New York without kids!

So last weekend was a very enjoyable weekend for the adults as well as the children--just that we didn't enjoy it together.

The last time Brodie and I spent a night together without any children was 5 years ago when we went on a cruise for our 5th anniversary.  I had been hoping for a few years that we'd be able to spend out 10 year anniversary in Hawaii.  But that trip would be too expensive; besides Brodie being just 3 months into a job and not able to take off that much time.  Brodie travels all over the world--India, China, Dubai, Jordan, Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, Morrocco, Egypt, Phillipines, Germany, etc.--for work.  In the last 10 years I've been on a Caribbean cruise, spent 6 months in India, and stopped by Paris.  That's it.  So my sweet husband must have felt a little bad and he decided we should take a weekend trip somewhere.

A couple years ago I was visiting my sister in Boston and had Brodie fly out so we could take a family trip and see some of New England.  We made it down to New York to see the Statue of Liberty, but that was all we saw.  Brodie thought it would be fun to spend our weekend in New York--Manhattan.  I thought that sounded great so I called my sister and asked if she could take on 3 extra kids with just a couple weeks notice.  She barely hesitated.

Last week on Thursday morning I woke up puking and feeling miserable.  I spent most of the day laying around feeling crappy.  Here and there I put aside some stuff the kids would need for their stay at my sister's.  By 4:00 I had been able to keep down some Gatorade and chicken broth so I packed the kids in the van and headed up to Tremonton.  Maybe it was good I was so sick so I couldn't get myself all worked up about leaving my kids.  I've never left Clara for more than a couple of hours and even that is very rare.  And my poor sister.  She has 3 kids of her own--a 6 year old daughter who obviously needs time and attention from her mother; a 5 year old daughter with special needs who needs a lot of time and attention from her mother who plays dual role of mother and nurse; and a 2 year old boy who, as those of us who have had a 2 year old boy know, also needs a lot of time and attention from his mother.  Add to that my 6 year old who doesn't stop talking, my barely 4 year old who demands a lot of attention, and my 1 year old who has never spent more than a couple hours away from her mother.  As if that doesn't sound overwhelming enough--turns out the weekend I asked her to watch the kids was the same one her husband would be out of town with the Reserves.  Can you believe she actually said yes?  Well, if you know her you would believe it.

I got home, took a shower, and packed for the weekend.  Once again being sick I think I didn't put too much thought into what I was bringing as Brodie and I both fit everything we were bringing into 1 shared carry-on.  Seriously.  Then we headed out for our red-eye flight to New York.

We did our best to sleep on the 4 hour flight but we were exhausted when we landed.  We took a taxi to our hotel, just off of Times Square, to see if they would keep our bag while we went out.  We arrived at the hotel around 7 am and they actually let us check in.  Had we known this beforehand it would have been perfect and we could have crashed until noon and then started out day.  But we didn't know this so Brodie had already reserved tickets to Ground Zero for Friday morning.  We headed to the nearest Subway station and headed down to the Financial District.  I was tired and was still trying to recover from being sick the day before so I think I was in a bit of a mood.  But I wasn't impressed with New York this morning.  It seemed dirty, the buildings didn't look cool--just big and old, it was crowded, there wasn't any grass or flowers--just buildings, roads, and sidewalks. Thankfully the 9/11 Memorial didn't give me this same vibe.

As of now they are still in the process of building the new buildings and still working on the museum.  But the Memorial Pools are quite a sight.  They stand in the exact footprints of the former Twin Towers.  In the footprints the water falls down all four sides and then down to a hold in the middle where it disappears.  Surrounding the pools are plaques with all the names of the victims of the flights, World Trade Center, Pentagon, and the responders who lost their lives.  It was so overwhelming to see how big the pools were and they were surrounded with lines of names.


I love the rainbow in this one.  It reminds me of the Lord's promise to Noah.  Every time I see a rainbow I think of hope.





This is part of the plaque with names on it.  This goes all the way around both large pools.  So many lives.

 There were trees all around with some symbollic meaning that you could ask Brodie about but I really only remember hearing about the Survivor Tree.  As they were clearing out the debris from the 9/11 Terror Attacks and there was nothing but death, they came across a tree that had been broken basically down to the just the trunk and a couple branches.  But it was alive and had a green leaf.  They were so happy to find something alive so they dug it out and sent it to a nursery where it was taken care of and they re-planted it at the Memorial as hope that the city could bounce back the way the tree did.  You can see where the new branches have grown.

