New York, New York

Today was our trip to New York City. I love the city. I have only been once before, when I was 12, so I was excited about going again so that I could actually remember things this time. Unfortunately... we only had one day to spend in the city instead of a solid week like we did when I was 12. The main attractions were the Empire State Building and the American Natural History Museum. We tried really hard to see the 9/11 memorial but you had to reserve a place in line, and we did not know that until we got to the museum, so we didn't get a chance to see it. The Natural history museum was wonderful for me; I love museums. My brother had a headache and there were a ton of junior high school groups there that were very noisy, so I'm sure that didn't help him. He enjoyed the Deep Sea exhibit and the African Wild Game exhibit. I think my favorites were the Origin of the Human and the Space/Astronomy exhibits. We got lucky at the Empire State building and happened to miss most of the crowds (we saw huge lines coming in as we were leaving). The elevator took you to the 80th floor. After that you could choose to walk up the stairs for the remaining six floors, or wait twenty minutes for the next elevator. We chose to take the stairs to save time. I definitely realized how out of shape I am because of that! Well worth it though; the view was amazing. After those visits, which took most of the day, we just wandered the city. We walked about twelve blocks to the huge Lego store for my brother, and ate hot dogs from the street vendors like true tourists. We walked through Central Park a bit, which was a vast difference than that of the city. We also accidentally made our way to Times Square. By the time we got to the square it was starting to get dark, so all of the street signs and advertisements were lit up. It was neat.