Welcome to NEW YORK!

We started off our day by going to the 9/11 memorial and museum.

It is such a beautiful place and exhibit.

To reflect back and remember the events that happened on the very location where we were standing was heartbreaking. Knowing how many people were lost and seeing the missing person flyers that their families put around looking for them, it hurt. 

The museum is directly below where the towers were and you are still able to see the original foundations of both of them. Knowing how much fear, pain, shock, heartache, and faith took place there 16 years ago was a lot to take in. Andrew and I spent 3 hours in the museum and it was like going back to 2001 and seeing it on the news and hearing about the acts of heroism again, but this time it was up close. I remember that day and even though I was across the country I remember how those events brought our country closer together. I think it happens there again in that museum.

This is the Freedom Tower that stands on the Twin Tower Plaza. 

It's 1776 feet high because we claimed our independence in the year of 1776. 

It is also currently the biggest tower in the U.S. They built the Freedom Tower taller 

than the Twin Towers to show that we are going to 

keep growing.

that we are not afraid 

and that we will be better than we were before. 

This is the Survivor Tree that is located on the plaza. 

It was the only tree that remained after the towers collapsed. 

They took it away for awhile to help it gain its strength back and then was brought back to the memorial site. 

This tree says a lot. Despite what we have gone through we can continue to grow. 

This tree is bigger than it was before. 

^When a name has a white rose, it marks that it's their birthday. It made those names more real.^

If you ever plan to visit the memorial here are a few tips:

+ Go in the morning. We arrived early and were able to tour the grounds and when the museum opened
we walked right in and did not need to wait in a big line.

+ We bought a City Pass which also helps skip the line but if you don't do that I heard it's better to buy your tickets
online because you miss the line to simply buy tickets (there's a line after to enter). 

+ Make sure you have plenty of time to go through the museum.
You don't want to rush past anything because you're hungry or you have to be someplace else. 

One of my favorite things from the day (and part of the whole NYC experience) was walking the Brooklyn Bridge. 

It was rainy, wet, and my hair went semi crazy but it was amazing to see the cars driving below, 

the views, and the Statue of Liberty off in the distance. If I were to do it again I would do it at night 

and I would do it walking towards Manhattan, not Brooklyn. 

That bridge is beautiful and nothing like what we have in Utah. 

We walked to Juliana's Pizza which is very similar to MidiCi's. We got a small and we had leftovers

(which is saying something after all that walking!) 

Because of the rain we were trying to do a lot of the inside activities so we headed over to Grand Central. 

That place is hoppin!

^And do you see that black rectangle? It's meant to be there... kinda. Workers were cleaning the ceiling and that 

gray rectangle was left to show how dirty it was. It was caused by cigarette, cigars, and  pipe smoke.

Before it was cleaned people didn't know the ceiling was blue.^

The food in NY is so good. We went to Tal Bagels and I almost died. I wasn't really into it at first and I 

told Andrew  I would only take a bite but I ended up eating half of the bagel, it was that good. We got

 scallion cream  cheese with  salmon (and I am not a fish person, hence I will only  have one bite) but it 

was probably my favorite food while in NY. 

We headed over to the Met which was also included on our City Pass. While we were there we  found

out that it is a pay as you wish  with recommended prices. We are not art people so we kinda just

cruised around that museum real quick and then we headed to Times Square which is always a site! 

 ^And that is a wooden escalator in the Macey's. I'm all into into that original stuff.^

We ended our day with Vietnamese food. Andrew's favorite. 

And the price was actually not crazy overpriced. Same as it is here. 

and... i'm really trying to avoid the gym right now. 

i want to do everything but that. 

like sleep, cleaning, watch netflix, 

(and all have been done).

but i think i better go. 

i'll regret it later. 

byyyyeeee.