Emily’s NYC Trip- Part 2

Hi, friends!

Part 2 of Emily’s trip recap is coming at you today.

In case you missed it, read part 1 here.

After a great night of sleep we were ready for a great day on Friday in New York!

The weather was beautiful and we were so excited to explore the city more!

Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

We rode the ferry over and met some wonderful people on the ferry. He heard me in line talking to Emily and asked me where I was from because my accent made him think I was from the Midwest.

I told him Missouri and we got to talking about Cape Girardeau, which is close to our town. He and his wife were taking their boat all over the East Coast and would eventually make their way down to the Mississippi and stay in Cape one night. Such a small world!

The ferry ride over was wonderful!

We loved being able to see the New Jersey, New York (Manhattan), and Brooklyn skyline on the way to the Statue of Liberty.

When the ferry got closer to the Statue of Liberty, Emily and I were both just mesmerized by it.

It’s beauty and how big it actually was in person is something I won’t ever forget!

We got dropped off at the Statue of Liberty island first and spent most of the morning until lunch time here.

We loved the souvenir shop, walking around the whole area of the statue, and of course taking lots of pictures.

My only gripe is that they had all this construction equipment near the statue and it was in the background of almost every picture!

I did try to photoshop some of them, but hopefully you can’t tell!

We ate lunch there at their cafe and took in the sights. Again, Emily keeps me laughing and we love people watching! This was a great place to do just that!

Our next stop was to get on the ferry and head to Ellis Island. We had spent so much time at the Statue of Liberty, that Emily didn’t to get out and tour Ellis Island.

We only walked the grounds then got right back on the ferry. I regret this now because we might not make it back there, but when you travel with a 13 year old, there has to be some compromise.

We finally made our way back to Manhattan. To me, the Statue of Liberty was one of the main highlights of the trip.

We started walking towards the 9/11 Memorial and saw the Charging Bull on Wall Street. We of course stopped to snap a picture. Emily is totally opposite of her older sister and LOVES all the photo opportunities!

After that, we made it to the 9/11 Memorial. This place had such a wonderful, peaceful atmosphere about it. I know that might sound weird, but it was just a very somber feeling knowing we were standing right where the Twin Towers fell down.

The North and South pools were beautiful.

We walked around both of them, read some of the names, and you couldn’t help but cry for all the lives lost on that day.

We noticed that some of the names had roses on them and then we saw the sign that told us that they place a rose on the people’s name if it is their birthday that day. I thought this was a great thing!

After this, we went to the 9/11 Museum. This was underground near the pools and was where the actual basement of the Twin Towers was located.

Inside the museum there were so many things to see. So many real things saved from that day from the debris, to clothing, to the last standing column, to part of one of the fire trucks used that day, etc.

We easily spent an hour here and loved every minute of it. There were a lot of parts you couldn’t take pictures in, but I promise you this is something that will forever be etched into my brain.

I’m so glad we were able to do this and to this day Emily will tell her friends and family this was her favorite part of the trip.

Our next stop was walking to the Friends apartment. Because duh, how can you be in NYC and not go see it?!?

I am a Friends fanatic and was so excited! Emily hasn’t ever watched the show and didn’t understand my excitement level. I told her it was a 90s kid thing! HA

On the agenda next was SHOPPING! Emily had a lot of birthday money that was burning a hole in her pocket!

We found Chelsea Market which had a lot of great shops in it. Emily found a Lululemon store, so she was a happy girl!

Because the weather was starting to get a little rainy and windy, our last stop of the night was to go shopping in the Oculus.

This is a crazy shaped building near the 9/11 Memorial, but inside it is a 3 story mall. It was HUGE!

We shopped and shopped and shopped some more. This building was so cool!

At this point, we had walked over 11 miles and were ready to call it a day!

We Ubered back to our hotel, but not without first stopping at Burger King for supper! Emily LOVES Burger King and she wanted a “normal” meal.

Day 2 in NYC did not disappoint! My heart was so full that night from this precious time with my Emily Grace!

Hope y’all have a great day and then weekend!

I’ll be back next week to do my final recap of our trip.