Wonderful Vacation

What a wonderful time we had in NYC! I absolutely love that place! There is never enough time to see everything! We started our trip off on May 19th we left Illinois and headed to White Plains NY which is where we stayed. We spent the night in Columbus OH and then headed to rest of the way on the 20th. The trip started out a little rough- I picked Bradyn up from daycare and for the first 2 hours of the trip he was extremely fussy. I thought boy this is going to be a long trip! However, after that he was fine. Not sure what that was all about.



We arrived safely in NY that evening and went to dinner. On Thursday, we went and did some sightseeing. Bob had never been to NYC. We took the train into the city and went to the Empire State Building. What a beautiful day it was to go there. There was not a cloud in the sky and the view was awesome. We bought a bus tour package on one of those double decker buses so we rode that around the city and got to see where a lot of stars live- including Jeff Gordon!! We spent some time in central park just walking around and enjoying the nice weather. Bob's parents arrived this day also so we met up with them when we got back to our hotel.

Bradyn was happy to see Bama and Papa!



On Friday, we didn't have much time to do anything because wedding rehearsal started at 2. So we decided to go to the mall and walk around. Then Bob went to the rehearsal and we ate lunch and did a little more shopping. Then Bob's parents took me to the rehearsal and they babysat Bradyn for us. Bob and I went to the rehearsal dinner at the Boathouse Restaurant in central park. What a beautiful evening it was overlooking the water. It was a neat place. We rode with another couple that was in the wedding party. We had a nice evening and it was only the 4th time that we have been out by ourselves. However, the trip back was not fun. The Indian priests and their wives lost their car in the middle of NYC. Yep that's right. We all packed into a minivan and drove around central park for a hour looking for their car at 10:30 at night. NOT FUN! We did eventually find it and headed back to the botanical gardens to pick up our car.



Saturday was the wedding ceremonies.They were at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was a once in a lifetime experience. The morning ceremony was an Indian ceremony. Very neat to see. Then we had Indian food for lunch (the first for me0 it was very yummy!) then we went back to our hotel room to relax, shower and change clothes and Bradyn took a nap. Bob stayed with the wedding party to get pics taken. Then we went back to the gardens for the evening ceremony which was to be outside but they were calling for a chance of rain so they moved it indoors. Both ceremonies were beautiful and the reception was fun. The food at the evening reception was unbelievable. Bradyn was a real trooper all day. Several people commented on how he was an ANGEL! He was awake until about 11:30pm and then crashed. We got back to our room around 1am.



Sunday we would have liked to get and early start but we were exhausted from the night before so we slept in. We took the train into the city again and went to Ground Zero, Times Square and several other places. Ground zero is something to see. The pics on TV don't really show how big of an area was affected. It was really heart wrenching to see. There was a really nice museum there and a church that you could walk through that housed all the volunteers. Almost 8 years later it still brings tears to my eyes to think of everything that happened that day.



On Monday, we took the train into the city and got brave and rode the subway all day long. That is the way to go! We went to the Statue of Liberty and back to Ground zero because we had missed a few things there the day before. We went to central park to relax a little and Bradyn burned some energy off there. We went back to times square and ate dinner at Planet Hollywood. We really put some miles on this day!



Tuesday, we headed home. We spent the night in PA and got to visit with my parents, grandma, sister and Bob's sister and family. It was a short visit but we are glad we got to see everyone. We headed home on Wednesday. Bradyn did great on the he trip home. He was so tired he slept almost half the trip! He said he was going home to see"B, Belle (our cats) and my toys!" The kid went through toy withdrawal!



I took Thursday off to get caught up on laundry and get Bradyn back into his routine and Bob went to work. Back to work for me on Friday- UGH! We have just been taking it easy this weekend.



I have lots of pics to post - will probably do several posts to get them all up! Have a great week!