New York City

I know it's been forever since I've blogged. We have had such a busy summer with numerous trips, but I should be able to blog more once school starts.

One of our trips was to New York City. Matt had to go for business and Emily and I went along with him to have some fun. And we did. New York is my absolute favorite city. There is nothing else like it. I've been infatuated with New York since my first time there when I was about 12 years old. On that first trip, I remember being in complete amazement at everything I saw. I loved every part of it. I like to think that one of the reasons I love it so is that both of my grandmothers were born there. It makes me so happy to be up there. Maybe it's in my blood.

Ever since Emily was born, I have dreamed about taking her there and sharing my love of the city with her. I wanted to wait until she was old enough to enjoy and appreciate it and also be able to do a lot of walking. A couple of years ago I learned that The Little Mermaid was coming to Broadway. That moved my plans up to take her there because Ariel has been her absolute favorite character since she was a toddler. Little did I know that the show is closing at the end of August. It'll probably go on tour, but there is something special about seeing a show in New York on Broadway. I also wanted to take her while she still likes to play with dolls so we could do the American Girl Place together.

I was hoping she would love the city as much as I do and she did. When we arrived at the airport and were in the taxi coming over the bridge into Manhattan, she got her first glimpse of it. She gasped and reached down into her bag to pull out her camera and started snapping pictures of the skyline. I knew then that she would love it.

Right after we checked into the hotel, we took a walk down 5th Ave to the Plaza Hotel. Here is Emily with a portrait of Eloise from the famous children's books about a little girl who lives in The Plaza.

We took a walk through Central Park which always amazes me with its beauty.

During the summer, they have carnival rides set up in Wolman's Rink which is where they have ice skating in the winter.

This is Heather from San Diego. She and Emily because fast friends and rode all the rides together.

After Central Park, we went to the American Girl store where Emily picked out her doll.

The next day in the lobby of our hotel ,The Michelangelo, before we started our day.

We stopped by The Today Show and got to meet Meredith Viera. She was super sweet. She spent a lot of time walking around visting with everyone. She told Emily that her doll looks just like her.

After that we headed downtown on the subway to pick up our tickets for that evening's performace of The Little Mermaid. We stopped by South Street Seaport and saw the big ships on Pier 17.

Then we headed back up to midtown to The American Girl store again to have lunch in the Cafe. The lunch was so much fun. It was so neat to see all the little girls dressed up with their dolls. It was so sweet. They give you a little seat for your doll to sit next to you. That evening we went to see The Little Mermaid. For some reason, I didn't have really high expectations for the show. I hadn't heard many things about it and I was more excited to see Mary Poppins which we saw the following night. However, I was completely blown away by The Little Mermaid. It was outstanding. The sets, the costumes, the singing and dancing. It was spectacular. I loved it and Emily did too. I had wondered what Emily would think of it. She usually gets bored during a 90 minute movie and the show was going to be about 2 and half hours long with an intermission. She looked at me about ten minutes into it with a huge smile on her face and said "Oh, Mom. I love it!" I looked over at her a few times during the show to see the expression on her face and she was completely enthralled with it.

The next morning, Matt had some spare time before his client event, so he took Emily down to Times Square to the big Toys R Us store that has 5 floors and a ferris wheel while I did some shopping by myself.

Later on, I picked Emily back up and we headed uptown to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Emily really enjoyed seeing the Egyptian artifacts and mummies. She also loved looking at the knights and armor.

A trip to the museum would not be complete without a visit to my favorite part- 19th and early 20th century European paintings to see my favorites: Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Seurat, etc.

On the way back from the museum to the hotel we walked through Central Park and took a wrong turn. We ended up in a section of the park that I had never been in before called The Ramble. It was so beautiful.

That night we went to Mary Poppins. And of course, Emily brough her doll with us.

The show was playing in The New Amsterdam Theater which is one of the oldest in the city. This is where Fanny Brice performed with The Ziegfeld Follies in the early 1900's. Most of the theaters in NY have pictures in their lobbies from shows that were there in years past. It's neat to see some of the history that the theaters have seen. This theater was gorgeous.

I love how small the theaters are here. All of the seats are really good and you're close enough to the actors to being able to see their facial expressions. It really adds to your enjoyment of the show.

Mary Poppins was fabulous. I wasn't sure if Emily was going to enjoy it as much as The Little Mermaid, but she did. The finale was outstanding and at the end Mary Poppins opens her umbrella and flies away right over the audience into the balcony. Awesome.

The next day was Saturday and Matt did not have to work. Yeah! We got up early and headed downtown to Battery Park to make sure we made it on the first ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.

Here are Matt and Emily standing in front of the original torch.

A replica of her face. This is in the museum inside the statue.

After you finish in the museum you can climb about 400 and some steps up to the base of the pedestal on which she stands. They just recently opened up the crown as well, but you had to have a special pass for that which we did not have. I'm not sure we could have managed the climb up to the crown anyway. The climb we did just about wore us out.

This is what is looks like from the observation deck.

The ferry that brings tourists over to Liberty Island.

It's really hard to fathom how big she is until you are standing beneath her. Awesome! Emily loved being able to visit the Statue.

You can't help but think of all the immigrants coming to this country (including my own relatives) to seek a better life. This was the first thing they saw upon their arrival. One of my favorite parts of the museum is where you can read letters and hear recordings of people who talk about their wonderful memories of seeing the statue for the first time. It's very emotional.

We also stopped by Ellis Island.

The skyline view from Ellis Island.

For dinner that night we went to Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Emily wanted to sit outside, so we sat in their beautiful garden area. Notice her doll sitting in her chair. She came with us pretty much everywhere we went.

The beautiful Japanese lanterns hanging from the trees in the garden.

After dinner, we took a carriage ride through the park.

Our last day before leaving on the plane, Matt took Emily to the American Museum of Natural History while I did some shopping. He took these great shots of her in Central Park on their walk to the museum.