~day 7~

Day 7: Saturday, August 7th

I got up about 8:30 and woke up Lance for breakfast. The others had already left. Our key card stopped working. The front desk said sometimes if it’s next to a credit card it does that. The whole week it had been in the same place so that didn’t make sense. When we got a new key card I made sure not to store it by another card. That didn’t help. It again didn’t work after one try. Oh well, #2 had another card that worked fine.

Lance and I left first and caught a shuttle. The others were going to get a city bus to use as many of their prepaid tickets as possible. While on the shuttle I saw #1 waiting at the bus stop way past where we had been picked up! We still don’t know how he made it there without us seeing him considering he left after us. Lance texted him and we saw him looking all around confused. He spotted us waving as we passed. It was pretty funny.

We met up with #1 at Port Authority and headed to Chinatown. It was crazier than Times Square if that’s even possible! So many people are bombarding you with buying their stuff. It was very difficult to understand them. At one point I kind of guessed what a guy told me and Lance and #1 joked that I could understand Chinese. Nothing was priced, probably because they will bargain with you, but I didn’t end up getting anything.



We ate at an authentic Chinese restaurant. That was quite the experience. This place was massive! I’d say 1000 people were eating there. We were seated with another family. Luckily the daughter spoke English and Chinese and helped us figure out how to order and pay. Servers pushing carts kept pointing at dim sum they wanted us to buy and explaining what it was, in Chinese of course. I had to turn away at least 10 people! We tried to order 2 chicken dishes and the waiter said, “No. One is enough.” Then #1 ordered the same. The waiter rolled his eyes. We were quite surprised to see how large it was. 1 would have been enough for the 3 of us! No wonder the waiter thought we were stupid. Haha. This was the first time I had used chopsticks to eat an entire meal! #1 was able to give his leftovers away again.





After lunch we went to Little Italy and ate key lime cannoli’s. Yum.





Dacey and #2 arrived in NYC so #1 went to meet up with them and go shopping.

Lance and I took a subway to Brooklyn to meet up with my cousin Adam, his wife Amy, and their adorable daughter Harper. They treated us to dinner which was so nice of them and totally unexpected. Then we enjoyed a walk through Prospect Park. We stopped at their apartment for a tiny bit before heading back. Being in Brooklyn with mostly locals as opposed to the insanity of tourists in Manhattan was lovely. Lance said this was his favorite part of our entire trip and I agree it ranked pretty high up there for me as well.





We wanted to make the 9pm bus so we didn’t have much time to shop. I really wanted a purse but didn’t find one. Oh well, I have 20+ already! We ran into Kate and Jeff again and they were having difficulties but we offered our help. We ran into quite a few of the same people throughout the week. What are the odds? Lance and I bought 2 tickets from Dacey for our ride back so she wouldn’t have as many tickets left over.

I packed and was in bed after 11. I wasn’t going to get much sleep.

~day 6~

Day 6: Friday, August 6th

I got up just before 8 today. After breakfast Lance, Dacey, and I went to the Cathedral of Saint John the Devine. It was soooooo hot in there! Lance asked a maintenance guy if it was always that hot and he said in the summer it’s hot and in the winter it’s cold. There isn’t central air or a heat! It didn’t help that the week prior it had been the hottest weather they’ve had. Wow. I couldn’t attend a service there unless the weather was nice. Haha. Actually I’d never attend a service there. I am not in agreement with their doctrine one single bit.



It was built by Masons. I’m not going to get into it all but that’s the Occult. Not just a cult. Not all Masons are aware of what’s going on higher up. First degrees think it’s a fraternity of charitable contributions and such. The majority of our founding fathers were Mason’s and it’s pretty crazy when you research all the mystical garbage they truly founded America on. I don’t believe America was built on God or Christianity. That was used as a cover up to make it more appealing to the actual Christians who came here for religious freedom. Just look at our money and at our government buildings. It’s all New Age and Greek Mythology. There is so much hidden right in front of our eyes. “Apollyon Rising 2012: The Lost Symbol Found and the Final Mystery of the Great Seal Revealed” by Thomas Horn is very informative when it comes to the history of our nation.

The Cathedral had some very cool architecture but some odd symbols at the same time. The Freemasonry logo was prominent. There was a Buddhist prayer chest. Why? And a statue of Gandhi. Huh?



I find it odd the church added pillars in 1997 near the entrance depicting the destruction of New York. Yes, the Cathedral was named for John who penned Revelation and some believe NY to be Babylon the Great, but why include art that depicts the demise of the state it is on display in? Weird.



