Bakery, Luxury Shopping, & Carrousel Ride in Central Park--NYC Day #7--Tuesday July 16th

 We were getting a bit board of the crowded, slim pickings continental breakfast provided by the hotel (we are grateful for the rareness of that though, it's saved us lots of $$) but we needed something different.  There was a bakery right near the hotel (Bourke Street Bakery) and we went and got croissants--and they had this cool window where we watched them get made.  The pastry getting rolled and folded with butter and then chilled.  It was fascinating!

Then we went "window shopping" down 5th Avenue: Louis Vuitton, Gucci.  Grandpa tried to get grandpa to buy herself something, and she refused and suggested he look at the price tag--just a wallet was way more than he realized.  It was a fun memory!

Abercrombie (where Grandma talked us into getting the girls these jumpsuits that were adorable), the Apple Store, FAO Swartz--where we played on the large piano keys and Lindsey found a panda she begged for...and didn't get, Kate Spade--Melissa has decided she needs a purse soon, the Adidas Store where the boys spent time looking around.

Somewhere in here we had to use the bathroom and found the perfect place to to....

On this day we also spent more time in Central Park we saw Belvedere Castle, a band play, a cool bubble guy do a display, and we rode the carrousel!!

In the evening just the adults went to dinner at Eataly--found it to be crowded and bit crazy, but it was nice to be away from the kids for a night.  

We left early the next morning on a flight home.  We LOVED our trip to NYC and feel so blessed to have done it as a family with Carl and Susan!

Trinity Church, Brooklyn Bridge & Chinatown/Little Italy--NYC Day#6 --Monday 7/15 (Grandma Susan's Birthday)

Monday July 15th was going to be a walking day.  Nothing set as far as scheduled tours or anything, but still had a lot we wanted to see.  AND it was Grandma Susan's birthday and we were excited to spend the day with her!

By now we were getting to be expert on the subway and the kids were enjoying playing a fun hand slap game called "cowboy" and we enjoyed watching them get along so well together.

Our first stop that day was to try and go see the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Wall Street. Sam decided that he wanted STOCKS for his souvenir (such a smart kid!).  At our subway stop as we came up the stairs we noticed we were right at Trinity Church.  This would usually mean nothing to us except the fact that over the months leading up to our trip we'd become huge fans of Lin Manuel Miranda's Broadway show, "Hamilton" and the line from the show, "She's buried in Trinity Church near you...." made us take an immediate detour to go find the grave of Alexander Hamilton.

I looked it up on my phone to see what we were looking for and while there were more than one courtyard with gravestones, we did find it and the kids thought it was TOO TOO cool!

We did then see the NYSE and Wall Street. We walked through Tiffany & Co and dreamed.  

We decided to hit the Brooklyn Bridge and Grimaldi's pizza for lunch--it was incredible!  Grandma McKneely has always been fascinated with bridges so he was really happy to see that.  And the pizza did not disappoint!

Then we hit Little Italy and Chinatown.  The girls all got purses from this one place that sells knock off designer purses.  There was even this back room that some people went back and shopped in all secret hush hush.  The kids enjoyed real gelato on the side of the street.  We Kaitlyn and Matthew got baseball hats as well!

We needed a rest so we stopped in Columbus Park.  Our boys found a basketball court and a ball, and some of us watched the older people play Chinese Chess--it was cool!

 The plan for dinner was to get Chinese food in Chinatown but all the places looked a bit too authentic and the place recommended to us had closed down so we started heading back to the hotel and hit Junior's Cheesecake for dinner and special birthday dessert!

We are LOVING our trip

Lady Liberty & 9/11 Memorial a somber Sabbath--NYC day 5--Sunday July 14th

We watched the news all evening Saturday evening to see if the power would be restored to NYC.  We had to get all the way down to Battery Park first thing in the morning for tickets on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  If the power wasn't restored we weren't quite sure how to get there in time if we had to walk or take a taxi. 

Thankfully power was restored and some of the subways were running by the morning.  But we still hit some hiccups in getting there.  I have a memory of Stephen and I running "Amazing Race Style" to the ticket booths to make sure we were there in the time requested so we didn't miss our ferry.  We did make it!

We got tickets that allowed us to walk around inside the statue to a point but not all the way up.  We spent a bit of time in a museum of sorts that was near where we were dropped off.  We picnic lunched on the island.  We noticed a new museum being built at the other end of the island and wished we had time to go look at that too.  It was a beautiful day!

After the Statue of Liberty, we went on over to Ellis Island.  This was a really cool stop!  An amazing museum that helped us have insight to what the process was like for those arriving here in America.  We "rented" a computer for about an hour to look at passenger arrival lists and were able to find the record of Grandma Susan's grandpa William Stuplich.

