New York | Day 3

Day 3 | May 2nd

Our third day in New York we headed over to the 9/11 Memorial. But first the traditional leaving the hotel picture.

  We saw the Freedom Tower being built and tried to get into the memorial but we weren't aware that you had to have tickets. So instead we walked around the visitor's center. We saw the chopper that Paul Jr. Designs built for the memorial. We had watched the episode on tv when he built this bike so it was cool to be able to see it in person. They also had a lot of displays of the wreckage that has been saved. It was pretty interesting reading about a lot of people's stories the day the towers fell.

We had a few minutes so we walked down Wall Street. We weren't really prepared for the cold, rainy weather that day so when we say a TJ Maxx on Wall Street we stopped in and got Adam a sweatshirt and me some rain boots. Luckily we brought umbrellas so we were pretty warm after that. I wanted to see more of Wall Street, such as the Wall Street Bull, but we didn't have enough time:(

A few months before we went to New York I found a great deal on a Helicopter ride over the city so we decided to book it. This was seriously one of my favorite things we did the whole time we were in New York. Unfortunately, it was overcast and rainy but luckily the views were still amazing. I thought I would be scared and get so sick in a helicopter but that didn't happen at all. I was just soaking in the experience the whole time.

There were 4 other passengers and the pilot that all flew in the helicopter. There were 5 seats in the back and 1 seat up in the front with the pilot. They sat me in the front and I think I had the best view out of everyone. It was so awesome!! I could see everywhere we were going while everyone in the back had to just look out the side of the heli.

Our ride was 20 mins long and it flew past the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, past the financial district and the World Trade Center, up past the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, all along Central Park and then turned around at the Yankees Stadium and came back.

We decided to not take the ferry out the the Statue of Liberty because it was closed for the year for maintenance but the helicopter ride gave us a way better view than I think we could have gotten any other way. If you ever go to New York I would recommend taking a helicopter ride. It was worth every penny!

With the deal I got for the heli ride it gave us 2 free pictures that they took of us. So we got a picture of me and Adam and one of me and the pilot. Luckily we got them for free because they were $20 each. There is no way I would have paid that.

After we headed back to our hotel for a second to get Adam some different shoes and get some tickets to the 9/11 memorial. Then we stopped to eat at Shake Shack. I had heard pretty great things about this place so we thought we would give it a try. The prices were pretty amazing for New York. Adam said his Hamburger was amazing, and the fries and shake were fantastic too. My hot dog was just ok, but since I don't like hamburgers that is what I got stuck with.

We got to the memorial and they told us we had to go to another location to print off our tickets we had reserved at another location. So after an hour round trip walk we finally made it back to the memorial and some worker lady was just handing out tickets to anyone that didn't have one. We were so made we just walked so long for no reason.

But after a walk through security we got into the memorial. It was a pretty cool experience. They have huge fountains in the footprints of both buildings and each person's name that died engraved into the side. We spent awhile just walking around and talking. It was so peaceful in there. Such a contrast to the busy loud city just outside the walls of the memorial.

We headed over to the Manhattan Temple after. I always love going to see temples whenever we are in a new city. When my mom and I came to New York they gave us a tour of the some of the temple. Upstairs is a chapel that some of the wards meet in. How cool would that be to go to church each Sunday in the temple!?! But we took some pictures and walked inside.

We stopped by Trader Joe's to check it out. We didn't end up buying anything but we did love escalators they had for the carts. I am mad though that I didn't buy the chocolate covered potatoes chips. :)

We went over to Sprinkles cupcakes to get these amazing cupcakes I had heard so much about.  I ended up getting a strawbery, smores, chocolate marshmallow and a chile Mexican one. These were the most moist delicious cupcakes I have ever had. I will kill for another one right now. The only one that was weird was the Mexican one but the other flavors were amazing.

 Our next stop was Dylan's Candy Bar. They had every kind of candy imaginable. It was fun walking around checking everything out. Adam was a little overwhelmed by all the gummy candy they had (his favorite candy).  We bought a few cute candies to share later on.

After a little bit more shopping around we were so tired and our feet were sore. We headed back to our hotel and ordered in some pizza and enjoyed our treats as a late night snack. We even got to Skype Brooklyn before we headed to bed.