DC, NYC, AC, Philly Trip! (2 of 3)

Day 3 and 4 of our trip was in New York City.  Oh, how I love that place!

We started out by doing a session at the Manhattan Temple.  The best time for us was the 9:30 am session, and when we got there we were surprised to learn that the 9:30 session is in Spanish!  Ha!  That's OK though, they had headphones for us dubbed in English.  It's kind of wild to see a temple smack in the middle of a busy busy street full of sky scrapers.  Pretty neat though.

After the temple we walked through Central Park and then had pizza for lunch--yummy New York pizza!  Mmmm.  We saw a few quick sights (Radio City Music Hall & Rockefeller Center) and then headed to the theatre for a Broadway show.  We saw "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder."  It was really good.  One actor played eight different roles and he was amazing.

 After the show we went over to Times Square.  I love the energy in the city and nowhere else is it as electric (literally and figuratively) as Times Square.  Bryan doesn't really care for the crowds, the noise, the smells, all that stuff that goes along with a super busy city but I really, really love it!  Granted, I would not want to live there (for too long anyway) but for a quick vacation I just think it's so exciting!

 Next, we went down to the 9/11 Memorial.  We did not go into the museum because, again, we had to be choosy about what we did and saw in only 2 days.  I would love to go again sometime and see inside the museum, but we enjoyed walking around Ground Zero and seeing the beautiful memorial there.  The waterfalls are built on the foundations of the twin towers, with the names of those who died engraved all around the edges.

 We also walked out to the water's edge to see the Statue of Liberty.  Bryan and I have each been out to see her up close on previous trips, so this time we just snapped photos from afar.  And, as you can see in the photos, the weather suddenly turned bad.  Super windy and rainy all of a sudden, so we bailed and went to dinner.

 The next day we went back into the city for another great day of being tourists.  We saw the Empire State Building...

 ...The Flatiron Building...

and then took a super long walk down the island.  We didn't have anywhere that we had to be and frankly it was just nice to walk down Broadway and enjoy each other's company!  We went back to the World Trade Center...

 ...then over to Wall Street and Federal Hall where George Washington took the oath of office.

We ended up taking the subway back uptown because we were tired from walking (another half marathon that day!)  I wanted to get souvenirs for the kids and suggested we go to FAO Schwartz.  I thought Bryan would want to get in and get out because he doesn't really care for shopping at all, but he loved it in there!  He wished we had more time to look around.  It really is a cool store.  (Here's Bryan by the Lego Skylander Swash Buckler.)

 I wanted to go to Serendipity 3 for their famous "Frozen Hot Chocolate" which we had seen on a food show (on Food Network?  Travel Channel?  I don't remember, but I just remember that it was something "everyone should do while in Manhattan."  They also have a dessert there that is a thousand dollars.  Seriously, it has flecks of gold in it.  Crazy!)  So here we are with our frozen hot chocolates... (and they truly were delicious!)

 ...but then... I looked up as the host seated a group right behind us.  I glanced up at the woman and kind of thought she looked familiar but didn't really think twice about it.  But behind her, in walked Steven Spielberg and I realized it was Kate Capshaw!  Aaaah!  I was super giddy because I thought it was so cool!  He faced the wall so we couldn't get a great picture but it was awesome.  I had a billionaire a foot away from me!

  He actually got up and took his grandson (I assume) to the bathroom, so I told Bryan I had to figure out a way to snap his picture without being totally obnoxious.  When he came back up I pretended I was taking a picture of Bryan across the table from me, but I tried to angle it toward Steven (Mr. Spielberg??) instead.  I was somewhat successful with the picture.  I tell ya,  I couldn't stop smiling.  Why was it such a big deal for me?  I don't know; he's just a person.  But I was starstruck for sure.

We left on that happy note and then drove to Atlantic City! :)