Some things we've been up to

I'm going to call this good for our entire trip here :) and just let the pictures tell what we've been doing. It's extreme opposite of the last post I did with no pictures and a long list of things we've done. Just pretend I'm a legit blogger and I put them all in one post and it's really cool ;). These aren't really in order I just thought they were fun pictures that show what we've been up to.

Battery Park: the globe that used to be in the world trade center plaza is in the background as well as the new world trade center, the tallest bluish building.

Awesome cemetery in Brooklyn which was huge and the coolest cemetery I've ever seen. It had several famous people buried there like Boss Tweed. I'm a history nerd, I think stuff like that is cool while everyone else is probably saying who the heck is Boss Tweed.

Zoo trip

I wish I could have gotten this gorrilla sticking his tongue out. Every time someone would come up to look at them he would stick his tongue out

Love Madame Alexander at FAO Schwarz

Lego Jack at FAO Schwarz

Pond in Central Park where they do all the boat races

Random tall ship we found while wandering around

on the tram to Roosevelt Island

I went to Hoboken NJ for no other reason than I could. While there I saw the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, the cake boss site, awesome playground and pier walk, great views of the city, the first official baseball game site, and pretty houses and streets, it was surprisingly a lot of fun.

Hamilton Mansion

Anniversary celebration at Radio City Music Hall seeing Cirque Du Soleil's Zarkana. It was a ton of fun

Red Panda from the Bronx Zoo, my favorite zoo animal, well close race with polar bear I just couldn't get a good picture

Coney Island

View of the City from Brooklyn

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Princess Castle at the Disney Store in Times Square

Belvedere Castle in Central Park

Roller Blading in Central Park

Grove apartments which was part of my walking tour. These were once servants quarters

Michelle visits and we had Hot and Crusty Bagels which were super yummy

911 Memorial

Grimaldis pizzeria

Brooklyn Promenade

I just thought this picture was cute :)

We rode the Central Park carousel

Super amazing fancy lunch we got lucky to get

Coney Island again.
That's just a few pictures that show the fun stuff we've been doing. That being said we are so so so ready to come home :)

Momma comes to visit

Last week my mom came to visit for 10 days (8 full days 2 half flying days) She got in late Wednesday night due to crappy flight delays so even though she payed extra to get in early that day it did not work out. We did a lot of things I had already done but we also got to do a few things I (and Brandon for some of it on the night and weekends) hadn't seen yet.

We saw Alexander Hamilton's grave and the historical sites of the Financial District

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was way better than I expected it to be, I sort of envisioned walking around for hours staring at endless pieces of art but As you can see it was lots of artifacts, furniture, musical instruments, artwork, statues, carvings and much more. It was also absolutely huge! we spent about 5 hours there and we missed an entire wing plus we hurried through the rest of it. I think you could spend the entire 5 hours in one exhibit. They had Egyptian, Asian, American, European, Island art/artifacts and that's not even half of it.

We had a visit from my cousins and we went to Coney Island where the Kiddies took a few rides and we all had a blast watching them. We went to Toys R Us in times square which isn't as fun as comparable stores like FAO Schwarz or the Disney store but it was still fun, just busy and a little overwhelming. After that we got some dinner and some yummy cheesecake and walked up to Central Park to enjoy some outdoor and treat time. We are glad they have free flights and were able to join us for a day in the big city.

This is when we went to the statue of liberty and Ellis Island

I really enjoyed the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It always seems like you can get a good enough view because you can see it all over the city but there's really nothing like getting right up next to it. Ellis Island was super cool but by the time we were done we were exhausted because like everything else in this city it's HUGE

We went to Economy Candy, this picture doesn't do it justice because it is floor to ceiling candy. Imagine the background of this picture but an entire store of it where you can barely move because it's so full of candy. As you may have guessed this trip with my mom was all about treats. We spent about 20 bucks on candy here and then proceeded to the Italian pastry store in little Italy where we spent another 20 bucks on amazing pastries. Economy candy is fun because it's not a tourist destination so the candy is decently priced unlike the candy sections of FAO Schwarz and Toys R Us etc.

holding our loot

we saw the narrowest house in NYC. Look closely and you'll see in between the white door and the brown one a small black door which starts the narrowest house and then follow it up and you can see the edges. I found this in a book (thanks Michelle) which has self guided walking tours that I've loved going on because its all about history and the sights of NY you would only have time to see if you have two months with nothing to do but see NYC.

we did the big piano at FAO Schwarz

 We visited Dylan's candy Bar which is a giant candy store much like the stores you would find in Times Square but its not in Times Square. It's all about the decorations and overly priced candy. It had soda fountain and ice cream shop upstairs with these cool cupcake booths

I love the game Cut the Rope and found this giant stuffed Om Nom. Knowing my love for stuffed animals I thought it best to just get a picture so I didn't have to spend a mint on this guy.

We went to the Bronx Zoo and saw these weird warthog guys. This zoo trip wasn't as fun as when I went the first time because it was much more crowded and took forever. We couldn't even see some of the animals because it was so crowded. Kind of a bummer but I love zoo's so much it didn't really matter :)

We rode the bug carousel (my mom hates grasshoppers hence the face)

We saw Grant's tomb in Harlem and went to the Hamilton Mansion which is the home of Alexander Hamilton (Brandon and I checked it out earlier and I thought my mom would love it so we went back)

Lastly we went to Grimaldis and ate pizza and went to the Brooklyn Promenade which offers this awesome view of the city.

We did lots of other stuff too and ran ourselves ragged running all over the City. Now if I could just post the pictures from Michelle's visit and the rest of our pictures I'd be sitting pretty, alas I tend to be lazy so it might not happen. I think I might have the gumption to do one more post with things Brandon and I have been doing.