This past week I was able to have TWO visitors who were great travel companions for a week. We started out in The Big Apple and went up to Boston and Cape Cod. We had such a great time we have decided that we are going to have to do a girls trip somewhere every year or as often as possible.
Just so that I can remember what we did and how I/we can do the trip better next time some one comes to visit here's a fairly detailed outline of what we ended up doing each day... or someone else can take our itinerary and make it their own. I apologize in advance for the length and pictures but hope that it's helpful to anyone planning a trip back here.
Saturday - Mom flew into LaGuardia, tried to get pizza at Pepe's but the line was ridiculous so we ate at Chinese/Japanese Habachi place called Sweet Basil.
Sunday: Mom got to attend our beautiful Bridgeport Ward - glad she got to meet many great people who have had a great influence on our lives out here. Megan flew into JFK at 4:00 pm, drove to our apartment. We stayed at an apartment on 42nd street, we rented it from Emily Drennan on Airbnb (highly recommend!) who actually just released 2 CD's - check her our at emilydrennan.com. We had a gorgeous view of the city and we
super close to everything. That night we walked around part of Times Square, ate a yummy Italian family-style restaurant, Carmine's, and went to the top of the Empire State Building.
Monday: As a side note, Taylor Swift was in NYC for the release of her RED album and was on GMA 2 mornings in a row. Times Square was packed with people in the morning so we tried to avoid as much as possible. We wanted to do a boat tour to Ellis/Liberty Island first thing this morning but when we arrived in battery park the line was a 2 hour wait just to get on the boat - so we bought tickets for the next morning and headed over to the Financial District. We saw Wall st, the Bull, NY Stock Exchange, Steps of the building were President Washington took the Oath of Office, Trinity Church, St Peter's Church, and Ground Zero. Then we ate lunch at J & R cafe and had delicious crepes - mom and Megan had lunch type crepe and I of course had to do a breakfast style...
Then we headed to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, only going about half way across the bridge. Then up to China Town where we did a little shopping. Then up to 42nd Street to NY Public Library, Bryant Park, and Grand Central. We stopped for a treat at Magnolia's Bakery in Grand Central and to do some people watching before heading up to Rockefeller Square, which is where we saw the ice skating ring, NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall.
For dinner Mom and Megan had never eaten at 5 Guys Burger and Fries so we ate there before going on
THE RIDE, which was totally cheesy but a great way to see the city and a enjoyable 60 minute ride through the main streets of Midtown.
And if that wasn't enough for us we decided to do a little shopping after all of that! Yup, nothing like shopping at 11 pm!
Tuesday: Started out going to Liberty Island, we almost didn't get off the boat here and I am sure glad that we did. I have seen Lady Liberty from the boat before but there was something about being so close to her and really getting a sense of her grander that I enjoyed. Totally recommend seeing her this way for anyone else who might be coming to the city. We went to Ellis Island next, which was also very cool but I was sad they make you pay $7.00 to see the name of your ancestor. Marius Jensen was my ancestor that passed through there but because of the great work my ancestors have done I have seen his signature before and didn't feel it was worth it to see the digital scanned version of his name when I could look at it on a piece of paper. I learned a lot about just how hard it was for people to get into America even back then when there were more jobs than they had people for. We headed up to the Guggenheim Museum and had lunch from a vendor outside the museum. We got to see the Black and White Pablo Picaso series. I am not much of a Picaso fan but it was neat to see all of the original artwork and the Guggenheim building is incredible. We hooped in a taxi to take us to the bottom of Central Park where we then paid for a guy to haul our fat butts around Central Park for 90 minutes. I would highly recommend this - it's overpriced but we knew that ahead of time and wanted to see the park. This is by far the best way to do it. You could always rent your own bike and bike around the park but our little guide told us lots about the park we wouldn't have learned riding our own bikes. After Central Park we headed to 5th Ave and went to Tiffany's, then to the East Village to attend the off-broadway show "Stomp", which was incredible. We were on the 2nd row - a little too close for my liking but it was fun to be able to see them up close. Very talented people and a great atmosphere. Again - Highly recommend! We picked up some pizza from a little place just outside the theater for dinner.
