New York City.

On Saturday morning, Sean and I took the New Jersey Transit from Newark to Penn Station. Upon arriving and exiting the train, my first thoughts were that New York City was a wild combination of big and bright, loud and fast. There were people everywhere, people from everywhere. I was struck by both the diversity and the uniqueness (which is putting it nicely in some cases) of the people around me. I knew I was walking into unknown territory, which was part of the excitement, but it was still an experience being thrust into the pace of NYC.

On the train, headed toward Penn Station!

There were car horns blaring, people practically walking out into oncoming traffic, folks yelling at us in an effort to sell or hand us things. There were homeless folks holding signs that read things like "Need Money For Pot, Pizza, and Beer". (I do appreciate the honesty, I guess.) This North Carolina girl was slightly overwhelmed. I clung tightly to Sean as we navigated the streets, and through the sea of people, leading us to Times Square. I've seen pictures of New York City, and I've seen various parts of it on television and in movies, so it was quite incredible to find myself there.

We may have had a little too much fun in the huge Toys R Us!

Sean searched high and low, literally, for a specific car, from the movie Cars, that our kids don't yet have. I took this picture to show Gracie and Ethan that their Daddy gave his best effort!

We honestly went without much of a plan for the day. We knew there were certain places we wanted to see, such as the Empire State Building, Times Square, and the 9/11 Memorial, and things we wanted to do, like eat real New York-style pizza, but we just sort of walked. We walked miles, from Midtown Manhattan to Lower Manhattan, like nearly 3 miles of the city. It was interesting to go from the very commercial, touristy blocks to the much quieter, residential ones. It was no surprise that Lower Manhattan appealed more to Sean and I. We saw many residents of the various apartment buildings leisurely walking their dogs, bringing home bags of groceries from Whole Foods, or relaxing in the windows of tiny coffee shops. It was a cold walk, but I'm so glad we chose to travel those streets by foot. There is so much we would have missed had we jumped on the underground subway instead.

John's Pizzeria - Hawaiian Thin Crust Pizza - Yum!

We actually did jump on the subway about a mile from the 9/11 Memorial, because we were cold and starting to feel hungry and tired. By that time it was well into late afternoon. We were so glad we were able to visit the Memorial in honor of all of those who lost their lives to those 9/11 attacks. It was incredibly surreal to see how there appeared to be an endless list of names. My pictures did not do this justice.

For dinner that evening, we enjoyed a burger and ribs at Planet Hollywood, then took the train back to Newark! We were worn out, but enjoyed going through pictures and talking about our adventure in the city.

The following morning, Sean headed into work for a couple more hours. We then drove about 20 minutes to Staten Island, where we killed a few more hours in the mall and having brunch at a local diner. The funny part of our diner experience was that there was no diversity there. If you didn't have dark hair and an olive complexion, you stood out. So, needless to say, Sean and I stood out rather obviously. The food, however, was fantastic and the people there were extremely nice! After brunch, we returned our rental car and prepared for our flights home.

The picture below was taken on Friday evening, after dinner in Newark, New Jersey. The waitress picked up on my southern accent and told us that we were "too nice to be from Jersey". Haha!

I'm so thankful I was able to travel with Sean for this trip. Many thanks go to his mother, who drove from Virginia to stay with the kids. I am certainly hopeful that I'll have this opportunity again. It was a Happy 14th Anniversary/Happy 30th Birthday/Happy Valentine's Day weekend to be remembered.