Chang and Sir Elton John even made appearances! 

The Birthday girl dressed up as none other then Salazar Slytherin.  

September was definitely a month to remember.