Flashback Friday NYC kidless

A little over a year ago, Bill and I got the opportunity to go to NYC...by ourselves....for over a week...we had a wonderful time!!! We crammed as much of NYC in as we could before heading down to Washington DC for a couple days on our way home.

Bill had to attend an ASHRAE conference, but we got there a few days early and hit the ground running. First we took a double decker bus tour of Manhattan...on a freezing cold morning and our bus was an open top double decker...however, if we sat down below where it was WARM, we couldn't see anything out the windows. So. We froze, but sure saw alot!

We hopped off near Chelsea Pier and then walked. All the way to the Brooklyn Bridge, and I wore the wrong shoes.Grand Central Station was just that...grand!

Another day we took the ferry over to Ellis Island.

We were on a tour and didn't get nearly enough time to look through all the exhibits there. A whole day could have been spent walking through all the photo boards and displayed stories..so much history.

This is the great hall where the immigrants would be 'housed' until they could be cleared to enter NYC. Families would spend 8-10 hours crammed next to one another while they awaited their turn, awaited their fate.On the way back to Manhattan, although it was so flippin cold our eyes were tearing up, we captured one of my most favorite pictures from the trip.Another favorite of the trip...our 'Wicked' Broadway experience. We met the most wonderful couple (Bill knew Kevin from business dealings and Janet came along with him to NYC) and we had the best time seeing NYC with them. They went with us to see Wicked......it is thanks to them that we have so many wonderful pictures of us together. Here we are on our way to see Wicked, with Times Square as our backdrop.We also saw The Lion King-it was really good (is there anything Disney doesn't do well?). We snapped this picture just before the show started...and got BUSTED because the flash was on. We took it so quickly, that's why Bill looks a little 'deer in the headlights' ishAnd the Empire State Building? It's tall...a little bit freaky for those of us scared of heights...that would be me.....but the view was amazing even with the hazy skies.Does this look familiar? If you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, it sure should!

A view of the Chrysler BuildingAnd looking straight up at the last few stories of the Empire State Building

And we couldn't be in NYC without going to the World Trade Center site. There was so much construction going on but it was still very moving to be there, to remember what happened. This is an artists rendition of what the new tower/WTC area will look like when it is all finished. This shows the rebuilt subway system. The wall to the right is an original wall structure.

We also went to a museum dedicated to all those that lost their lives that day and the rescuers too. It's really hard to put words to the meaning of it all, how it felt to see it in person. If you get there some day, it is a place you must see to understand.

Hang in there...almost done with the tour! Last but not least, we walked through Central Park in search of the statue Balto the Dog.....we PROMISED the kids we'd get a picture. And so Bill hammed it up good. No worries, kids of all ages have climbed all over the statue!

The very last thing we did before leaving for DC (that'll be another post) was try to get on the Today Show...you know, be one of those crazy people waving a sign. Well, we made a sign and got a front row space, but on the WRONG side of the camera view! We moved and made it on TV for all of about 2 seconds, saw Al Roker (he shook our hands), Ann Curry and Matt Lauer...for a brief moment. It was freezing after all.Sorry, that was pretty long, but it sure was fun to think back to a year ago. Some things were sure easier. The last part of our trip was to Washington DC to visit with some very important people. I'll share the story behind that in 12 days.