NYC with Olive

 We were SO EXCITED for Olive's 12 year old temple trip!

Lots and lots of discussion about where to go for years. She finally decided on NYC, except that temple is closed for renovations. No worries! Instead, we flew into Philadelphia and went to that temple, then took the train the next morning to NYC to experience everything it has to offer!

We flew out on Wednesday, November 12 in the morning. Quick layover in Denver and we were off to Philly! 

Fanciest airport bathrooms in Denver!

We took an uber to our hotel and got changed then got an uber to the Reading (pronounced Redding) Market. It was almost closing time but we snagged two Philly Cheesesteaks just in time! Salty, cheesy and filling! Then we walked over to the temple. 

Small, traumatic incident when a homeless man started gaggling then barfed all over the sidewalk when we were 15 ft. away. Literally heard it splash and were nearly IN the splash zone. Olive screamed (her biggest fear in the world is vomiting) and threw herself into me. We had to wait for the light to change to even get out of the way! Deep breaths, haha.  

The last time we were here was exactly 14 years ago! November 2011. Olive was much more well behaved than Collin was. ;)

Made it to the temple! We were going to put together a dancing video of our trip to a new Taylor Swift song, so we did our first take in front of the temple! 

I really LOVED this temple. There is a beautiful picture of the Founding Fathers in the foyer and little architectural, colonial motifs everywhere. It's a very unique temple. You can feel the history here. A youth group was there for mutual but we slipped in before them so it really didn't take long. A temple presidency member and his wife spoke to the group first, then Olive went in. Travis baptized and confirmed her and then I asked if I could walk around the rest of the temple. It was completely empty and still. I wandered around, peeking in rooms and awwing over the beauty of it. 

There was a simple visitor center next door that we walked through.

Benjamin Franklin and lightening bolts!

Downtown Philadelphia is stunning! We got super yummy ice cream from Van Leewen and walked to to the Capital building. Olive asked, "Is this where the government lives?" Haha.

Love, love, love! I love being in love!

Throwback to our first time here!

We spent the night then woke up and took an Uber to the train terminal. This was exciting! I've never taken a passenger train anywhere except the little Silverton, CO train or the Durango Train that was just a 30 min. jaunt and back. This was a legit, commuter train. If the scaffolding wasn't up, the terminal would have been quite breathtaking!

I can only think of Harry Potter.

Inside was much nicer than I expected! Almost like flying first class. The price of the tickets was also much more than I expected. It's cheaper if you don't go at high demand times. I think we paid a little over $100 each. It took about an hour and a half. 

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip!! It was so beautiful outside with all the fall colors. I felt nostalgic, remembering our time living in this part of the country. And it also made me think of The Office! Scranton, Pennsylvania! I looked out the windows the entire time, entranced by the scenery. It almost felt like traveling through time. I don't know how to describe it, but it was magical to me. 

When we arrived, we dropped our bags at the concierge of our hotel... the Sheraton at Times Square, and headed to get food. I took this picture next to a hot dog cart to send to Weston because he still claims his NYC hot dog was the best hot dog he's ever had!

We weren't sure where to eat but walked past The Stardust and I knew Tap Co was coming here when they do their trip so we went in. This place is where the singers and performers who are trying to land roles on Broadway work. They sing while they wait tables and it was honestly a great time! They were shockingly good. Our waitress sang songs from Wicked and they even used a leaf blower for effects and ended with confetti raining down on us. We were laughing and loving every second! But be warned, the food is terrible. You only go for the performances! 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

A mass was going on as we entered so we found a pew and sang a song with them. It was familiar because it's in our hymn book but their version had different words. Olive wanted to try out the prayer bench and lit a prayer candle. I will never get tired of this place. I could spend hours admiring the intricate mosaics and sculptures.

We thought it would be fun to see inside a fancy shmancy store so we Gucci it was! A salesman immediately glued himself to our sides and I pretended to act interested in this $2,000 purse, as though I was considering it as a Christmas present. As if!

Then I got in trouble in Tiffanys when I tried to take video of the pretend snow fall outside the windows. I guess you can take pictures but not video!

The Plaza hotel from Home Alone 2! 

The first of many cups of hot chocolate!

Biking in Central Park was a core memory. Travis was smart to get the tandem bike or else we probably wouldn't have been able to go as far as we did with Olive. I was dumb and didn't bring gloves so I bought a pair and then I could manage the cold! It really wasn't too bad anyway but I'm a bit a baby with cold.

I was dazzled by the fall colors!!! MY FAVORITE!! I wish I could come here every year in October or November. I loved every moment of this!