They are still working on the museum that houses the tridents from the original twin tower buildings.  This is where they will place the fire engine and so many other things from the World Trade Center.  The building itself is made of a reflective glass so you can see what's inside as well as what's outside.  However, you have to get real close or see it when the inside lights are on in order to see inside.  Here's the outside:

After this we walked around the area.  We were much too tired and out of it to actually go anywhere specific, so we just wandered and saw what we saw.  Including a park with a bunch of people camped out that we later discovered was due to the whole Occupy Wall Street movement.  In any case, we didn't think it was all that cool, other than the 9/11 Memorial.  We then got a hold of a good Subway map and decided to go to Chelsea Market as we hear a lot about that on Food Network and we were hungry.  But we didn't find anything really to eat.  I guess we were expecting something unique and didn't really come across it.  Actually for the whole weekend it was pretty much street vendors, ridiculously expensive restaurants, or just mediocre.  So we went with mediocre.  We also discovered breakfast is a big thing there.  On this day we sat down at a sandwich place in Chelsea Market around 11:30 and asked for lunch.  We were informed it would take a while as they were just finishing up breakfast and needed to switch the kitchen over to lunch.  The next day we ate lunch at 1:30 and most people in the restaurant still had omelets and eggs on their table.  And what is up with the lack of carbonation in the soda in NY?  I tried a bottle, can, and even McDonald's fountain and was disappointed with flat soda every time.  We then walked down to where they were going to be shooting The Next Iron Chef later that night.  After walking around that area until I felt I was going to collapse, we took the Subway back to Times Square and went to our hotel for a nap.

After a few hours we were up and out again.  Earlier when we were at the Subway station we decided to just purchase a couple Metro Cards with $15 on each and not have to purchase a fare every time.  So now that we had a little more sleep and some food we actually looked at a map and figured out that everything was close enough we really didn't need to use the Subway.  We headed out of our hotel on foot to the Empire State Building.  Another disappointment.  Really, it's just a tall building.  And there are plenty of those in New York.  The architecture didn't seem all that cool or unique.  And they charged $22 per adult to go up.  My opinion of New York wasn't great at this point so I didn't see the point in spending $44 to go up and look out at a dirty, crowded city.  I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower and that was quite a sight, but I didn't think this one would be.  So we walked back towards Time Square.  It was even more crowded here, although it was too crowded for me to really see garbage or dirt around.  And I don't like to shop.  In fact, the only shopping I did the entire trip was to buy souvenirs for the kids--at Toys R Us.  Speaking of which, it was really a cool Toys R Us!  It was HUGE and even had a ferris wheel inside with cute themed cars (like My Little Pony, Barbie, Nickelodeon, Scooby Doo, M&Ms, Toy Story, etc.).

After walking around Times Square and going in a few shops we tried to find a place for dinner.  We ended up going to Virgil's BBQ.  My stomach was still pretty weak so I just got a salad and ate a little off Brodie's plate.  But that was by far the best brisket I've ever had!  The ribs had good smokiness and a lot of meat, but were way too dry and I didn't care for the spice rub they used--or their BBQ sauce.  The collard greens were also very good.  We obviously aren't used to going out without kids as we were back in our hotel room by 8:30 at night and Brodie watched TV while I read a book for a couple of hours before going to sleep.

Okay so Saturday was a much better day.  A full night's sleep, a breakfast bagel and pastry that I ate on the Subway train, and we started off the day at Central Park.  Quite a contrast to the previous day.  It was actually quite peaceful and beautiful and not crowded.  Occasionally I heard a siren or horn or helicopter, but not all the road noise I could hear everywhere else.  And there were some places in the park that was just nature!

There was some organized run going on and  alot of people biking around, including some television correspondent we just saw on television tonight, and quite a few families.  But there were also plenty of us tourists.  However, the park was plenty big enough for all of us.  There was a really fun looking playground just as we entered and another smaller one at the top of the park.  We went by the rink, which wasn't much at this time of the year, but had a nice view of the contrast of the park and the city:

We walked the entire park and, although being large for a park, really wasn't as much of a distance as the map made it look.  Which really made me feel like we wasted $30 in Metro Cards.  I especially loved the fountain in the middle of the park.  I wanted to take a boat out, but Brodie didn't seem too keen on that idea.

There was also a "castle" that was really built as an observatory but was fun to come across and go up.

