east coast trip, part 2

the day after our day trip to philadelphia was a saturday and we had plans to go into new york city -- just the two of us. laura hadn't been there before and we were excited to do a few things in the city.


we took the train from new jersey into penn station in new york and rode the subway up to columbus circle. just across the street from columbus circle is the southwest corner of central park, which was the first item on our to-do list for the day.


the flowers were starting to bloom all over and we had a really nice walk through the park -- along with thousands of other new yorkers who were taking advantage of the first nice spring day of the year.


one of us took this picture (we don't remember who) and we really like it. it kind of sums up the weather we had that day.


our second item on our list was to visit the metropolitan museum of art ("the met"), which is located on the east side of central park. we were able to browse through many of the different exhibits and sections of the museum, with our favorite being displays of different room and interior furnishings, most being fancy french styles from the 1600-1700s.


next on our to-do list was to eat a late lunch/early dinner, preferably at a little burger place called shake shack. after a bus ride and a longer-than-austin-had-expected walk to find a subway station, we made it to shake shack only to find the lines were two or three times longer than austin had ever seen them during his summer in new york a few years ago.

we didn't realize how crazy it would be on a saturday that was (a) the first real spring weather of the year, (b) during spring break for many of the schools in new york and new jersey, and (c) over a holiday (easter) weekend. we walked a while longer and had some tasty thai food, did a little bit of shopping, and headed home early so austin could go to the priesthood session of conference with ty and braden.

we enjoyed our first day in new york, but it was exhausting and we were happy to have sunday to recover. we were also happy to have plans to go back on monday with braden. we were hoping that there would be fewer people and get a more normal new york experience and we were right.


braden wanted to see ground zero, so after coming in on the train again, we took the subway down to the financial district in new york and got off at the world trade center station, which we imagine was a much busier stop ten years ago. there's really not a ton to see there as they've started construction on a new building and a memorial at the site. across the street, however, is trinity church, one of the oldest churches in new york and an important memorial during the aftermath of 9/11.


behind us you can see what is currently happening at the world trade center site -- they have construction barracades up, and they're already at work on the next building.


laura wanted to see the statue of liberty but didn't care to do a ferry trip this time around. since we were down on the south end of manhattan, we were able to walk down to the shore and get a good view of the statue and ellis island.


luckily it was a clear day and we were able to see the statue pretty well.


we decided to try again at shake shack, and although the line was long, it was much shorter than saturday's disaster. laura said that the food was as good as austin claimed it to be, and braden agreed. but also we all agreed that we don't mind having in-n-out burger -- almost as good, but for 1/3 of the cost -- back at home in utah.

after visiting some stores, including a niketown (which braden raved about afterwards) and the apple store (where braden tested the ipad, which he also raved about afterwards), we met one of austin's design classmates and his wife for pizza at a legendary place called lombardi's. unfortunately we were so busy talking and enjoying the pizza that we forgot our camera.


the final stop on our second day in new york was times square at night, something else laura wanted to experience. it was a fun way to end a fun day in new york city.


times square is the pinnacle of sensory bombardment -- not even vegas can top all the signs and video and messaging and advertising packed into this small area of real estate in new york.

we had a much better time our second day in new york, but were also ready for a more low-key day on tuesday before more action-packed vacationing for the rest of the week.

coming soon -- east coast trip, part 3: austin and laura visit the shore in jersey and the amish in pennsylvania -- stay tuned!