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NYC 2015

As an 8th grade graduation gift to Rylie (and an excuse to take a trip), we decided we would do a girls trip to NYC for a few days.  When my friend Jeanne found out she decided that would make a great 18th birthday trip for her daughter, Kayla.  Due to school and timing we decided to plan our trip over fall break, (October 2015).  

 Our trip didn't start out too great.  On our way there, they had to divert us the Philadelphia because of weather.  We sat in Philly for about 2 hours before we were off to Newark. Once we arrived... very late, I had a car waiting to take us to our hotel.  The Intercontinental in Times Square (thanks to Jeanne's husband Jeff, for letting us use his miles).  Once we got settled in, we immediately went to find a pizza place.  Jeanne and I share a love of pizza!  We went into the first place we saw.  After about 15 minutes there, in walked in Sasha Pieterse, an actress from Pretty Little Liars, one of Rylie's favorite shows. She was completely star struck, but went and asked her for a picture and Sasha was very nice and obliged. We enjoyed our pizza then walked around Times Square for a bit before making our way back to our hotel.  Mainly thanks to Jeanne, because I have NO sense of direction! 




The next morning we woke up early and had breakfast at Carlo's Bakery.  We then bought tickets for the Hop on Hop off bus and decided to take the bus down to lower Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Memorial. We got to see some iconic building on the way there.  Once we got to the Memorial we had to to wait a couple hours because it was packed. While we waited we decided to walk to the Wall Street bull for a photo op.  We walked back to ground zero to visit the memorial and wow.  It's crazy to think that Rylie was just a couple months old when the 9/11 attacks happened. 

 






After a quick lunch at the Seaport where we bought our show tickets for that night, we then boarded a boat to get a better glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.  After that we braved the subway to quickly get back to Times Square to catch the play Matilda. 







The next day we go up and headed for breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Dinner.  When we got there the line was long, but the lady working the front door told us it will go pretty quickly.  It did and we had a table before we knew it listening to the servers belt out show tunes.  
 

The rest of the day we visited may attractions including, Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station and the whisper wall, Little Italy, China Town, Radio City Music Hall, The High Line and Madame Tussaud's wax museum.  We at lunch (pizza duh!) at Lombardi's Restaurant.












 The next day we rented bikes and rode around Central Park and the Museum of Natural History.  After our strenuous ride through Central Park we were pooped and hopped in a taxi for Serendipity for dinner and the Frozen Hot Chocolate. 

Jeanne chasing after Stanley Tucci in Central Park








 We had a great time and a lot of pizza! 



Location: New York, NY, USA

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