NYC Day 1

Most of you know that I spent 6 day away from home. The longest I have ever been away from Josh, or my kids. I was able to take a "Girls Trip" to New York with my mom and sisters. Just the 6 of us girls. My mom turned "60" this year, and it was her request a couple of years ago to start saving so that we could go. We have been planning this for a LONG time. It is hard to believe that it is now over.

We flew all day Saturday. My mom and 3 of my sisters give here in Gilbert. Soo lucky, but the other sister lives in Washington. So we flew from here with a slight layover in Texas to meet up with Jamie. We didn't get to the La Guardia Airport until 9:30 ish that night. We were tired, but even the flights were a great way to start our trip. To just have uninterrupted time to talk to my sisters is so great.

Jennifer-My flying neighbor each leg of the trip.

We fell asleep pretty fast, and were not surprised at all to wake up to clouds and rain in the morning. We had been watching the weather so carefully each day leading up to the trip, we knew it was coming. We got dressed in our warmest clothes, took out our umbrellas, and walked the few blocks in the rain to

Grand Central Station.

What a beautiful building, and within 5 minutes of being there we were greeted by

My sisters good camera

My cameraDonald Trump.

We noticed immediately the cameras and lights, but as quickly as we looked up, he walked down the staircase to the left, across the middle and up the staircase on the right. And...at the top of the stairs on the right where all the lights and cameras were, was the cast of the new Celebrity Apprentice. We stayed to watch for awhile to see who we could recognize, and all we could figure out, we think, was Sharon Osborne, Darryl Strawberry, Jessi Ventura, and Brett Michaels. We were able to get Jessi and Mr. Trump to wave to us. What a fun first hour we had in NYC.

We left GCS and bought a Ho Ho (Hop On, Hop Off) pass for the bus and decided to travel by bus for awhile in the rain. We wanted to get a feel for where everything was, but had a sudden desire to get off the bus for lunch when we saw the Carnegie Deli.

Holy Pastrami Sandwiches. Lucky for the even number in our group, we all decided to split them. They were super yummy. And I might just add, that these 3 sandwiches cost us $68. I have to show these pictures, just because they are so funny. Our first bites...Sorry Girls.

Bryn

Jamie

Nicole

Shanen
Jennifer

Mom

We did lots of walking after that, the rain had stopped, and it was a crisp 43 degrees, but we couldn't seem to find a Ho Ho bus anywhere. We were cold and tired,

but we did some flee market shopping for our new warm hats,

stopped at our first cupcake/pastry shop

AND

road the icky subway for the first time. That was an experience.

But finally made it back to Times Square for dinner. We were starving and needed food. I won't tell you where we ate for our first night in NYC. WE ALL SWORE TO KEEP IT A SECRET, but food was food, and we were hungry.

We knew that tonight was the only night we would have a chance to do the nighttime tour. Yes, it was freezing, but well worth it. It took us all over, across the bridge, saw Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, and all the views worth seeing at nighttime. We of course sat ON TOP of the double decker bus, but it wouldn't have been the same tour if we hadn't. We got back to our East Gate Tower Hotel room at 9:30, cold, tired, and excited for more. In the morning.