Cherry Hill Fountain from the opening credits of FRIENDS! Well, not really. It was filmed in California, but it looks just like it!

Then we biked over to the really famous fountain.. Bethesda Terrace Fountain.

I can't with this picture!! The sun is just right and the colors are perfect. 

The boys were NOT interested in a bridge when we brought them, but Olive was much more obliging! The Gapstow bridge is featured in so many movies like Home Alone 2.

We were hungry so we grabbed a pretzel when leaving the park and it was yucky! Dry and hard and the cheese was cold! 0/10 stars.

The Louis Vuitton building is so cool!!

You must go shopping when in NYC so we had fun in Zara. Definitely not designer but much fancier than we usually buy at home! Most of it would become Christmas presents.

The diamonds on the side of Saks 5th Avenue were crazy!

Olive explained the Jellycat fad when we checked out FAO Schwartz. 

We got dinner at B Side Pizza Bar before walking to Gershwin Theater to see... WICKED!!!! We were so excited to finally see this on Broadway! When Travis and I came when I was pregnant with Collin we were too broke to get tickets to anything so we entered the lottery but didn't get picked. Life is a lot more fun not being poor!

It's a smallish theater so we felt close and it was fun seeing it live after the movie has been such a hit recently. I had a stomach issue right before intermission, but luckily was able to come back for the rest of the show.

Then we walked over to see the glory of Times Square. Bonus to going in the winter is there are no nakey people walking around! The lights and screens amaze me every time. Olive was a bit more hesitant to do our dance with SO many people around, but I thought it was fun. 

We checked out the M&M store and thought we'd get dessert but we were too full still from dinner.

Friday

I had gotten tickets early enough that we got to go to the crown of the Statue of Liberty! 

This was my third time at Lady Liberty and I'm good now. No one take me back here for the rest of my life, haha. 

We rode the ferry over and did our dance out in front of the statue, then walked the narrow staircase to the crown. It was NOT what I expected. So cramped and tiny. It was like being in a submarine but up high. You can barely peer out the window then you need to move and go back down the staircase so the next person can see. 

The view looking down!

We skipped Ellis Island because we learned with the boys that it would be a snooze fest. 

As we walked away from the ferry and up the road, we noticed vans and barricades and a small crowd. I probably would have walked on by, but Travis stopped and we peered through the fence to see John Krasinski!! Jim from The Office! He was filming a scene. Travis thought it was probably from a series called John Wick. I was star struck! I don't know how, but he gets better with time. They finished up so we moved to the entrance of the gate to watch him walk past. Would have been so cool to talk to him but he was definitely in a hurry.

Everyone in line to take a picture with the balls. 

Los Tacos No. 1 might have been the best meal we had all week. 

They just need chairs!

Olive liked the 9/11 Memorial but it made her sad. 

Our legs were tired but we persevered to The Brooklyn Bridge. I kept promising Olive we could do the selfie stand like I did with Weston but there were none! And almost no vendors. We didn't even hear Empire State of Mind blaring from any speakers every 5 feet. I think it might have been too early and they come out later in the afternoon. Bummerrrrr.

Then we walked over to China town and got a sweet treat that hit the spot!

I can't even remember the name of this restaurant. We were just hungry and needed someplace near Rockefeller Plaza and it had good reviews on Google.

Olive can be a model too! We peeked into Bloomingdales and I wish would have had more time! It looked like a cool store.

Another highlight of the trip was ice skating around Rockefeller Plaza. We bought our tickets on the spot and it was so fun to be skating in such an iconic place. The big tree was up but covered in scaffolding because they'll light it in December. Olive and I had fun doing our dance here.

Then we decided to give Serendipity 3 another shot and got frozen hot chocolates before our show. It redeemed itself!!! Mine was SO good! We went to the newer location near the Plaza. Just don't order the mint chip frozen hot chocolate. Olive did and it straight tasted like 30 mint plants had been blended up in it. I couldn't choke it down if you paid me. But they were nice enough to swap it out. 

Time for the Rockettes!!! Even though I LOVED biking in Central Park and ice skating in the Plaza and seeing Wicked on Broadway, this show took the cake!! It was PHENOMENAL. The Rockette's dancing was as perfect as perfect could be. Not a hair out of place. All arms in sync, every leg in line. The costumes, the sets, the choreography! It was all incredible! There was one scene with a fake double decker bus that had real, spinning wheels and the dancers were on both levels and it would turn and spin as they danced inside while the backstage transformed into real life video of driving through NYC. It was so lifelike! They had projections and lights that shone on the ceiling and walls making it feel like you were moving with them. I can't even describe it. It was also really special because it was their 100 year anniversary!! How lucky are we that it worked out for us to be here for that?! It was only an hour and a half... perfect length of time. We were beyond entertained!! I would book a trip to New York JUST to see this show. You weren't supposed to take any pictures or videos but I couldn't help myself. Also thought it was really cool that they had a nativity scene as part of it.