Our next stop on a very full day was the 9/11 Museum.  Wow.  The reflection pools outside were beautiful and amazing.

Then we went inside.  It's probably one of the best museums I've ever visited.  They had this great app that downloaded to your phone allowed you to go on a self tour of the museum at your own pace.  And we all went through at our own pace.  We used our phones to share with the younger kids.  I was with Lindsey.  At one point there is this one part of the museum that is within the museum where there are more intense artifacts, recordings of the mayday calls, videos of the people jumping, etc.  

Lindsey started in that area with me but then at some point she looked at me with big eyes and said she needed to leave.  It was overwhelming her and she didn't want to see any more.  So she and I (and Stephen sent Matthew with me too) hung out outside that area for awhile while we waited for the rest to see what they wanted to see.

We actually struck up a conversation with a nice woman named Bridgette who I recognized as a Dallas Temple worker.  She was taking care of her granddaughter while the adults in her group also saw what they wanted to.

Our initial plan was to try and hit the Brooklyn Bridge and pizza at Grimaldi's for dinner but we were exhausted.  These kids had been such troupers!  It had been a full day.  So we hit shake shack close to the hotel and went to bed.

Taking a new perspective and a blackout--Day 4 in NYC--Saturday July 13th

Saturday July 13 in NYC dawned and we headed to the "Top of the Rock" observation desk at the Rockefeller Center.  We watched a cool video and went through some information about the construction of the tall building.  Then we took the elevator to the top.

Sam is NOT a fan of heights and he was SO nervous.  There was an observation area that was indoors and one that was outdoors.  With some coaxing and when he was ready, he did join us outside and even posed for a few pictures.

We are so thrilled to have grandma and grandpa McKneely on this trip with us!  We're making some wonderful memories with them!

After the views from the Top of the Rock we did a bit more sight seeing: Radio City Music Hall, the Rockefeller Plaza, we ate a small lunch at Potbelly's down in the mall.  We also popped into a few stores including the Nintendo store where Sam got a great sweatshirt as a souvenir.

The Lego store was a memorable stop.  Matthew saw this chess set that he really wanted.  We did some quick internet checking and discovered that it was cheaper there in the store than ordering it online, so he got it for his souvenir.  It was an oddly shaped box so it had to be put in a rather large bag which he proudly carried all over town for the rest of the day!

That afternoon we were super stoked to go see a matinee of The Lion King!

It was our Christmas gift from 2018 to have really great seats to see Lion King while in NYC.  It was amazing! The costuming was incredible, the people on stilts walking through the aisles becoming the animals.  The acting and singing was amazing.  Rafiki stole the show!  It was so good.  I've decided I want to come back to NYC someday and just see Broadway shows.

After this show we'd hoped to hit Carmines Italian Restaurant for a good meal.  When Stephen initially went over to check on the wait it was going to be 45 minutes but then at the last minute they said that if we could all be seated right now we would have no wait.  Someone was in the bathroom but we hurried and got seated.  The food was awesome and so was the service.

Kaitlyn is pretty talented with lettering.  

After dinner we decided to hike on over to see Grand Central Station. We stopped at the food court and had some ice cream.

At some point in here Sam realized he'd left his hat at the restaurant so we had to walk back to Carmines in hopes we could recover it.  We were able to recover it, but the restaurant was a zoo.  The power was out and when we arrived the staff was struggling to process payments without internet or power.  Stephen actually went back to the table where we'd sat and sure enough Sam's hat was still there.

This power outage turned out to be a really big deal.  This meant that the subway was out and we'd have to walk 4-5 miles back to the hotel.  It was CRAZY!  Times Square was black.  There were emergency vehicles and personnel all over the city.  People were stuck in elevators.  And there were so many people on the streets.  

Then we started getting messages about the second night of MCO Concerts in Carnegie.  They were eventually cancelled.  As they waited for the power to possibly come on, they began singing in the streets and the videos of that went viral on the internet.  Sadly half of those who came to NYC to have their moment to sing in Carnegie never had that opportunity, but their music was heard by thousands more.

We were grateful that when we arrived at our hotel we found that it did have power.  And we were grateful that we'd had tickets to the matinee show of The Lion King instead of an evening one because it would have been cancelled.

Performing in Carnegie Hall--NYC Day 3--Friday July 12th

Because we'd had a late night and because we knew we'd have another late night we took an easy morning getting ready etc.  We spent the morning walking around Central Park.  

We were a bit stressed with it being concert day, numerous call times and I had to carry my attire with me and trust that Stephen could get the kids back to the hotel and then back to Carnegie in time for their call time.

I thankfully bummed a spot to get ready with my friend Stacey who had a hotel room a block from Carnegie, that really saved me!

Performing in Carnegie was a DREAM!