I have come to learn as a parent that the best gifts I can give my children are experiences and memories. Sometimes that involves very little time and money; others, it involves more of both - regardless, they always win and so do I!
For our daughter's high school graduation gift, my guy and I decided to take our girlie on a trip to New York City. She had never been before and we knew that it would be one of those great opportunities to make some fabulous memories with her. We, of course, were not disappointed.
Let me start by saying that our oldest-one-of-three has the least inhibitions. In other words, she is not shy, not in the least. We began our by driving from my in-laws' house in Pennsylvania with a stop to pick a dear friend of Audrey's in New Jersey. From there we took the train into New York City!
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| The two Audrey's - prep for NYC trip and our train car... I can't resist images with linear features. :-) |
Upon arrival, we navigated our bags through Penn Station and up to the street to catch a cab to the hotel and her first words were, "Wow, it's exactly as I imagined it would be"! Her first cab experience started her official time in NYC. Remember that no inhibitions trait... She quickly hopped into the front seat with the cabbie, turned to him and said, "So... how's your day going? Are you having a good day?" I think she caught him off guard and I got the impression his English was limited. She wasn't deterred. She turned to him again and said, "What's your favorite thing to do in the city?" His response, "Drive a car." She looked at him for a brief second and said, "Okay... well good." And them simply danced in her seat to the song blaring from the van beside us. Memories in the making!
After a quick stop at the hotel and prepping for Broadway, we were off to see a show. Wicked!!
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| Gershwin Theatre - her first Broadway show! My guy wasn't quite as excited about her Broadway pick as the rest of us were! |
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| Elizabeth and Audrey - like night and day but great friends none the less! (Yes, her hair is blue on the ends...) :-/ |
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| My girlie and me! |
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| Times Square Panoramic |
After the show was a quick tour of Times Square - lights, lights, and more lights! A change into more walkable shoes and clothes, a stroll down 5th Avenue and a stop for 11:30 PM chicken nuggets at the NYC Chick-fil-a wrapped up our evening!
The next morning started early with a subway ride to Central Park.
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| Panoramic of Central Park from the top of Belvedere Castle |
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| Belvedere Castle |
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| Upper East side on the left and Upper West side on the right. |
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| Audrey and Elizabeth with the Upper West side in the background |
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| My girlie with her Audrey Hepburn glasses look... |
We strolled through the park and made a stop at Belvedere Castle which gave us some nice views and photo ops. The word "belvedere" actually means panoramic view in Italian. The castle is now an official weather station and is built at the highest elevation point in the park. It's been in numerous movies and TV shows and even mentioned in several books. Making memories...
Then we were off to visit the American Museum of Natural History (the "set" of the movie Night at the Museum).
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| Life size model of Blue Whale |
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| Audrey and Elizabeth in front of the giant Redwood Tree display. |
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| Left - Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and dinosaur display - both equally impressive! Right - Audrey and me taking pics while Dad reads the history! This section of Redwood Tree was taken from a tree that was estimated to have begun growing around 550 AD and cut down in 1891, taking two men 13 days with axes. The tree was 331 feet tall and 90 feet around the base. It contains 1342 annual rings and this section measures 16 feet 5 inches wide! Absolutely amazing! |
Audrey wanted to focus her time in the museum on the astronomy parts of the museum so we visited the planetarium and the cosmic pathways section. We found out there that we would all weigh several thousand pounds on the sun so I was eager to move along! We also spent some time in the Ocean Life room and really gained some perspective on how large a whale actually is from the life size model of a blue whale! Huge, people - it's HUGE! My favorite part of the tour was the section with all the gems! Beautiful stones and minerals! Making memories...
Our next stop was lunch and then on to shopping on 5th Avenue, well mainly shopping at Tiffany's was her goal!
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| Audrey receiving surprise letter and then at customer service for pick up! |
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| Outside the Tiffany's store in NYC |
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| This one speaks for itself! |
We found a quick stop for lunch where my girlie received a letter stating that her sweet friend Elizabeth has a surprise waiting for her at Tiffany's!!! Any girls dream, right? So we finished lunch and headed in the direction of 5th Avenue! We of course had to replicate the Audrey Hepburn photo of her looking into Tiffany's from outside the store window and then it was inside to see all of the gorgeous pieces! I want to compliment Tiffany's customer service. I have only been in this store twice but I must say that the employees here treat every single person as if they are buying the most expensive item in the store. It is TOP notch! We first went to the the 6th floor for customer service where Audrey picked up her surprise - a beautiful beaded bracelet with the Tiffany engraved heart! We then visit the other floors just to look and my girlie had budgeted some of her summer big girl job (CNA at a senior living facility) money to make herself a purchase. Her quote, "I wiped a lot of adult butts to be able to make this adult purchase!" Yep - no inhibitions! Making memories...
A stroll down 5th Avenue, a few shopping stops more, and another subway ride landed us at the lower end of Manhattan. The 9/11 Memorial was on her list to see.
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| 5th Avenue |
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| St. Paul's Chapel - "The Little Chapel that Stood" A place of prayer for George Washington. A place of stamina during trial. A place of respite in a time of need. |
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| One of the two reflecting pools at the memorial site. Both are in the footprints of the former Twin Towers. Both have the "void" in the middle of the pool symbolizing the loss never to be forgotten. Between the two, each name of those whose lives were taken because of this act of terror are inscribed around the pools. |
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| One World Trade A single building erected just beside the site of the former Twin Towers. It is is bit taller than the towers were - 1776 feet to be exact, representing the year America claimed its freedom. To me, it says, America was down, but it was not defeated! Never forget... |
My Doodlebug was only three years old when the Twin Towers were terrorized and life as we knew it changed. And while she doesn't remember anything about that horrendous day, her incredibly strong sense of pride in her country called America gives her the ability to feel the magnitude of that day. She somberly rubbed her hand along the names lining the reflective pool. She wanted to hear the details of that day, imagine the chaos and debris and terror, see the small, unscathed church where tired firemen slept, and the single surviving tree that was nursed back to health and replanted at the memorial. This is part of her life history. Making memories...
Our final stop of the NYC tour was to reach Battery Park and see Lady Liberty standing in the harbor.
It was an appropriate ending to our whirlwind tour. The calm and peacefulness of the water. The breeze off of the water. Lady Liberty standing tall after we just left a somber site. The time of day with the sun getting lower in the sky... it all just worked. Yes, we were tired, but it was a good tired. Making memories...
We took our sweaty, tired selves to the nearest sweaty subway station and headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags.
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| Beautiful Art Deco staircase in our hotel. |
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| Taxi Entertainment |
As we said goodbye to NYC, we (Elizabeth, my Guy and I) were once again treated by my girlie's enthusiasm for life! Her conversation with this cabbie was the best.
Questions asked by our daughter:
So, how's your day been?
Ooooh, this cab driver over here is giving you the eye! Do you guys every get into fights?
Or are you all just friends and go for drinks after your shift?
Have you ever been rear ended?
"What?"
Have you ever been rear ended?
"What?"
Have your ever been hit in the back of your cab by another car?
And the perfect ending right in front of Penn Station:
My Daughter: Whoooooooa! You almost honked at that person!
Cabbie: You want to honk the horn?
My Daughter: Yes!!! Really? Can I?
Cabbie: Sure.
HONK
My Daughter: I'm honking at New York City!!!!
Cabbie: You want to do it again?
My Daughter: YES!
HONK!
My Daughter: Wildly giggling!
Cabbie: Laughing out loud...
I think she made his day! I know she sure made my mine!! Making memories...
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