Second traumatic experience of the trip was me getting hit by an electric scooter as we were crossing the street to take this picture. There were too lights close together that were both red so all traffic was stopped inbetween and we were right in the middle of the lights, so instead of walking over to the cross walk, we jaywalked. Then all of a sudden I'm getting hit by an electric scooter. Those courier people fly down the streets so fast on those and neither of us were expecting the other. I didn't fall to the ground and thankfully neither did he but it was a shock to be hit so hard. I'm glad his scooter didn't get damaged and I seemed fine enough, my head just hurt and I was shaky. Lesson learned, even if it seems safe, use the crosswalks! 

There happened to be one of the selfie video stands right there so even though Olive was so scared and sad for me, we did it anyway because I knew she had really been looking forward to it. 

Saturday

Dominque Ansel bakery is worth the stop! The cronuts are soooo good. We tried a few other pastries as well.

Then we walked to the Highline! I've heard so much about this so it was fun to finally do it. It's basically a walking path through part of the city about 2-3 floors up. There's trees and plants all along it and pretty views. 

You could even do some sunbathing... if there was sun!

Olive couldn't help herself and danced along!

From there we dropped down to check out Chelsea Market! Another place I've heard lots about but never been before. Such a pretty, indoor shopping area. All sorts of authentic, diverse restaurants and shops!

I read that this noodle place was the "it" place. They slap and stretch the noodles out on a counter in front of you. Olive LOVED it. But the chopsticks were cumbersome. Not to worry, fingers work too!

Black Seed bagels were highly rated but I waited at least 30-40 minutes in line so I was already annoyed. By the time I got my toasted bagel it wasn't even warm and there was sooo much cream cheese it was overkill.

Shelley told us to get the sugar coated fruit. I had done this for the kids a year or so ago. It's an interesting texture. Like a candied apple but on strawberries. It was expensive though so I'd say just make your own at home!

Grand Central Station!

Shelley also told us we have to get the hot chocolate called No Chewing Allowed. We tracked it down at a Christmas Market in Bryant Park but the line was down the street so I just went in and bought the mix and truffles so we could make it at home. 

I really wanted to go to the top of One Vanderbuilt but we didn't get our tickets early enough and we ran out of time. Sadness!! I was really bummed. It's just so hard to know exactly when you'll be somewhere so I had waited until the afternoon and they were sold out. I should have thought about the fact that Saturdays are also so busy! Luckily, we were able to do the Empire State Building instead and that is such an iconic building, we couldn't be sad about that!

Someday, I want to come back for the Macy's Day Parade!!

Our final stop was Levain bakery. I think we spent $100+ on cookies. COOKIES. But, sigh, they are so good. The double dark chocolate and peanut butter chocolate and walnut chocolate chip! Mmmmm.

We got some Shake Shack before grabbing our bags and heading to the airport. We flew out of Newark and just getting to the airport is an exhausting trip in and of itself. So many subways and air tracks. Sooo grateful our flight was on time and we had a nonstop home.

The rats nest from my hair rubbing against my coat all day!

A Levain cookie on the flight home was a nice treat.

Wednesday morning, Collin got Tanner off to the school bus and it was sweet to see them on the RING camera. I hired our piano teacher, Annie and her husband, Micah to stay at our house Wednesday and Thursday night. They were awesome and I was totally at ease knowing they were there. Then, my mom picked Tanner up after school on Friday and he spent the night at her house with Landon and hung out on Saturday. His football team had a tournament game on Thursday night and they actually WON! Go figure! They've been losing all season and now they finally won. So my mom took him to the next tournament game on Saturday night and they flippin won again. So they waited an hour and had the championship game and lost. My goodness. I felt so bad that my mom and Landon had to be there for all of that but she acted like they had a great time and it was no problem. She got him in bed and we were home around midnight. It's so nice that the older boys could be home alone on Friday night and I had no worries about them getting into trouble. 

So grateful for such a FUN, MEMORABLE trip. We are so lucky and I will treasure this time with Olive and Travis. It was a noticed blessing that all our traveling and tickets and weather and health worked out perfectly. NYC will always be a favorite!