Back from the Big Apple

We successfully moved Uncle Brandon, Aunt Lauren (Lolli) and Cousin Cooper back to Panama City. I shouldn't really say "we" because I didn't really do much of anything helpful except fly back with Lauren and Cooper. Everyone else packed, cleaned, and continually climbed up and down the stairs in the apartment to get everything moved out while I played with Cooper. Anywho, here are a few snapshots of our quick trip to NYC.
After a harrowing taxi ride from LaGuardia, we finally made it alive but a little shaky (or at least I was) to our hotel. This was the view from our hotel window in Times Square. Our hotel lobby and first floor was under renovation so there was only one elevator (which was the size of a telephone booth) working during our stay. If it happened to be occupied (which was most of the time) we had to hoof it up five flights of stairs to get to our rooms. The rooms were nice but not what you would call roomy. The queen bed just fit in the room, though I'm not sure how they got it in there. Our room seemed a little larger since we were lucky enough to have two windows.
Here is our room. There was about two feet between the wall and the foot of the bed and the wall with the windows.

We met up with Uncle Brandon, Aunt Lauren and Cooper and toured some of the Times Squares sites (M&M store, Hershey store...are you sensing a theme?) before stopping for a late lunch/early supper at ESPN Zone.

We attended Spamalot Wednesday night and it was hilarious! Stephen Collins (the dad from 7th Heaven) and Drew Lachey (98 Degrees and Dancing with the Stars) were great in it. Our seats were so good it felt like I could just reach out and give the performers a high five! Afterwards, we pigged out on Junior's Cheesecake! Yum!

We also made the trip to the top of the Empire State Building. The last two times that I went up were both during Thanksgiving holidays (1990 & 2002) and the building seemed to sway in the gale force November wind which didn't help my fear of falling off tall buildings...long story short, I didn't really get a good chance to look around. This time was different!

I'm not sure which side of the city we are facing but here we are at the top!

I always think of Annie when I hear about or see the Chrysler Building...you know...when all the orphans are singing It's a Hard Knock Life. ("You'll stay up til this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!") I was a little obsessed with Annie as a child but that's another story.

We went to Carmine's Restaurant on Thursday night. It is a family style Italian restaurant that we have heard about for years from Lauren and Brandon. It was great and we stuffed ourselves silly! Cooper enjoyed it too!

Grandma and Grandpa had been to Carmine's before so they were able to help us out with what to order. I should have taken a picture of the table full of food that we had.

This is one of the entrances to Macy's. I was able to visit each of the 8 floors and the cellar in under an hour and a half. Guess you could say I'm a speed shopper. I bought myself a shirt and a Christmas present for my cousin Rachel...hope you can wait until December to find out what it is! The guys were busy moving back in Queens but we did go back to Macy's later in the day so they could look around too.

We walked down to the formed site of the World Trade Center but everything was fenced off so we couldn't see anything. We did go into St. Paul's Chapel which was across the street from the towers. Miraculously, not a single window was blown out of the church and it was used as a site for recovery workers for 8 months after the attacks.

This flag inside the chapel (I don't have a picture of the actual chapel for some reason) has the names of everyone who died on September 11.


In FAO Schwartz, they had the greatest Lego sculptures. Here I am with the crew from Hogwarts.

I had to get Marcus' picture with Darth Vader!

We also went into St. Patrick's Cathedral. Wow! Was it breathtaking! Marcus has some beautiful pictures of the stained glass but his memory card didn't want to cooperate with me this morning.
I thought the flickering candles would make a pretty shot but I wasn't sure if it was disrespectful to take a picture of them. Since I'm not Catholic I don't really know what the significance is but I did see some other people taking pictures and then continuing into the church so I thought it was okay.

Mission Accomplished!
We safely arrived in Fort Walton Beach on Saturday afternoon with Cooper! Brandon, Marcus, Grandma and Grandpa arrived in the late afternoon with the U Haul and Brandon and Lauren's car. They drove 11 hours each day and probably don't ever want to hear the term "road trip" again.

Cooper and the girls have already had a little "get to know you" session. I think the poor guy was scared to death for a bit! He and Sara did have a bonding moment though. I think he feels he can relate to her more than anyone else maybe.

Emma decided to love her cousin from afar. Don't worry, Coop. She'll be bossing you around in no time!

It was an exciting trip and are very glad to be home!