Adventures in New York City!

There has been a lot happening lately, and I hope to catch up on that here on my blog, but I wanted to write first about a fantastic trip I just took to NYC with my mom.  We were there this past Monday-Thursday and had a wonderful time.  In fact, I'd say it was one of the best trips I've ever taken!

I arrived on Monday late morning, and after an interesting cab ride from the airport to Times Square, I met my mom at our hotel, right in the middle of it all!  We could walk out the door and be right in the middle of Times Square in the middle of everything.  When you stand/walk in Times Square, you seriously feel like you're in the center of the world!  It's awesome!  After a lunch at a nice little Italian cafe, we walked down to Central Park from our hotel and walked around there for a little bit.  I even saw a celebrity, Rachel Blanchard (google her!) walking through the Park.

Then, that night, we went to see Ghost, the Musical, which was WONDERFUL!  The music was great, the story of course is sad and touching, a great love story, and the special effects were amazing.  It was a very technological show- a lot of interesting lighting and digital effects, and a lot of illusions- the guy actually walked through a wall at one point, and there were a lot of moments where I thought, "How in the world did they do that?!"  If you blinked, you missed something!  Anyway, I loved it, and the songs are still in my head, especially since I got the soundtrack on my iPod :)

The next day, we went to the 9/11 Memorial and the Statue of Liberty.  The 9/11 Memorial was interesting and sad, but very moving as well.  We mainly spent time at the 2 pools where the towers were, and saw the Survivor Tree.  We then went to the Trinity Church and walked around- this church helped many of the rescue workers during the attacks.  Then we walked (in the rain unfortunately!) down to the pier for the ferry to Liberty Island and spent some time around the Statue of Liberty before heading back to our hotel.  That night, we saw Book of Mormon, which was entertaining and lots of talent, but was a little much for me!  If you like South Park humor, you will like Book of Mormon!  There were moments when we were all laughing at something but thinking, "we shouldn't be laughing about this!"  Overall, a good show, but not my favorite!


Wednesday was our Sex and the City tour day!  We got on a bus and toured around the city to different sites from the show, which was really fun.  It also included some stops for shopping and food, and on the bus we got to watch clips from the show so we could see what we were visiting.  The best part was having a cosmopolitan with my mom at the bar featured in the show!


We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some shopping on 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center.  We had dinner at Rockefeller Center in the same spot where the ice rink is during the winter!  It was really a neat location and great food, too!



Wednesday night we saw Once, the musical.  Again, a lot of talent, but the show was hard to get into honestly.  I think we both wondered what all the fuss was about since it's gotten great reviews, but you really can't go wrong with a Broadway production!

Overall, this was a seriously great trip.  It was great having bonding time with my mom, being in NYC, and having the time away from everything else going on, especially during this time of transition for me.  Although it was a packed few days, I came home feeling rejuvenated and very happy.  NYC is a place where we both just felt alive.  I cannot thank my mom enough for the gift of this wonderful trip.  I am so grateful for it and the time we spent there.  I know we will go back someday, hopefully sooner rather than later!