The Barber's Virginia Adventures: NYC Anniversary Trip and Fourth of July

We decided that since we have reached being married five years that we wanted to take a nice vacation. Since we both had July 3rd off we took a Peter Pan bus that morning to NYC. We left at 7am and had a pretty uneventful trip till a passenger went up to the bus driver and said there was smoke coming from the back. The bus was about 20 minutes from NYC and a belt had broken was smoking. We all got off the bus and waiting on the side of the road for the another bus to come take us to the depot. Many stopped but could not take us. We waited for a good 30 minutes and got to the depot and headed out to drop off our luggage at a place that holds it for a bit. For lunch we had White Castles which were so good. Day 1- we walked around Times Square, Madison Square, the love sign, Rockfeller center, etc. Later we checked into the hotel and I had to get some blister protectors for my feet. We meet a dear friend that I had at BYU named Ashley. It had been five years since I saw her. Central park was a fun place to find her at and we walked to the Manhattan LDS temple and Lincoln Center. Later we went to the NY Yankee's stadium and to our surprise the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing the National anthem. It was so nice to hear them. Jason and I were so exhausted that we didn't make it to the end of the game. The game went into 12 innings and they came out with the win.

It was so fun to ride the subway, it was a little overwhelming but by the end of the trip I think I finally figured it out. Day 2 which was the 4th of July we woke up and had a egg bagel sandwich. It was so good. There was not much open that morning. After breakfast we went to the 9/11 memorial and pay respect to all those that were killed that day. It was beautiful place to be. That afternoon we went on a cruise ride out to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and back to battery park. The ride out to the statue was making me a little sick because the water was choppy and we were inside the boat. The ride to Ellis island was better because we were on the top and could see all the views. We got tickets to go to the pedestal of the statue of liberty- it was a lot of stairs to walk up and since we walked everywhere the day before my legs kept tightening on me. It was a great view and experience. I encourage all to go do it. Sadly, by our hotel since we stayed in the financial district no place was open for dinner. We had to go to times square to find a pizza place but in the end it was well worth it. For the fireworks that night we went to the brooklyn side to have the NY skyline as the backdrop. It was very crowded but the fireworks were pretty awesome. On our way home they shut down some of the subway stops so that was an adventure.

Day 3 we went to the 911 memorial and the museum. It was a bitter sweet experience. It was a nice museum and had neat displays. Inside the musuem they had a cool blue wall that they had different artists depict the color of the sky the day before the towers went down. It was very blue. There was a part of the museum that had voice recordings and pictures and things that dealt with the planes that day. It was hard to listen to, I cried during this part. It was crazy to see all the damage to some of the things they were able to display. After this we checked out of the hotel and went to the bus stop to head back to Virginia.