New York: Day Three

Day three wasn't as eventfully for me...I was forced to stay in the hotel room during the morning (due to some spotting) while the family went and ventured to the Brooklyn Bridge. Luckily my sweet family did something I had already seen. AND the last time I was on the Brooklyn Bridge I hit my head on the ONLY call box on the whole bridge...so I wasn't too sad that I missed it. Here is Day One and Day Two recaps, if you wanna know what went down.

Around 10ish the famjam came and picked me up, then we headed to the Shake Shack (Caitlin's pick) for lunch.
After lunch we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art...this was such a surreal experience. When they say you can't do they whole museum in a day....they really mean you can't do they whole museum in a week. There is so much to see AND you want to see all of it. I would go back to New York just to spend another day in this place. IT WAS AMAZING...We were feet away from mummies, beautiful statues and priceless pieces of art including Picasso, Van Gogh, Pollock, Rembrandt, Warhol, Degas, and Monet.  AHH it was Simply Wonderful!!!!

We literally spent the rest of the day walking around the MET. By 5:30 we were exhausted and felt like we have walked a million miles. BUT we had one more must-stop before heading home, Two Little Red Hens. AKA the best cupcakes in New York, and they were soo good.

Day Three was by far one of my favorite days, even though it wasn't jammed back, it was an awesome experience! 

New York: Day Two

Ugh I should have written these when they were fresh on my mind....because now I can't remember exactly what we did (thanks baby brain).
If you wanna read what we did on day one, here is the recap!

Day Two was Memorial Day, but not even a national holiday shuts down New York. The first thing we did was....sleep in!! Exciting I know, but at that point we have been up 20 hours straight. Exhaustion was an understatement.

Next was bagels and a stroll down Fifth Avenue. This is where exciting things happened. We stumbled upon the set of Spider Man 2 AND saw Andrew Garfield. Sadly I didn't snap a picture quick enough, but he was wearing his Spidey Suit (it was extra shiny).

 This was part of the set, they were filming on 5th Avenue

And here are some of their trailers...also my lovely momma

After all that excitement, we decided it was time to continue our journey. Next up: Central Park.
This is one of the coolest places in NYC, you could spend all day there and not see everything. This was also Caitlin's favorite part of the trip.

Right across from central park is FAO Schwarz, going in and playing on the BIG piano is a must. Some little kid totally hijacked the piano when I was trying to play a song.

 Barbies, my first love.

 The Apple stores, which is also located across from Central Park.

 Time for a carriage ride through Central Park. Dad was really excited about this.

After the ride, we decided to walk through some of the park. Our goal was to find the Bethesda Fountain and Strawberry Fields.

 This guy was so cool. I am pretty sure anybody could do this BUT he was pretty talented making HUGE bubbles.

 Music

We finally made it to Bethesda Fountain...any Enchanted fans out there, yup this is where they performed a huge dance scene!

 Does the Boathouse look familiar?? Yup, it's the same one featured in 27 Dresses!

 Strawberry Fields

 I am not sure if you can read his sign but it says "Why lie, I need Beer, and Peace, and Love, and Lots of Hugs"

After Central Park, we were starving! For lunch we ate at Patsy's. Hands-down this might be the best meal we had in NYC. I can't tell you how good everything was! Simply Amazing 

Meatballs were our appetizer and pizza was lunch. This pizza was amazing!

Next up the American Museum of Natural History. We actually decided we didn't want to do this museum because we would rather see the MET. But this would be an awesome for kids! AND bonus we got to see the dinosaurs. 

The only thing mom wanted to do in New York was the Empire State Building AND since it was a pretty day we decided to take advantage. It was a good thing we did because for the next few days it was rainy and hazy. WARNING: a billion pictures coming!

 

The tallest building in the picture above, is the new Freedom Tower. This is where the World Trade Centers stood. It is also the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

 Selfie on the 86th Floor.

Day two was super busy. Also on this day Caitlin hailed her first cab and we had dinner at the Stag's Head. This wasn't my favorite restaurant BUT they did have an awesome outside area to eat and a good beer selection (which I couldn't drink)! 

New York: Day One

Ah I LOVE New York, I've had the opportunity to go twice in my lifetime. Once when I was a senior in high school and once last week. My mom, dad, sister, and I traveled to New York for a belated senior trip for my sister, Caitlin. It was just as magical this time, as the first time I went! If you have never been, it needs to be on your bucket list!

