A Day in New York and Then Home

Our hotel in New York

The Wonderful Beds

Roses and Chocolate from Guess Who

This sculpture once stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center. It now resides in Battery Park with an eternal flame in memory of those who lost their lives in the Trade Center Attack

The Statue of Liberty from Battery Park

My favorite place to buy muffins in the Union Square Market

Deanna's beautiful hot chocolate

Suckao

Syringes filled with chocolate for that desperate moment

The Chrysler Building

Rockefeller Center

Tons of Yellow Cabs

Central Park

Bow Bridge...Central Park

Bethesda Fountain...Central Park

Times Square

We arrived in New York City at JFK airport in the early afternoon. It took over an hour to get our bags. Once we had everything we caught a yellow taxi to our hotel, The Hampton Inn Manhattan-Times Square North. Our very thoughtful husbands welcomed us to our room with red roses and Godiva chocolate. Our hotel was not much to look at on the outside, but we thought it was in a perfect location, we each had our own comfy bed, and it was air conditioned!! By the time we got settled in our room, talked to our husbands, and rested a little, it was time for supper. We wandered outside of the hotel and ended up eating at a diner across the street. We were so tired that I'm not sure we even tasted our food, but it felt good to eat again in America and see words in English everywhere. We tried our best to stay awake to reset our internal clocks, but Deanna gave it up before I did. Because she fell asleep so early, Deanna woke up at 4 a.m. She was nice enough to let me sleep until 7, but she was itching to get out and do something. After breakfast we set out on a whirlwind tour of New York City. The first stop was the World Trade Center site. Construction had begun on the memorial plaza, but we couldn't see much of anything else because of the fences. We went into St. Paul's Chapel and looked at the memorabilia there concerning the rescue effort during the 9-11 attack. St. Paul's was a place of respite for the rescue workers during the early days following the attack. The second stop was Battery Park for a peek at the Statue of Liberty. The line to ride the boat out to it was very very long so we just looked at her from the park. We were getting hungry and knew exactly where we wanted to eat...Max Brenner,Chocolate by the Bald Man near Union Square! We rode the subway to Union Square and before eating, wandered through the outdoor market. I purchased a muffin for later from my favorite vendor there. The restaurant is off of a side street and when we entered the restaurant the heavenly scent of chocolate filled the air. We are positive that they pipe it into the doorway! Deanna ordered a pizza and I ate these wonderful rolled up chicken bites. The highlight was dessert of course. Deanna ordered hot chocolate in a hug mug. I ordered something called suckao. It's a little bowl of steamed milk on top of a candle heated pot that is served with a bowl of chopped chocolate. I mixed and melted the chopped chocolate into the milk and then sipped it through a straw type spoon. It was really neat. Then I ordered a lava cake filled with chocolate and caramel. It was also served with a mini chocolate frozen drink. Deanna shared it with me, thank goodness. After lunch, we walked by St. Thomas Church, popping in only to take a quick peek and then walked through Rockefeller Center. From there, we walked back to our hotel, taking note of where our theater was for our evening performance of Mama Mia. We were delighted to see that the theater was only a block around the corner from the hotel. We stopped in at the hotel to drop off our purchases from the morning and went right back out to the subway to go uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Somehow we managed to enter from the subway with a school group and noone stopped us to pay the $16.00 entry fee. We didn't realize it until we had been in for awhile and never saw a ticket counter. We whizzed through the museum in about 1 1/2 hours. After exiting the museum, we went across the street and walked through Central Park, walking past the Bow Bridge to Bethesda Fountain. We made our way back to the subway and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and the theater. Dinner was a couple of doors down from the hotel at an Italian restaurant. It was pretty good and fast. We were still a little stuffed from lunch. The highlight of the evening was Mama Mia. It's a broadway show based on the music of Abba. It was absolutely hysterical and wonderful all at the same time. I had to punch Deanna twice to make her stop singing. After Mama Mia, we walked a few blocks to stand in Times Square and then walked back to the hotel. We packed up for the last time and went to bed early. Tomorrow is home and the sweet faces of our family who we have missed so much.