They have a pagan sculpture in the garden. Sun worship and mythical creatures are its focus. And odd it has John Lennon’s saying “One day the world will live as one” written on it. New World Order perhaps?



I wasn’t privy to the interesting rituals they perform there but they have a “blessing of the animals”, “blessing of the bikes”, “winter solstice celebration”, “the grand procession of the ghouls” at Halloween… Check out http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=241 for detailed info on the activities that are going on under the cloud of a “Christian Church”.

We headed to Columbus Circle and had dessert at Bouchon Bakery before getting lunch at a stand in Central Park.









We met up with the Ryan’s at the World Trade Center. They’re in the process of building. Sad to think of the tragedy that took place there nearly 9 years ago.



We were discussing getting dinner and the Ryan’s mentioned a pizza place they previously went to. I heard $1 slices in the conversation. We headed toward the subway and I heard them say it was in Brooklyn. My question was why were we going to Brooklyn at 5 pm when in 2 1/2 hours Lance and I had to be back in Times Square for a musical and #1 a play? The trip there was 30 minutes plus the walk and double that for the ride back. They reassured us they only waited 10 minutes before they got a seat. I felt a check in my spirit but went along anyway. I should have spoken up.

The line was down the block when we arrived at Grimaldi’s. And the sign on the door said “No Slices. Cash Only”. What? I thought it was the $1 a slice place. Nope. You had to buy a whole pizza. I wasn’t that hungry! We were told we’d have a 15 minute wait. Well after 15, 25, 35, 45…minutes passed I was panicking. Lance and I agreed if we weren’t called in 5 minutes we were leaving. Well we were called. And then had another 30 minute wait to get the pizza. Turns out they had gone at 10 pm so of course they got right in. We were there at dinner time.

I am a slow eater. There was no way I could have eaten a half of a pizza in zero minutes so we asked them to box it up and how much we owed. The waiter was confused but we didn’t care. I’m sure Dacey and the guys thought we were being silly but I was stressing out and annoyed that I wasted all the time of going there. They all stayed and enjoyed their meal.



We got on the subway with the pizza (it was in a paper bag, not your standard box). Lance had to stand so I was hovering it above my lap so I wouldn’t get grease stains on me. A spot finally opened up near me and we were able to eat a slice. We got off and continued to eat while walking down the street. It was quite the adventure. We made it to our show just at 7:30 when the doors were opening. We wouldn’t have made it had we stayed and ate. There is no way.

The only mean person we encountered on the trip happened to be in line behind us. There were so many shows around and Times Square is crazy busy so we wanted to double check we were in the right line. Lance asked a guy in a suit. He looked Lance up and down in his shorts and t-shirt holding a pizza and rudely snorted, “Yeah. You even got tickets?” What a punk!

“The Addams Family Musical” was fun. How many times do you have the opportunity to go to a Broadway Show? Lance loves the Addams Family so it was perfect for him. I’m glad he was so happy. #1 was at a different theater seeing “The Screwtape Letters” by himself. Poor guy had to go alone but he didn’t seem to mind.





While waiting for the bus we made friends with Kate and Jeff who were at the hotel next to ours. They were clueless as to how to get back so we helped them out. They thanked us a ton and said they couldn’t have done it without us. I’m glad we could be so helpful throughout the week and get help when we needed it as well.

~day 5~

Thursday, August 5th

We all slept in until 8ish then got breakfast. We ended up taking a day off. It was much needed.

Our day consisted of watching TV, a movie, napping, and going to the pool. Dacey and #2 worked out in the exercise room as well.

I wasn’t feeling the greatest. My nose was quite stuffy. I kept a box of tissues by me the whole day.

We had leftover pizza for lunch and walked to the Coach House for dinner. The sign near the hotel said it was only 3/4th a mile walk. That can’t be true! It was at least 1 ½ miles. Dinner was filling and afterwards Dacey and the Ryan’s got ice cream at Baskin Robbins across the street. Then the long walk back. At least we got some walking in though considering we didn’t do much all day.



All the sidewalks we encountered in NJ were atrocious! Either bushes were so overgrown you couldn’t even walk on them or they were so cracked you had to be careful where you stepped. And it was dirty! Garbage was everywhere. We have it pretty good in MN.



After such a strenuous day (haha) I was the first to fall asleep.

~day 4~

Wednesday, August 4th

I was up at 5am. After a quick breakfast we were on our way just after 7. We headed to Battery Park to get a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. They have pretty tight security there for obvious reasons. Lance and I went through and assumed the others were right behind us since we were all in line together. We boarded the ferry and found a seat. Then the crew pulled up the walkway and we realized they were not going to make it! As we started leaving the dock I saw the 3 of them still inside near security.



