New York, New York

We got up early for our drive into the city from Newark. We stayed in Newark to save money and because I don't think Curt wanted to drive into New York at night. Finding our hotel in Newark was an adventure as the entire state of New Jersey doesn't seem to believe in labeling their freeways in a common sense way. (New Jersey's motto: If you don't live here, get lost.) This is our foggy view of the Lincoln tunnel on our way in. In fact, our entire stay was overcast which was okay since it cut down on the heat.

Curt really didn't want to drive into the city at all. But after checking out all of the options, I realized that was by far the cheapest even after paying $50.oo per night for parking. After I convinced Curt that we (and by we, I mean he), could drive into the city, I found a hotel conveniently located near the tunnel, so we only had to drive a few blocks. I don't know where our van ended up for 2 nights since the hotel took care of it, but I guess it was in something like this:
I think it looks like a large version of the old matchbox toy car parking lots. (We got so used to paying for parking on this trip, that a few weeks later for our anniversary in Park City, we marveled at all of the free parking right downtown in the old part of the city. The $4.00 hamburger at the Olympic Park also seemed to be a good deal.)

Our first stop was to take a cab to get on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. This is Liberty's original torch which is now inside a museum near the statue's base.

Lady Liberty's face up close and personal.
We couldn't get tickets to go into the crown (only 200 or so are allowed in per day), but we went to the top of the pedestal.

We are all laughing in this picture because the total stranger that offered to take our picture lay flat down on the ground to get all of us and the top of the statue in the shot. What a nice thing to do! Notice my hair. Oh the humidity!
We stopped at Ellis Island for a short while. In my previous trips to NY I had wanted to go there, but didn't have the time.
This is the large hall where immigrants were processed. Truly if these walls could talk, we'd hear amazing stories.
We ate at Ellis Island and discovered that anyone can order a child's dinner and the portions and price were actually pretty good. As long as you like chicken nuggets, hot dogs or hamburgers, this was a great option and available at most of the tourist spots which is where we always seemed to be around meal time.
We had to stop and pay homage to Wall Street.
Ground Zero rising.
We saw this ad in the subway, in taxis and in the middle of Times Square. Cool.
I'm sure every tourist in the city was there to see the lights of Times Square. Have to do it once.
We ended our day with a late dinner at Shake Shack. Somehow I thought that Shake Shack was an actual shack, like a street cart or something. Don't know how I came up with that one, but I was surprised to find that it was in an actual building.
Was the food as good as Angie has blogged about? No, not at all; it was even better! That chocolate truffle cookie dough is heaven and the burgers are the best we've ever eaten.
Kevin thought it was so great that he even said, "We HAVE to come back here tomorrow. This is so good I'll even pay for it myself!" High praise from the tightwad. Of course, he meant that he would pay for his meal, not everyone elses. Definitely the highlight of Kevin's NY experience.
We should see if they want to franchise Shake Shake in Utah. We could make it an extended family business and we would all make big bucks!

The next morning, my phone had several frantic messages from Krysta wanting to know if we were up yet. Jack White was signing albums only a few blocks away! If you know who Jack White is, this is thrilling news. But none of the rest of us knew the difference between Jack White, Black, Purple, or Pink, so we weren't so excited. But, since this signing was under the Highline and was on my list of places to visit anyway, we headed out first thing. I couldn't help but think that the value of these apartments increased dramatically when this park was put in. I bet the owners of the apartment with the rainbow flag (yes, that rainbow) were thrilled. For better pictures (even one of this exact building) and a description of the Highline go here.
We waited under the Highline for about an hour and a half before impatience took over. I wondered what we were doing waiting for someone we didn't even know and wasting our meager two days in NYC? Kevin nicely said he would wait with Krysta and the rest of us left for the Rockefeller Center. The plan was for Krysta and Kevin to catch a cab and meet up with us.
Finally, Krysta's wait paid off and the celebrities arrived. Apparently Jack White (Black, Purple, Pink) was collaborating with Steven Colbert on something or other so they were both there. When Steven Colbert saw Krysta clutching her record, he said, "You don't want my autograph," and moved her on to Jack White. He was right. This little autograph encounter was Krysta's NYC highlight.
Krysta and Kevin met up with us a few hours later at the Rockefeller Center.
Even though none of my girls are into dolls anymore (Rachel thinks dolls are scary) we made a quick trip to the American Girl Doll Store. It was so cute to see the the dolls in the salon getting their hair done and the little girls watching their dolls being fixed up. Girls could get their doll's ears pierced also.
Camille poses with Nikki, the same as her American Girl Doll from 2007.

After a crazy cab ride, we all finally made it to one of my main goals. The Met! I have been to NYC twice before and each trip I did not have time to visit. This time (with even less time to spare) I was determined to go there no matter what. After all, one of my favorite childhood books was the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, so I really needed to see this place. We got there in time for lunch, (the $4.00 soup was not so bad) and by the time we ate, we only had about one and a half hours to spare. This place is huge and the possibilities to get lost are endless. We made sure to stick together and walked as fast as we could to see everything. Someday I will go back and spend a whole day (which is still not enough time even if you skip all of the creepy Medieval art).

I loved this painting. The details, especially on the skirt, are so clear that the painting looks like a photograph.
One of my favorite exhibits were rooms decorated with furniture from the different eras in American history. I took absolutely no pictures of this, because by this time, we were walking even faster and really needed to leave.

Curt and Kevin pose by the armor.
After a second dinner at Shake Shack, we hurried to get ready and see War Horse which was playing at the Lincoln Center. One of our local radio shows was covering the Tony's and the reporter said that this was the play she liked the best. Curt went through 3 separate brokers to get tickets and then crossed his fingers hoping that the tickets were delivered before we left. They all showed up about two days before we got on the plane. The play is based on a children's book and used big puppets as the horses. The actors even rode on them. It sounds like it might look corny, but it was really well done and you forgot that puppeteers were controlling the horses. Think along the lines of Lion King if you've seen that play.
Steven Spielberg is directing the movie War Horse which is coming out in December. We all really enjoyed the play (even those in our family who really aren't into plays) and hope the movie is as good.

Our second morning, after a foggy farewell to the city from the top of the Empire State Building, we headed back over to New Jersey for the highlight of the NYC area for Erin, Camille and Rachel--Cake Boss!