New York, New York!

I had such a fun time in New York last year, that when my sister-in-law called me up and asked if I wanted to accompany her for her first time out, I did everything I could to make it happen. And, with the help of many awesome relatives who agreed to watch my kids, the trip was a go! We arrived in New Jersey Friday night, and were the very first ones to get a look at Trev & Erin's new digs. Sweet set up! Due to some rather lame setbacks from lawyers and bankers, they had literally only taken possession of the house the night before. Despite that, they had managed to set up a startling amount of stuff in their house, and were very hospitable. Thanks guys! That Saturday, we headed into the city. One of the first places we hit was Dylan's Candy Bar, home of some very creative candy paraphernalia.

I managed to find some sweet M&M's Star Wars candies for my kids, and with souvenirs accomplished, we moved on. We tried to get lunch at Serendipity again, but after waiting 90 minutes with no end in sight, we bailed and found sustenance elsewhere. Next we hit Time Square...

Where we saw a very large poster for the show that Tristin and I would be seeing that night!

That's right, Wicked on Broadway! Needless to say, we were extremely excited. And even though we weren't seeing this show, I just had to snap a pic of Harry Potter.

After a long day of hoofing it around the city, we said goodbye to Erin, and Tris and I had some much needed downtime at our hotel before the show started. Check out this view from our window!

Tris and I got all dressed up for the show, and tried unsuccessfully to take a picture of ourselves in all our finery.

We were extremely proud of ourselves that we managed to ride the subway without getting lost, and locate the theater without any problems at all.

We ended up with some pretty amazing seats; ridiculously close to the stage, but far enough over that you can't see all the way back. We missed a tiny bit of scenery and action, but all in all it was a pretty incredible experience. The talent level was amazing!

After the show, we took the subway back to the hotel, picked up a few Big Macs, and vegged out for an hour. The next morning, we took it really slow and slept in til ten. It was wonderful. After we got moving, we made our way to Grand Central Station, where we hopped on a train to New Haven, Connecticut.

Tristin was awed by the size of the main concourse, and just how many people could mill around in that space.

We had a few train mishaps when a bridge that had risen to let a boat through didn't line up the tracks when it came back down, but Trev and Erin rescued us, and we were on our way to New Haven to visit Trajan and Lauren and the girls. Trajan had just had his tonsils out a few days before and was mostly high on Percocet, but it made for some very interesting conversation! We had an incredibly delicious home-cooked meal by Lauren, and got to spend some quality time with all the East Coast Bayly's.

Unfortunately, Lauren didn't feel comfortable leaving Trajan alone with the girls for our foray into the city the next day, so we had to forge on without her :(. Trev and Erin met us in Grand Central Station, and we were on our way to tour more of the city. We visited the fireman's memorial wall where I found myself getting a little choked up at the sights depicted.

We also got tickets to come back later to tour the new 9/11 Memorial Fountains. After that, we headed to Battery Park, as Tris really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.

Then for some reason, Tris really wanted to crush the Statue of Liberty.

Actually, that is how big the statue really was from where we were standing. In the above picture I had just utilized my camera's sweet zoom :).

Somehow we managed to keep walking by all the "Occupy Wallstreet" protesters and all the noise they were making.

We then had lunch in Little Italy, followed by a fresh canoli, and shopping in Soho. By the time we were done with that, it was almost time for our tour, so we headed back to the start of the line. They only let a certain amount of people in at a time, and you have to pass through a fair bit of security to get in. For anyone who doesn't know what they've done, my pictures really don't do it justice, and I would recommend finding more out about them.

The fountains themselves are built where the actual towers were, and all around the perimeter of both are the names of those who perished.

Off to one side is the sole tree that somehow managed to survive the catastrophic destruction.

And watching over all of it is the as-yet-unfinished Freedom Tower.

The park still has an incomplete feeling to it, and I'm anxious to see how it looks once all the construction fences are gone, and the buildings are finished.

Our last day was spent with Lauren and the girls, and then it was off to the airport for a late flight home. It was a hectic, fun-filled trip, and I needed at least a couple days to recover afterwards, but it was such a good time, made better by some good company. Thanks again Tris, we'll have to do it again!