New York City

At the Begging of April I was able to take a quick trip to New York City. I took a red eye flight and had the attitude of go go go…see see see!!! I of course started out trying to find my hostel which was in up town. It wasn’t too bad actually. It was really close to the train. my roomies were from Israel and were super nice. We stayed up most of the night talking.
The downstairs area was warm and inviting. It was newly renovated with dark wood, stone and warm colors which just drew you in.

The rooms and hallways reminded me of a frat house with their skinny purple linoleum corridors, big white rooms with 6 metal bunk beds and white hospital looking bathrooms. At least they were singles with a tub and shower and not community or tree of life style as named in the MTC.
Anyway back to the seeing of the town.

I finally got out into the wonderful thick stench of city air…aaaahhh…It reminded me of Chicago and made me miss it a little. I ventured on the subways and the first place I emerged was at time square. It was a lot bigger and cooler than I remembered it. I had forgotten that there were big screens on both sides of the square. I was in heaven at the business of the signs and the streets. I snapped a few picture and as I was trying to get one of me with the square the dark foreboding clouds decided to have a hay day and poor buckets on the city. I quickly ran under an awning wondering what I was going to do. Well to my luck the guy I was standing next to kind of looked around at us, flipped open his backpack and started pulling out umbrellas to sell. It was so random to me, but I was so grateful that I picked the right place to stand. After awhile the rain turned into a slight drizzle and I dared venture out to get my pictures.

I then started my hike around the city visiting many stops along the way as my pants slowly started to soak up water and get heavier and heavier. I saw the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, ran up the street to the Rockefeller Ice Rink and plaza, I then went over to Radio City Music Hall and the Flat Iron building which was designed by Daniel Burnham, who designed the layout of Chicago. There were also a few churches and other interesting sites in between. I then had to get me my New York City vendor hot dog with sauerkraut on top. Mm good!

By the time I was a little miserable. My hair was wet and wavy, my shoes were completely water logged and my pants were wet up to my knees. The weather seemed to be like a big rotating sprinkler, that would trick you into thinking it was nice and then poring on you when you least expect.

I had a little bit of time left, so I quickly went down to the harbor and purchased a ticket for a ferry ride to see the city from the water, but most importantly The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I stood outside on the top deck to get some good pictures. It was a little wet but not raining on the way over. The city and Statue were beautiful. I’m so glad I was able to go and walk around and see lady liberty. The wind was really starting to pick up and water seemed to stand still in the air as I arrived, so my tour of the island was very fast.

I ran around and quickly snapped pictures, visited the tourist shop and right as it started to rain heavly again I boarded the ferry headed back. We stopped by Ellis Island, but because of the rain and shortness of time, I decided to save that for another trip.

I was very grateful that I was able to run back to my hostel at this time, change my clothing, straighten my hair and head out to meet my friend Maggie. Feeling a lot more secure, warm and dry I headed out in the now almost cloudless afternoon. I almost effortlessly found the little diner were I spent half of my evening.
Maggie was late in getting there, but it was fun to see my old roommate, enjoy the best calamari I’ve ever tasted, reminisce over old memories and relish the new ones. We spent hours of talking and then slowly walked back in the beautiful night to the train station.

My thought of the City were, that it reminded me of Chicago, but so, so much bigger. Every turn there were bigger buildings and it kept going and going. It was so enjoyable to me, because I love architecture.

Anyway I was about to get on my train at Central Station to head back home, when I decided I was crazy. I didn’t have lots of time and decided I could sleep when I got home. I started to walk around and saw many of the buildings at night, Chrysler building, Empire State, but the best again for me were the bright lights of time square. You could see them, from very far off and the called me, like a moth to a flame. The just reeled me in and I loved standing in the middle of the bright as day square in all of the hustle and bustle.

I soon took my adventures up and out to the Serendipity café where I was going to try their famous frozen hot chocolate, but the very long line and wait, by myself kind of cured me of my want of one, so I ended my night going back to time square and to get a hot cocoa at Starbucks.

Well the next morning I was going to get up early and try to hit the Today show stuff and wave at my family, but because we stayed up so late, I could hardly move. It was all I could do to get up an hour and a half after intended so I wouldn’t miss my Temple session.

It was a very interesting experience in the temple. You walk into the building and the temple is to the left of elevators going to other parts of the building. There were multiple floors. On one you rented your clothing and then had to go to another to change and then to the session. The rooms were really beautiful. The first room was covered in paintings of the outdoors with wood paneling and rounded corners to the room. They had problems getting the session started, but it was ok because I made friends with two very nice ladies sitting next to me, who took picture for me afterwards.

When the wonderful temple session was over and I dressed and went back out onto the loud crowded streets, the world seemed a little more peaceful and slow. Even in that big city. I slowly went back to my hostel, changed my clothes and headed down to lower Manhattan once again.

I went for a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the Woolworth building, with many of the other beautiful buildings around it.

I walked over to the World Trade Center site and saw the new skyscraper that was being built there. Nothing really is there, besides walls around it and a visitors center on the south side. I didn’t go in because it cost 10 bucks.

Instead I stopped at a little pizza place next to it and ate some New York Style Pizza, before taking a nice peaceful walk to the Grounds of St. Paul’s Chapel, where George Washington worshiped after his inauguration as president.

Sadly after this I had to quickly run back to my hostel and head out to the airport. The time was short, but I think that my two days in this great city were well spent and much was seen. I was supper exhausted but it was worth it!