NYC Day 3!

Day 3 of our trip and we all decided to enjoy sleep instead of getting up really early to go to the beginning of the Today Show.  We got all of our stuff ready so we could check out of the hotel before we left and then headed out for our last day. As we were walking to the Today Show, there was a choir in front of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree singing Christmas Carols. It was a lot less packed than when we were there on Saturday.

We got there during the 9am hour of the Today Show and only could see Dylan Dreyer doing the weather.

I was able to see Shaquille O'Neal as well. 

We left the Today Show to head to our tour. Here is a view of Times Square as we were walking there.

We did a TV and Movie tour and they would show us a clip from the TV or Movie scene that happened in NYC and then we would drive by it. We were able to get out at some places for photos

I had a picture of The Plaza Hotel yesterday but we went by it again because it's been in many movies

Trump building in the area where the movie When in Rome had some scenes

We then went to the Washington Square Park arch. There was definitely an interesting NY sighting while we were there that we won't forget. The arch is on the NYU campus and there was some college student altercation that we won't forget. 

Once we got over that, it was time to take a picture

One of my favorites of us in NYC

Freedom tower from the park

Empire State Building from the park

This fire station was on Ghostbusters and where Will Smith is at the beginning of Hitch

And we then made it to the Friends apartment building

This pub is the inspiration for the pub in How I Met Your Mother

We finished the tour there. We saw many other places but these are the only ones I took pictures of. The tour was a couple of hours and was a lot of fun! I'm so glad we did it!

I took a picture of the St Regis as we passed by because it looked really pretty with the decorations

And then, it was time to bid NYC farewell and head home.

My first time to NYC was so amazing and visiting at Christmastime made it that much more magical! I'm so grateful I got to experience it all with my wonderful friends! I'm so thankful to do life with them and their families and to share these once in a lifetime moments with them! 

Alright friends, where are we going next? :)

NYC Day 2!

 After a fun-filled first day of being in NYC, we headed out for Day 2!  Our first stop on the our agenda was Central Park. On our way, we passed the Plaza Hotel that you've seen many times in movies. It was so neat to walk by it and then we made our way to Central Park.

I decided to go for a run while in the Park - jk - this place is where Phoebe ran with Rachel in the episode of Friends when Rachel is embarrassed how Phoebe runs with her arms flying in the air. I decided to recreate that moment and embarrass my friends :) - We had a good laugh

It was such a pretty day to see it all - sun was shining and the weather was perfect. Love this picture we took at the Park.

Side note:  you never know what kind of picture you are going to get when you ask someone to take a picture. This lady got it - she got us and the scenery. We had a couple of people that would just take a picture of our faces so we knew going forward we had to ask for a picture of us and the area we were at - haha - lesson learned!

We headed to the ice skating rink so we could get our skates and get on the ice

We got our skates on and while they all headed out like pros, I was holding on to the side hoping I wouldn't fall - lol - truth! Ice skating is not my forte for sure. I finally got the courage and ventured out with everyone else. All the little kids were just passing me by like it was no big deal. Even still, I was smiling and laughing and having the best time!

Apparently, you aren't supposed to take selfies and skate because it's a safety hazard as the security person told us :)

Here is some video of everyone skating and you see Lyndsey and Melody skating by

I finally got the hang of it and started going. Right when I was in a good stride, my skate hit a clump of ice and down to my knees I went - haha! So much for my dreams of ice skating in the Olympics!

We had a blast!

I took this picture as we left Central Park. It really was so beautiful!

As we were walking to our next destination, we saw the LOVE sign so we had to stop for a picture. I really do love this photo and the ladies in it!

Our next stop was Bar Americain for Brunch. This is Bobby Flay's restaurant and we were all looking forward to the good food!

Side order of Bacon - Yes!

Brettni and I has Shrimp and Grits. Simply Delicious. It was all gone not long after this photo

After getting our food fuel, we decided to take the Subway.

Our adventures in getting on the Subway are hysterical especially with us all trying to use our Metro Card to get to the subway train. The lady working there was yelling at us over the microphone to tell use to run our card through fast and then go. We finally all got it and had the best laugh.

Selfie on the Subway. These New Yorkers could tell we were tourists for sure! 

These signs were on the trains and cracked us up

But that didn't stop our Subway entertainment from still performing. This man came on and gave us this pretty neat routine. You never know what you are going to see!

We got off the Subway and headed to the 9/11 Memorial. As you are walking to the memorial, the new Freedom Tower is standing tall and the sun is reflecting off the top. They are also still construction new structures including this white structure that is to represent dove wings.

I knew this would be a somber place to visit. It was so sad to see all the names of all the people on the memorial that lost their lives on 9/11. It's been 14 years but I can still remember everything about  that day. The memorial is a very nice tribute and very peaceful with the water display.

Looking at the Freedom Tower from the memorial

This bell is not too far from the memorial and is at St. Paul's Chapel. When the towers fell, most everything around it was destroyed but this chapel survived and nothing happened to it: no window was broken, the church stayed in tact while everything else around it was impacted in some way.

After the memorial, we headed to the MET and on our way, we saw some really nice brownstone houses.

We got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and got to see a lot of awesome art!

Lyndsey and Joy were great tour guides and gave us information on what we were looking at. They had some Van Gogh and Monet paintings that were so cool to see!

After the MET, we went to Bryant Park which was having a Christmas market. 

We headed back to the hotel but stopped by Grand Central Station that was close

We then got all dressed up to head out to dinner on the town!

We had dinner reservations at TAO

Inside of TAO

I enjoyed some very delicious sushi and tempura garlic green beans! Yummy!

And that was the end of our awesome Day 2!