The Big Apple, day 3

Day 3 started off with a bagel; we paid $6 for The Unicorn at Boxkite Coffee, and it was worth every penny. (In fact, we drank coffee at least twice a day, and no Starbucks for us! Super awesome for me since I gave up coffee 6 weeks ago. It's definitely back in my life after NY.)

One of the first things to happen on day 3 was my metro card stopped working. You know, the one we paid for that should have been good for 7 days. Metro workers were not particularly helpful, but we managed to get where we needed to go. It just wasn't quite as convenient.

We walked in hushed silence through the 9/11 Memorial and cried many tears. Really, it was incredible. We were there with hundreds (maybe thousands) of other tourists, and everyone was  quiet, respectful, emotional. Much-needed tissues were available in many of the viewing rooms.

One piece of hand-painted paper - one for every victim - reflecting the color of the sky on 9/11. To give an idea of size, these pieces of paper are 8.5x11 (the display was enormous - 2,977 victims).

We saw George Washington's pew in St. Paul's Chapel and briefly stepped into mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

While Becky and Liz toured Madison Square Garden, mom and I browsed through Chelsea Market, an enclosed urban food court and shopping mall (by far the busiest and most expensive place we visited). More importantly, we managed the subway without Becky.

We rested in Bryant Park and had waffles and shakes before visiting the NY library. At this point in day 3, our poor feet just needed to be still.

We observed multiple wedding photoshoots. How do you make that happen and how much does it cost?

We browsed 2 of the 10 floors at Saks on Fifth Avenue and giggled at the $3,000 dresses and purses.

We went to the top of the Rockefeller Center right before the rain began to fall. You can see St. Patrick's from this view (the same St. Patricks as mentioned a few paragraphs/pictures above). We had planned this trip to coincide with sunset, but there was no sun!

We had our only major subway mishap on our last evening and spent 60 minutes traveling instead of 20. I'm pretty sure we were headed to Harlem. And then walked 4-5 blocks in the rain and missed supper because of it.

Just a few random notes:

We stayed at the Hepzibah House, an old brownstone established in 1893 that allows ministry leaders to stay at a reduced rate. The downside is our room was 78 steps up on the 5th floor. As in, Becky and I had to carry our luggage up 78 stairs and then climb those stairs every. night. On our last evening, we desperately wanted Tylenol because our legs and bodies hurt so badly from the walking but couldn't bring ourselves to walk down the steps to find any.

Despite staying right next to Central Park, we never made it to Central Park. Becky suggested including it in the schedule but the rest of us newbies decided there was no possible way we could miss it since we stayed so close. Yep, we missed it.

I think our biggest source of laughter came from all of Becky's plans to just "meander" around. We quickly realized that there is no such thing as "meandering" in NYC. There is making a mad dash and walking many, many blocks, but not meandering.

We have planned and talked about this trip for years. I think we're all a little sad at how quickly our time went, but we made some memories that's for sure. It's been fun, even in just the 3 weeks since we've been home, to notice all the NYC sites on TV, books, and movies and to recognize them as somewhere we have visited. We're already planning next year's mom/daughter trip although it might be a trip with significantly less steps. You know, maybe a staycation in Nashville where we can eat our way through the city.