And I Would Walk 500 Miles...

One of the things I was most looking forward to about going to New York was getting to sleep in and not have to worry about getting up early in the morning. Josh and I did just that! It felt so good to be able to sleep in until 9:00 AM. WOW! I can't tell you the last time I did that!

Our plan was to explore the city and travel uptown to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History, about 30 blocks or so. We got dressed and yes, I'll admit it, I was slightly vain. I was told to bring comfortable shoes when you go to New York, like tennis shoes. Well, to begin with, I almost never wear tennis shoes even when I'm home. Second, tennis shoes aren't exactly what I'd call fashionable, comfortable, maybe, but not fashionable. Third, I needed shoes with a slight heel because I'm so short and if I don't have a heel, then the hem of my pants will end up dragging the ground. So taking all that into account, I indulged my inner diva, and decided on my boots with a heel. Very comfortable, at least for the time being, and they went with everything I was wearing.

Our first stop was Starbucks, there was one on every single corner in New York, for some java therapy and a raspberry scone. Yum :) Then after a couple of pictures in Times Square, we were off! It was so neat to see how different Times Square looked during the day compared to at night. You felt like you were standing in a completely different place during the day.




The Hershey's store was next. Tim Welch had told us the night before about the world's largest Reese's peanut butter cup that was here and I had to see it in person. A full pound of chocolate and peanut butter, each cup weighed 8 ounces, for only $14.99. That's only about $7.50 for each peanut butter cup...not bad!



We kept walking and saw all kinds of neat signs and billboards. We ended up at Rockefeller Center again and took some more pictures of this neat building. I loved all the art and sculptures around this plaza. I could have taken 100 pictures of this center alone. I also loved seeing all the flags from all the different countries flying. They were so pretty blowing in the wind.









As we kept walking we came to one of the most amazing churches I've ever seen. I didn't know it at the time, but after reading through my New York travel guides again, I found out it is St. Patrick's cathedral, the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States. This cathedral had some of the most ornate and beautiful architecture that I had ever seen. You'll see this cathedral several times over the course of our trip and that's because I loved photographing it. I think I took a picture of it every time we passed close to it.


We made our way up 5th Avenue to the famous shopping district. We saw all the famous fashion stores-Gucci, Armani, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Prada. I was going to buy something at all the stores, but I knew we were on a tight schedule, so I opted not to this time...HA HA HA HA!!

I did find the H&M store though where I purchased a coat. No more cold New York nights for me! The next time I go there though, I'm going to buy so much more than just a coat. I could easily have spent 2 hours in that store looking at all the clothes. The best part is that everything was so reasonable! My coat was on sale for $40.

I wanted to go to THE toy store in New York, F.A.O. Schwarz, and it didn't disappoint. It was such a neat store! Three levels of nothing but toys, stuffed animals, books, games, dolls, and every toy imaginable. If I had been a kid, I would have gone crazy in there. I wanted to pick up something little for Eli and I decided on Elmer the elephant and a matching book. Once again, I could easily have spent hours in this store, just perusing the shelves, but I knew we needed to hurry if we were going to make it to the Museum of Natural History.