Lance and I got to Liberty Island and took our sweet time walking and taking pictures trying to allow time for them to catch up. I spotted the cutest little fuzzy yellow caterpillar. (I looked it up after and it’s an American Dagger Moth.)



We got into another security checkpoint to go into the statue. They don’t allow any food or beverages (or even empty water bottles). I forgot I had a danish in my purse so I told Lance to put it in his pocket. Haha. He was very uncomfortable with the idea so I threw it away quickly. They were very vigilant and even asked him if he had anything in his pockets. Good thing they were empty! They sure make a killing with people having to rent lockers. They made quite a few people leave line due to the size of bags, backpacks, food…

We finally got inside the statue and I wasn’t aware there is a museum inside. Still trying to go slowly to let them catch up, we read almost everything and learned quite a lot about the history of the statue and how it was made. Just as we were finishing the exhibit they arrived! This was at least an hour after we last saw them. Turned out #1 was stuck in security they think due to a paperclip in his pocket. Wow. We went up to the pedestal and the view of the statue is actually quite poor from that vantage point.



We went to get in line for the next ferry to Ellis Island. It was a bit of a wait so we knew we would have to miss going to Radio City for a tour. I didn’t really want to go in the first place so I didn’t care and no one else seemed too bummed.

At Ellis Island it was kind of emotional. I was thinking of all the lives that have been directly affected due to that place. They estimate that nearly half of all Americans can trace a relative that went through there. I wish we had an opportunity to spend more time there but we had other things on our agenda. We had spent about 4 1/2 hours at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island already.



After getting back to the city I did something really stupid. So stupid I don’t even want to share but I will having seen a TON of people do the same stupid thing in the days following. In the subways they have two different kinds of turnstiles. We had only encountered the first pictured at that point. Simple enough. I’ve used them tons of times at sporting events and such. But this time we had the 2nd pictured. Yes, I’ve seen these before. I’ve used them before. The other 4 had already gone through. I slid my MetroCard and then proceeded to grab the set of bars closest to me and pushed. Lance saw what I was doing but it was too late. Instead of stepping in and pushing like I was supposed to I pushed the wrong set. I was stuck on the opposite side of everyone else. You can’t slide your MetroCard more than once to prevent multiple people using the same card. We didn’t know what I should do. I felt like an idiot. Then we saw 2 people squeeze in at a time and figured if I could ask someone to allow me to go with them it would be fine. It took forever before a skinny enough person came along that wasn’t holding something and that understood English. A girl who barely spoke English was kind enough to let me go in with her. Thank the Lord. We made it on our subway and I broke down. I couldn’t stop crying. It was a stressful situation that had the best of me. I told Lance for the rest of the trip he had to go behind me! What an ordeal. But from my mistake, like I mentioned, we saw tons of people do the same thing and were able to help them out. We even used our own cards to assist 2 ladies’ that didn’t speak any English. They had already used their cards and didn’t get why they couldn’t go through. Lance had to physically move them into the opening! Tricky turnstiles.





We ate lunch at Planet Hollywood. Lance and I each got a shirt and a water bottle. With our NY Passes we saved $40 there! All of us saved $10 at lunch and $10 in the store. I love a good deal!



We planned to go to the NBC Studio Tour but they were sold out. I was bummed. I really wanted to see it. Maybe next time we go.

We went to The Top of The Rock. It was pretty similar to the Empire State Building so it wasn’t as cool as it would have been had we done that first. But we did get a really good view of Central Park. We walked around Rockefeller Center and to the Nintendo World Store.







Lance and I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. I got to soak my aching feet in the pool and enjoyed a massage from a water jet. It closed at 9 then we ordered a pizza. The others walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate at Grimaldi's. My feet didn’t want to walk any more. I needed a vacation from my vacation!

~the stage deli~

While on the bus a guy recommended a deli he frequents so we thought we’d give it a try. Horrible choice. The Stage Delicatessen had the worst service I have ever experienced. Correction, that any of us have ever experienced. First off the prices were ridiculous. I get we were in NYC and things tend to cost a bit more but this was crazy. We figured since we heard it was the best and we were there that we’d try it out.

After joking with the waitress about Fanta (she wasn’t aware there isn’t just one flavor) Lance ordered a Coke. The waitress never brought it. We were dumbfounded how she could have forgotten it after all the talk of soda! #2 asked for a pitcher of water since the cups were tiny and he needed to hydrate. She said they didn’t have any. How is that possible? Then she barely ever refilled our tiny water glasses.

