New York- Day 3 and 4

...Today, this post will be photo heavy. On Saturday and Sunday, we saw some sites and we did even more shopping.

I wish I had Krista's explaination for this statue. I read the plaque, still didn't understand it, so she told me what it means in her own words. Basically, it is symbolic of good vs. evil and if Krista would like to tell you more, I'll let her. :)
The statue was a part of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and here is the church above. It was a beautiful church and being in the Upper West Side, it was also very peaceful. Not as many people and not as much traffic. We could actually talk while walking down the sidewalks and not have to walk one in front of another. That was a nice change of pace.

The church was nice but they were still fixing it after a fire in 2000 or 2002, I can't remember. Here I am at the American Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs took up most of the 4th floor and they were amazing. There were also prehistoric skeletons of giant sloths, mammoths, giant turtles and horses with really skinny legs. I liked the museum. I think it made me miss the boys because I knew they would have enjoyed seeing those things a lot. I guess I'll have to come back with them one day.
This photo is of Central Park. I can see now why Central Park is such an important part of New York City. There aren't many trees anywhere else in the city, and this is also a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of things. We walked pretty much straight across the park to get to 5th Avenue on the other side.

Krista and I split up from Mom and Jana to do some shopping and when the two of us got back to the hotel, we had a near celebrity siting: Debbie Phelps, Michael Phelps' mom, was walking out of our hotel! "Krista, Krista, there's Debbie Phelps!" "She's here...because...Michael's here!!" we both shouted. Michael Phelps was going to host Saturday Night Live that night. Just 2 blocks from our hotel! I was so excited. I even thought about waiting in the lobby that night (or early morning) to see if I could catch him coming in, but I decided not to. That would have been silly. :)

Saturday night we went to Brasserie 8 1/2 for our birthday celebration (Jana's birthday was on Monday, mine will be this coming Monday). We had the most fun. The food was wonderful and the drinks were great but the company was the best. I really feel very lucky to have my sisters and mom. I am so glad we came on this trip together and hope we do more trips together.

Sunday:

We took the subway to downtown so we could see the Statue of Liberty and the WTC site. We came across this though on the way to the statue. There were many flags like this at Battery Park. They had the names of the fallen heroes from 9-11. It was a beautiful site. This is the spere that was in front of the World Trade Center buildings. It was damaged, as you can see, but they brought it to Battery Park for a temporary memorial. The eternal flame was lit exactly one year after 9-11. It was sad to me to see this in person.And this is the site of the World Trade Center. Not much to see obviously. It is hard to believe there once were two towers that stood so far above everything right there.
Every time I look at this photo, it makes me laugh. The duck is almost as big as the statue! That is about how far away we were. I didn't care though. I still thought it was cool to see. What a great symbol it has been for so many. Krista shot this photo of me trying to get everything into the one suitcase I brought with me. It was not easy, let me tell you!
The final photo is one of the four of us, ready to go to our Broadway show. I loved The Lion King! It was so fantastic! By now, our feet were killing us, they were so tired, but we put on our nice shoes anyway because this was our last thing we were going to do.

After the show, we walked down Times Square area and decided to eat at a diner that was across the street from The Lehman Brothers. There was a huge crowd and many tv cameras just watching the building. I have to admit, I had no idea what was going on until I asked.

Well, that was my trip. I loved every minute of it and definitely want to go back. Now I am back and this week has been a struggle to get back in the groove of mommyhood. Laundry, cooking, sports and doctor's appointments... But I was so glad to see my boys.

Later.