I moved to Huntington Beach, California in October of 2002. I ended up being roommates with a girl named Lisa and we lived together until March of 2005 when I moved out here to Maryland to marry Dave. We lived together for over two years and lived together during the time she met her current husband and I met mine. We planned our weddings simultaneously and got married four weeks apart. She flew out to Chicago for my wedding and four weeks later, I flew out to Seattle for hers. We had girls (Lia and Lacey) within a year of each other and once they were old enough to read and write, we got them started as pen pals. But, they've never met...... until this week! Lisa and Lia flew out Wednesday night and then the very next morning, we headed to NYC! Here we are in the cab on our way to the hotel once we arrived.
The view from our hotel room on the 41st floor of the Marriott in Times Square.
Unfortunately, it rained the entire day, but we didn't let it stop us. We grabbed our jackets and umbrellas and hit the streets! Here we are at the Disney store.
Paparazzi Dogman and Paparazzi Rabbitgirl
NBC Studios: Current home of America's Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Voice.
Playing the life-size piano at FAO Schwartz
There are three American Girl flagship stores: one in Chicago, one in LA and this one in NYC.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to celebrate Mass here in April 2008.
One of Lacey's favorite stops every time she comes to NYC!
Banana pudding from Magnolia's..... 😋
Our girls navigating their way through the city in the rain.
Next stop: Tiffany!
They let us try on a 4.6 carat $218,000 diamond ring!
My turn 💕
A skyscraper in the making...... pretty cool!
Central Park
Central Park shenanigans
After dinner at Shake Shake, dessert at Krispy Cream, walking around Times Square at night, we finally made our way back to our hotel and called it a night!
We got up early Friday morning, hopped in a cab and made our way to Battery Park.
And hopped on a ferry to Liberty Island
The inside of Lady Liberty is currently closed due to Covid, so you can't climb to the pedestal or the crown right now, but the ferry system is running and island itself is open.
Lady Liberty in all her glory close up and personal.
The museum was open as well.
And we got to see the original torch.
Then we hopped on the ferry again and made our way to.....
Ellis island!
Registration Hall.
I tried to imagine this hall crammed with thousands of people, which is where they went to be processed as soon as they arrived.
After waiting in line, they finally arrived here and were told what stair way to descend.
"The Stairs of Separation"
After completing their inspection in the Registry Room, the immigrants would descend this divided flight of stairs. The right-hand side led to the railroad ticket office, the left-hand side to the New York ferry and the central steps to the detention rooms. This stairway marked the parting of the ways for many families and friends with different destinations.
The Immigration History Center.
Across from the main building are many other buildings that were used as hospitals and dormitories.
And Lady Liberty can be seen over my shoulder as well.
We hopped on the ferry from Ellis and made our way back to Manhattan.
We stopped at the Charging Bull (also known as the "Wall Street Bull", the "Raging Bull" or the "Financial District Bull"), a 7,000# bronze statue which mysteriously (and illegally) appeared on December 15, 1989, in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The artist is Arturo Di Modica and it was placed here in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash.
It appears it is is here to stay now that it has become a popular tourist attraction.
Lacey LOVES Hamilton. She has every word to every song of the entire musical memorized. So, we came here to Trinity church to pay our respects to him since this is where he is buried. His wife Eliza and her sister Angelica are also buried here.
From there, we went to the 9/11 Memorial.
I'll never forget living in Las Vegas and watching it all happen and just walking through that day at work in a total fog as we all absorbed what was happening.
Lacey taking a picture of me taking a picture of Lisa and Lia.
The new One World Trade Center.
One World Trade Center selfies.
Seeing One World Trade Center from outside is pretty cool...... but seeing it from the inside is a whole other amazing experience!
The observatory is on Floors 100-102.
360 degree views of one of the biggest, most amazing, famous cities in the world.
Looking down into the bases of the two WTC towers that tumbled down on that fateful day. We all talked about how scary it must have been for the people that were as high up as we were when that happened.
A contemplative moment for Lacey.
Lunch with a view!
The oculus
We made our way back home Friday night and Lia presented Lacey with some flamingo-themed gifts. So sweet!
And then we spent Saturday in DC!
First stop: FDR Memorial and the Tidal Basin
MLK Memorial
Korean Memorial
And my favorite: the Lincoln Memorial
Looking out from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Reflection Pool and the Washington Monument.
The White House
The WWII Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance.
Today marked the end of their four-day visit and we were blessed with glorious weather! We headed to Annapolis, this time with a couple extra kids in tow.
The Maryland State house (current Capitol building of Annapolis and former capitol of the United States and also the place where George Washington resigned his commission following the Revolutionary War).
Saying our good-byes. I purposely wore this dress because Lisa bought this dress years ago. She decided it was too short on her and gave it to me and I still have it 16 years later!
Never met prior to four days ago, only communicating through letters....
And now the best of friends and bosom buddies! 💕
It's been a jam-packed four days. We conquered NYC, DC and Annapolis. We did and saw everything we could and created lasting memories. It was so nice to pick up with Lisa right where we left off over a decade ago and to come full circle watching our daughters start forming their own friendship bond.