She watched us as she ate her lunch at the table behind ours. Odd. Why are you on a break when you have customers? Lance and I split, Dacey and #1 split, and #2 didn’t eat. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. 10 minutes later the waitress came back and asked if I’d like a pastrami sandwich instead because she put in the wrong order. How about NO! Out comes Dacey and #1’s roast beef sandwich. Just a huge hunk of cold roast beef on bread. Nothing on it. They were disappointed and didn’t even eat it all.

Our sandwich was quite large and was filling for the both of us. It was in fact pretty tasty as well. However, I found two chicken bones in my food. I called the waitress over. I explained I found bones in my chicken salad. She first said it must be bacon. I told her I know what bones look like and I didn’t have any bacon. Then she said…wait for it…”It must be from the chicken.” NO DUH! I agreed that obviously it was from the chicken but it shouldn’t be in my food. Then she made up some excuse that it is normal when the chicken is being ground up to have bones get mixed in and walked away. No it isn’t. WOW! No apologies. No “I’ll make you another.” No “Your meal is complimentary.” Nothing. (I always order chicken when I go out. I’ve had bones in my meals several times. I get it, it happens. Chickens have bones! The restaurants ALWAYS make it up to me and apologize though.)


My large half of the sandwich.

Out comes our bill. Lance’s Coke he never received was on it. He called her over and asked for it to be removed since she never brought it. She rolled her eyes and walked away. Didn’t apologize for that either. Our total for 1 bone filled sandwich was $21!! The nasty roast beef was just a little cheaper. We asked if she could split the bill but she said she couldn’t. I hate it when places don’t split. She was hovering while we were dividing up the bill and asked a couple times if we were ready to pay. Back off! Why be so attentive now? Do you think we were going to bail? Because we didn’t have smaller bills and weren’t waiting around for change once she snatched up our cash, she ended up with less than a 30 cent tip between the 5 of us. We wished she wouldn’t have gotten anything.

We did spot an actor eating there though. Robert Klein. I recognized him as he walked in. He played Sandra Bullock’s dad in the movie, “Two Weeks Notice”.

~day 3~

Day 3: Tuesday, August 3rd

I slept in until 6:45. Late start, haha. After breakfast Lance, Dacey, and I caught a shuttle. We figured we’d try to negotiate price since we’d been asking $2 previously. Lance asked if it was the $1 bus and the driver said yes. Score! So we thought. When we asked to be dropped off the driver stopped at a red light. We got out and handed him $3. He said we owed $2.50 each. No no no. You agreed to $1 man. Your loss. Not our problem you don’t speak English. I continued walking and told the guy he said $1 and he wasn’t getting more. Bold of me, I know. Lance stood by the bus telling the guy he had no money (which was true because I was carrying all our money) knowing the light had to turn green soon and he’d have to drive away. And that’s what happened. We decided to not try to go so low again and stuck with $2 the rest of the week.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was so much to see! We didn’t even get through a third. Not a fan of all the nudes though. Why is nudity art? I’m also not a fan of “contemporary”. If it’s something I can make myself by throwing paint at a canvas to me it’s not art. Doodling on a piece of yellow lined paper and framing it, again, not art. Everyone has their own opinion I suppose. There were lots of true artistic pieces though. And there happened to be a huge Picasso exhibit. Some of his stuff, holy inappropriateness! But there were lots of cool works as well.





We met up with the Ryan’s at Madison Square Garden for a tour. Lance enjoyed the hockey information and the locker room. #2 enjoyed getting a picture with a cheerleader. Haha. I’m not into sports so it wasn’t the highlight of my trip.



We went to the Stage Deli for lunch. That ordeal deserves its own post.

We went to the American Museum of Natural History. It’s hard not to compare it to “Night at the Museum” and try to find all the stuff that was in the movie. My only problem is all the evolution garbage they state as fact. “2 billion years ago this meteor crashed…blah blah blah.” How in the world do they know? Were they there to document? I do believe there was life on Earth before Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:2 states “…the earth became formless and empty…” Became. This gives a probable dateless past leaving room for Neanderthals and dinosaurs. I could go on and on about this!





Lance, Dacey, and I went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. It was kinda fun to see all the “celebrities” and take photos with them. Too bad some did not quite capture the look of the person. For instance, Robert Pattinson is much cuter in any movie or picture I’ve seen him in but that didn’t stop me from getting a photo. Haha.







We met back up with the “secretive” Ryan’s for dinner at Schnippers. They wouldn’t tell us what they did while we were split up. Childish. I had Mac & Joe. It was yummy. I had never seen that combination but plan on making it soon.





We ran to our bus and just made it. That was good or we would have been stuck another hour. The pool was closed when we got back but that didn’t stop #1 from jumping the fence and trying to open the door to let us in. It was locked but he took the opportunity to jump in. Haha. “Rule Breaker”, remember?