Wednesday: We slept in and packed up our stuff. We headed to the Temple to do a few initiatories. The matron who was helping us there then took us on a brief tour of the sealing rooms and then we sat in the celestial room for a minute. After running so hard for just a couple of days it sure felt good to just sit and take in the spirit of the Lord. Such peace dwells there. We had lunch as Pax and then went to Phantom of the Opera! It was A-MAZ-ING! I loved every minute of it and was singing it for days! I did get extremely cold in the theater and had to pull out our skirts that we wore to the temple to put over my legs. I had my scarf around my neck and my hood over my head and I was still
freezing! We did some milling around Times Square after the show got out, merely to avoid rush hour traffic on our way home to Connecticut. We did get to enjoy some Pepe's pizza when we arrived in Connecticut and got to spend some time with Brett.
Thursday: We drove around Bridgeport/Trumbull area showing where Brett goes to school, our church, our first apartment, the ghetto parts of Bridgeport, and then drove to Newport Rhode Island to see the mansions of the Vanderbilt Family and the other builders of America. They were MASSIVE and gorgeous! I would recommend them to anyone who has at least 3+ hours to spend. We were there about 4 and could have easily spent more time there. It is a beautiful place.
Next we headed up to Belmont, Massachusetts to drive pass the temple there. We were going to do a session but didn't have a chance to eat and didn't have enough time to find a place before the final session of the night started. So we headed to Bertucci's to get us some fine Italian cuisine.
After stuffing ourselves we headed to our hotel to turn in for the night. We stayed in South Boston near Fenway Park area at a new hotel called Envision - we found a deal on Travelzoo for a discounted stay and we were very comfortable there. The staff was extremely helpful and very kind.
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| The most important house we saw that day... |
Friday: Another busy day!!! We rode the T into Government Center and saw the Old State House, which the Boston Massacre happened just outside of this building. We hopped on the Trolley that took us around to the different spots along the Freedom Trail (excellent value). Along the Freedom trail sites we saw: Paul Revere's house, Old North Church, USS Constitution, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market, Christ's Church, Burial Grounds, State House, South Church and Harvard and we still managed to get a Boston Harbor Tour in there too! That night we ate at Salty Dog in Quincy Market and did some more shopping there.
Saturday: This was mom's last day with us and she wanted to head to Salem, Mass. which was a great idea but also a bad idea because it was the last Saturday before Halloween so there were lots of people there! But we had a good time. We learned about the crazy witched of Salem and learned just how sad that whole situation really was. We did get to learn a few random facts about Salem and the witch trials and enjoyed some great weather for yet another day. We sadly put mom on her plane in Boston and headed towards the Cape. Megan needed to stop at a TjMaxx to get an extra suitcase for all of the things that she had bought. So we found her one to go in. We course found lots of great deals and just had to buy more stuff to put in that suitcase! Once we spent all of our money we headed onward toward Provincetown, Mass. I had no idea that it is known for it's gay community but boy did we get to enjoy that while we were in town. It just so happened that we were there on Saturday night before Halloween, which is when the gays have a parade in costume. Talk about the BEST people watching EVER!!! I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time - and the best part is they were so down to earth and laughing right along with us. It was fabulous.
Oh and how could I forget! We had THE BEST lobster ever! We ate at the Lobster Pot and got a delicious appetizer and each of us got a lobster. Holy cow! YUM! This was by far the best food that I ate the entire trip. We stayed in a very quaint B&B and unfortunately didn't get the room that we had thought we were going to because of a mix up but it was still a fabulous place to stay.
Sunday: They fixed us a delicious breakfast, which we enjoyed with a gay couple that were super nice. They were from Atlanta and came up here just for the Halloween parade/party last night. They shared with us pictures of their costumes from the night before and we discussed how whenever the gays move into a neighborhood they always seem to clean it up, make it "the place to be" and then get run out of town by the rich families. Provincetown is a very quaint artist town. It's beautiful but if you are homophobic at all - this is not the place for you. We absolutely loved every minute of our time there.
We headed down the Cape back towards Boston. We found someone who would give us a massage on Sunday in Chatham - so we stopped for massages. While I was getting a massage Megan checked on the status of her flight out of Boston the next morning. Turns out - it was cancelled due to the incoming Hurricane Sandy! So we headed for home and arrived in Trumbull later Sunday evening.
Monday: We slept in! I think it was 10 am before I even rolled over and I don't think we got moving until around 11 am. We were beat! Work and school was cancelled for me and Brett and Megan got to hang out with us through the storm. I will have more details on the storm in my next post....
Tuesday: Megan was able to make it to the airport and finally arrived home on Wednesday at roughly 1 pm Juneau time. She had spend more than 24 hours traveling home. We are sure glad we got to weather the storm with us and made it home safely just in time to spend Halloween with her boys.
We had a fabulous Girls week and can't wait to do it again in a new location next year!