After exiting the park at the top we walked down Columbus Ave, parallel to the park.  Maybe it was the full night's sleep and recovery from being ill, or maybe it was spending the morning in the park, or maybe it was just the area we were in--but I thought New York was a nice place this day.  The buildings had some character, some were even elegant.  It wasn't overly crowded or dirty.  Instead of sky scrapers the buildings were more livable.  I liked it.  We walked along, stopped to eat lunch, and came across the temple.  I guess it was originally a stake center but they built the temple on top of it.  We couldn't go in because it was closed (it was General Conference) but I took a picture--mainly because I'm used to seeing grand temples and grounds that are the main focus of the area they are in and it was so odd to see it there among the tall New York buildings:

It was right across the street from Lincoln Center so we also walked around there--saw Julliard, the Met, and all that stuff.  Then because we had purchased so much in Metro Passes we decided to sit for a bit and take the Subway to Grand Central Station.  I now have a better feel for the phrase "It's like Grand Central".  Under the station is much different than the station itself.  It was crazy packed with people, all going different ways on different trains.  So many trains and stairs and craziness!  Then we came up into the station.  Wow!  Chandeliers, the astronomical mural on the ceiling, the hallways, and everything else.  It was so elegant, especially compared to the other stations we'd been in.

And the whispering gallery doesn't work if you whisper (maybe it does if the station is empty).  You have to speak fairly loudly, although you wouldn't be able to hear each other diagnally at that level unless you were talking and listening into the wall.  As we exited the station we were greeted by massive rain.  Of course we brought jackets on our trip, but they were back at the hotel.  Our hotel was fairly close to the station, but in the rain we opted to use the Subway to get us closer.  We were still drenched by the time we got to our hotel.  We changed clothes, hung around for a little break, grabbed our jackets, and then headed out again.  But we'd done enough with the Subway so we just went on foot.  We walked past Grand Central Station, which is very beautiful and unique on the outside as well, past the Chrysler Building, and all the way to 1st Ave.  We passed the UN Building and Trump Tower.  And we kept going.  I liked this area best of all.  There really weren't any shops and we rarely passed another person on foot.  When we did it was usually someone walking their dog.  The buildings were cute with little balconies and common areas with playgrounds or gardens.Then we came back over to 5th Avenue that had all sorts of high end stores and a lot of people walking around.  And pretty much every girl/woman was wearing a scarf.  Is that the fashionable thing these days?  Obviously I wouldn't know in my T-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops that I almost always wear.  Once again I was feeling a bit claustrophobic with all the large buildings around me.  I'm much more comfortable with the mountains.

Then we walked along the edge of Central Park past all the really expensive hotels until we wrapped back down through Times Square.  Why did we ever use the Subway again?  Really, if you're planning on staying in Manhattan it's really not necessary.  This time we stopped at Ruby Foo's for dinner.  I felt a little out of place dripping with water in my jeans and T-shirt, but they let us in anyhow.  Brodie wasn't too impressed with the dumplings and sushi roll he ordered, but I absolutely LOVED my entree.  I got the wasabi wonton crusted salmon that came with a coconut curry sauce, some sweet black rice, and some julienned vegetables.  It was one of the best meals I've had for a while.  After dinner we stopped at the Roxy and bought some black and white cookies--one to try ourselves and two to bring home to my sister-in-law who absolutely loves them.  It was a couple days before we were able to get them to her so I hope they were still good, but I'm sure they were at least nostalgic.  And this night Times Square didn't annoy me.  I actually enjoyed it.  All the lights and the energy and people ranging from all dressed up for a night of Broadway to those more casual like Brodie and I to the crazy lady in an American flag bikini bottom with nothing on top other than blue and red painted stars (no I didn't take her picture as I didn't feel anyone else should have to ever experience such an image).

It was fun to experience New York, at least Manhattan.  I'm glad we went, and that we only went for 2 days.  It was definitely a unique place and I overall enjoyed it.  I especially enjoyed being able to spend some time with my wonderful husband and not spend my time changing diapers, discussing the powers of different Pokemon, and playing "getting ready" all day.  Although I was very eager on Monday to do just these things again.  And I'm sure my sister is now very happy she only has 3 children.  Thank you Brodie and Tiffany for a wonderful weekend!

Oh, the kids also loved their weekend with Aunt Tiffany and their cousins.  They think they had as much fun as I feel I had.