After a long conversation it was time for sleep.

~day 2~

Day 2: Monday, August 2nd

I got up at 5:45 in order for Dacey and #2 to shower after me. Lance and #1 showered at night the whole week which helped a lot. We didn’t have any bathroom conflicts at all which is what I was concerned about. That was great! I got up first each day because I didn’t want to feel rushed or anything.

We had continental breakfast each morning as well. It was decent. Scrambled eggs or a cheese omelet, biscuits and gravy, sausage patties or bacon, cereal, yogurt, rolls, muffins, bananas… Some may ask why we decided to stay in NJ. It was cheaper. Way cheaper! Not as convenient obviously but I couldn’t find a hotel in Manhattan that allowed 5 in a room besides being way overpriced.

After getting to NY we headed to Circle Line Cruise for a 3 hour tour around the entire island. The guide was very informative and funny which made the time fly by. I took a ton of pictures but it’s hard to remember what they are all of!



Lance, #1, and I headed to lunch while Dacey and #1 headed to lunch (well we thought so, more on that later) and Bodies Exhibition. We ate at Chevy’s. Overpriced. #1 had so much food left over that I suggested he bag it up and give it to a homeless person after watching a man dig through the trash outside the window. While we were eating there was a situation we couldn’t quite see but at least 11 police officers were there! Wow. We were glad to see so many uniforms throughout the trip. I felt pretty safe throughout but did take precautions. Our original plan was to have at least 2 together at all times. Well #1 went off by himself a few times so we dubbed him ‘Rule Breaker’ aka ‘RB’ which fits perfectly with his name!



On the way to Intrepid: Sea, Air, and Space Museum I spotted a man who looked like he needed a good meal so I waved #1 over to him. He seemed very appreciative. There were quite a few homeless people or people pretending to be homeless. I heard an interview where a guy’s job is pretending he’s a beggar. He brings in about $100k a year just from the streets of NYC! After he’s done for the day he gets picked up in a limo and heads to the casino. True story! Wow. I would never give money to anyone. Food, fine. At least you know they aren’t going to blow that on alcohol.

At Intrepid while waiting in line there was a Jewish family eyeing Lance’s shirt. He wasn’t sure what it said since it was in Hebrew and it had a Star of David on it. He had gotten it at a Christian music festival a few years ago. The dad finally couldn’t contain himself and asked if Lance knew what his shirt said. Lance said no and asked if he knew. The dad said of course he knew but he wasn’t going to tell us. Haha. All we can assume is it said something on the lines of “Jesus is Lord”. We talked with him for a bit and discovered his family was visiting from Israel and his sons didn’t speak English. I’m not sure his wife did either. They were such a sweet family. #1 got to share that our church supports Israel and “planted some seed”. He asked why the dad doesn’t believe the Messiah has come yet. The dad replied there should be total peace when He does arrive and that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve never heard that before. I’m glad he was willing to answer some of our questions. But the dad didn’t want to hear anything about Jesus. We love the same God. We’re family.

We went in a submarine. That was crazy to see how some people live for months at a time. I couldn’t handle it. Way to close for comfort. We also went in a Concorde and saw a bunch of other planes. Lance was in heaven.





We did a bunch of sightseeing while waiting to meet back up with Dacey and #2. We went to the library. Super cool architecture. We just don’t have that here. We walked through Bryant Park. I would have loved to have spent more time there. They had ping pong tables, a little make shift library where many were reading, lots of cute little nooks…We also walked 5th Ave. Lots of hoity toity shops. I stopped at a McDonald’s to try a smoothie.



We finally met back up at the Empire State Building. Poor Dacey. She was starving. They never did stop for lunch and it was past dinner time. They apparently went the wrong direction on the subway and were lost for over an hour. #2 fell asleep so she was left to figure it out herself. The Bodies Exhibition was longer than they anticipated and they were bummed with the information provided. It just wasn’t a good day for them.

After being told misleading information (urgg) we made it to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. What a view! On a clear day I heard you can see 4 states. It was beautiful and I love being high up. For some reason I always feel closer to God. I took lots and lots of pictures!





In the same building we went to the NY Skyride. What an ordeal finding the stupid place! You’d think they would have better signs. While in line lo and behold who do we run into? The Jewish family! We briefly talked. The ride sucked. Very cheesy and not what any of us were expecting. Don’t waste your time or money.

We wanted to make the 10:30 bus so we didn’t have time to stop for dinner. We headed back to the hotel and they ordered a pizza but I wasn’t hungry. We were all just beat and it was only day 2!