Our first day was jam packed....it started bright and early Sunday morning. We had to be at the airport EARLY to catch our flight to LaGuardia. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Not only is flying A LOT faster than driving BUT I just happen to be on the right side of plane when we were flying in, so I got an amazing view of New York!!

If you look closely you can see the Statue of Liberty

Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge

After we landed we look a cab to our hotel, checked in, and got settled! We stayed at the Marriott on the East Side. It was a great location with awesome places to eat with-in a short walking distance, plus there was a metro station only two blocks away!! I forgot to take a picture, so I borrowed this one from Goggle

Front of the Marriott

Once we were settled in, we walked around to see what was close to the hotel. Although we had been to New York before we needed to get a grip on exactly where we were. 

During our exploring we discovered we were only a couple of blocks down from Grand Central. (Sorry about the quality of the remaining photos, they were taken by my iphone, since we were just exploring I didn't lug around my big camera). 

Grand Central Station

After Grand Central, we had lunch a Junior's which is a must....you MUST eat their cheesecake. Their food is decent but what Junior's is known for, is their amazing cheesecake...sadly I didn't get a pictures of ours because we devoured it with 5 minutes!!

After a late lunch we headed back to the hotel and maybe took a short nap ( I can't remember) and then got ready for the Mets vs. Braves games!

Incredibly patient puppy outside the stadium.

Hello Citi Field...Home of the Mets!

This was a really good game, sadly the Braves lost in the ninth inning. They won the TWO nights before!! Don't worry thought we still enjoyed out peanuts and hotdogs!

After the game, we headed to see Times Square. Caitlin wanted to see it at night....it was midnight at this point! This pregnant lady was exhausted...sooo this is the only picture I got. Times Square is overwhelming at any time of the day though...pretty but overwhelming.

Whew! We made it through day one...now only four more days to go! Hope y'all enjoy!

Hatfield, McCoy, and One Sick Boy

Our recap of the mountain vacation, for those of you joining..so far we have traveled 7 hours, been up for 31 hours straight, shopped, ate an amazing dinner, and finally got some sleep!
According to the itinerary, we were all suppose to wake up bright and early Saturday morning. That didn't happen, but we were on the road around 9ish..I think.

Today was our hiking day and I was super excited, I really wanted a picture with a bridge and a river/creek. I found both of those things on our hikes.

We started the day out with PICTURES!! My favorite thing ever. Since we stayed in Pigeon Forge we had to travel all the way through Gatlinburg to get to all the hiking trails. Which means a lot of scenic stops to take pictures. 

 This one of my favorites pictures I took the whole time we were there!

 

 Another scenic stop. Oh, I love me some pictures.

 After several stops we finally made it to our first hike, Laurel Falls. It was about 2.6 miles round trip. This was also my FAVORITE hike we did. Its pretty easy and it was paved all the way up.

Finally made it to the top!

And we saw a couple get it engaged, which was so sweet. All the men were like, man I wish I would have done something like that. So kudos to the man with the plan!

And then there are more pictures....

BRIDGE PICTURE!

This is the only picture we have of the six of us....

And on the way back down....which is much easier than going up.

After the hike we made another pit stop....to take more pictures of course.

 

Also another one of my favorite pictures from the trip!!

Our next stop Cade's Cove. Basically you just drive around to see what animals you can see. There is also old houses, churches, and such. We also had a "picnic lunch" on the go here. Then we saw a deer.

He ran right in front of us!

 We also found more bridges...

 And me a river/creek...

After Cade's Cove, we headed toward Clingman's Dome. Some kids couldn't hang...

 

By this points Corey was very sick. He had a stomach bug and was such a trooper all day. If it would have been me, I would have been begging to go back to the cabin. But poor Corey stuck in there, and let everyone else have fun...while he slept in the car.

 

Clingman's Dome is such a rough climb.It's only a mile but it is straight up hill....it's hard!!! But the view is totally worth it and breathtaking.

 Oh yeah....AND THERE WAS SNOW!!

 

 

On the way home from Clingman's Dome all these cars were stopped on the side of the road. SOO of course we stopped to see what they were looking at..

 ....it was a BEAR. It is really hard to see in this picture. A) because by the time we got there, he was pretty far back into the woods. and B) him was sleeping...
But I promise he is back there....I saw him through binoculars!

 

After a long day of hiking, we headed back home to get ready for dinner. Tonight's show: Hatfield & McCoy. I attended this show alone because Corey was too sick to go :(

After the dinner show, we went home and spent the night: playing pool, planking, and drinking a little too much :)

 

 

Probably my favorite day of the trip...minus that my hubster was sick!