the city that never sleeps, part II.

after riding the ferry, we went directly to the 9/11 memorial. we went through pretty extreme security which was similar to the kind at the airport, we walked through a medal detector and they searched our bags. it was a sad reminder of why the memorial is there in the first place. 

the memorial itself was beautiful and has a lot of potential. it is not quite finished but has a good start. it was touching  and heart wrenching to be there and reflect on the horrors of 9/11 almost 12 years ago. 

we walked and walked and walked alllll day on saturday! we saw west village, soho, downtown, the flatiron district....almost everywhere. it was so much fun!!! this picture above shows amanda and katie looking at the teeniest tiniest restaurant. it is the width of that wall. you can see the front of the restaurant on their homepage. 

baked by melissa.

we wanted to sit down, so we came to the bite restaurant on 14th street instead.
it was so delicious. 

i can't remember what this street was called and can't find it online! it is one of the only private streets in new york city and was formally horse stables. the cobblestones and buildings were all antique and beautiful. if you know what this is called, let me know! i'd love to look up the history.

washington square park.

amanda, lollol.

columbus circle.

on sunday morning we ate at good enough to eat on the upper west side, right near my last and favorite apartment. (also here.) 

i got hot chocolate and lizzie and i shared the bacon waffles. it wasn't the best thing i've ever tasted, but i would never advise someone not to get them.

after breakfast we went to macy's! it was sad because it was all under construction so it didn't look as pretty as it usually does. we met amanda's girlfriend from HB and her adorable child. 

have you ever touched chinchilla? it will change your life, it feels like beautiful buttery air. if i didn't know i was moving to texas, i maybe would have dropped 15g's on this hat/coat combo.  

beautiful bryant park.

:(

we had such a fun time, i wish i could go back! our trip was soo short and sweet but we did a ton of fun stuff. i was worried that it was going to be weird and i would feel too contemplative and reminiscent but it wasn't like that at all! new york city is funny in the way that it goes through phases and changes very quickly. there were a lot of fun memories that came to me that i never would have remembered if i didn't go back to visit and there was so much stuff for us to do that i hadn't done before. it was our first all sisters vacation (with no father) and although we wished he was there, it was tons of fun! lizzie was an excellent tour guide! she's been there for 7 months and already knew so much. while we were there we got to see her play (she is a stage manager) and it was really good! it was in a tiny theater on the upper west side with only four actors. it was really nice to see lizzie in her element and hear the actors and director talk so highly of her.

i'm not so secretly hoping that our next sisters vacation is sooner rather than later and involves horses, humidity, the alamo and cowboy boots.

(hint: i'm referring to san antonio)

please read amanda's recap here.

the best part is when she said:

"Some might consider that rock bottom but I like to think of it as the pinnacle of my life." 

the city that never sleeps, part I.

the day after graduation i drove 12 hours straight from san diego to salt lake to catch an 11:30pm flight to nyc to visit my sister with my sisters...! best/worst thing i ever did!

after not getting any sleep on the plane, i finally got to lizzie's cute street and apartment at about 8am. 

how cute is this? katie arrived on wednesday, amanda arrived saturday and i got there sunday.

you'd be sad if you knew how many of these '4' pictures we took. in public.

saturday was full of rain. it didn't stop. turns out my cute 'rain coat' actually isn't a rain coat and i was soaked to the bone. i also wore flare pants instead of skinny jeans which was an interesting choice on my end. my pants were wet all the way up to my knees front and back and on my thighs. it sounds miserable but we still had fun!

the american girl store really treated us well. as a family of four girls, we obsessed over AG. my dad would give me a catalog and i'd circle everything i wanted and for christmas i'd get some of them. am i just now realizing that i was spoiled growing up?

at this time all three of us were on our phones. i hurried to put mine down before katie got a picture. what a shame!

the rainy weather did wonders to the city. the buildings looked so dreamy disappearing into the fog.

my sister lizzie lives in washington heights in a cute area! there were places to run around her apartment, but amanda wanted to run in central park so we did just that. i took her to my favorite place in nyc which is bathesda terrace. most  beautiful fountain and terrace in america. (can i say that?) its so beautiful that blair and chuck got married there. again, the fog was dreamy.

how funny is my dad? 

my family kitty just recently died and he was pretty sad about it and missed his company. he watched bandit while jon was in moab and i was in new york with my sisters. he pretended he hated him but i think he liked having him around. 

the next day gave us nice weather! i loved that we got to see the city in the fog and rain, but also on a nice day. my favorite thing is standing on a corner looking up the street and seeing how many blocks up you can see. on saturday it was too foggy to do that.

we took the ferry out to staten island and back for the views of downtown. it was pretty but mostly just really crowded. it's amazing how comfortable people are with being close to strangers!!!!

to be continued...