NYC. . .Part 1

Here's part 1 of our New York experience. . .pictures and part 2 to come soon!
Thursday, February 26--Saw Brooke off early in the morning--she had to be at school at 5am to get on a bus to LAX. Her flight left around 8am and she got in to Newark, NJ at about 5pm local time. She was scheduled to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, but we haven't had a chance to talk to her about that yet. The rest of us spent all day traveling, too, just a little more round-about--Long Beach to Salt Lake to JFK. Both flights were uneventful and enjoyable. Dallin, John, and Noah experienced their first flight ever, and thought it was really cool. Our shuttle driver from the airport to the hotel was a hoot! He had us all in stitches imitating Valley Girl, southern, and Hispanic accents from people he's driven over the years. Our hotel in midtown Manhattan is even better than I imagined--we got an amazing deal and we have so much room! I should have known it would be wonderful, though--my friend who recommended it to us has impeccable taste--thanks Nicole! It took us awhile to settle down and settle in, so we slept in a little on
Friday, February 27--We walked to the Rockefeller Center and were going to ice skate, but decided to wait until Monday--it's a lot less expensive to do it in the middle of the day. (We may regret that decision, as it's supposed to be snowing and 26* tomorrow.) We found a quirky deli just around the corner from our hotel, and had lunch there. Yummy! We took the Downtown bus tour, and saw all kinds of cool places--the garment district, Times Square, Greenwich Village, Soho (which stands for South of Houston-prounounced House-ton, NOT Hyoo-ston, at least here in NYC-Street), Tribeca, Little Italy, the Financial disctict, the World Trade Center site, and bits of Chinatown. Of course, in these areas we saw famous buildings like the Empire State, Chrysler, and Flatiron. And cool bridges like the Brooklyn and Manhattan. After freshening up, we took the subway to Astor Place Theatre to see this. We all, like totally loved it (to borrow a Valley Girl phrase-thanks, Mr. Shuttle Driver). Brooke went to see this. I think we all had an unforgettable experience. We were hungry after the show, so we decided to get some pizza here. EXCELLENT NY style pizza.
Saturday, February 28--Mr. Comedy (a.k.a. the Shuttle Driver) told us that we could find a five-story Toys R Us in Times Square, which we happened to catch a glipse of on the bus tour, and which the boys begged us to return to at some point during our stay. So, since we didn't really have any plans until 3pm, we decided to head that direction. Jared and Noah were not disappointed--we found a huge area dedicated to their favorite toy--Legos. We were all wowed by the huge Statue of Liberty, Empire State (complete with King Kong) and Chrysler buildings made of Legos, as well as Star Wars characters. Very fun! In the middle of the store is a ferris wheel with various toys used for the cars--a Little Tykes car, for example. Of course, it's a little bigger than the original version. After spending a couple of hours in the store, we headed out for some lunch from a hot dog vendor. Now, from all the great things I've heard about New York hot dogs, I was expecting the best hot dog EVER. Wasn't. We chose unwisely. It was a hot dog. Period. Oh well. Anyone got any better ideas for where to get the best NYC hotdog? Next, we headed back to Rockefeller Center to do the Top of the Rock tour. Breathtaking views, and we got to see Brooke for about 10 minutes, too.