NYC

this shouldn't surprise you but we ventured to the big apple this last weekend. we had made plans back in august to meet mark's cousin and her family up there. ben decided to join us. we left work around 3 on friday and drove through horrendous traffic and finally made it to the hotel around 10. then we met up with our peeps, marilyn, steve, chris and daniel, and had a driving tour of the city. we saw 42nd street, times square, yankee stadium, broadway, central park, the east river, the guggenheim, moma, the mormon temple and other sights throughout town. then we went back to our hotel and fell exhausted into bed. the next morning we woke up and went to the train station (we stayed in secaucus, nj) and went into the city for breakfast at zabar's. yummy. then we went to battery park, saw lady liberty, hello lady.
there she is between our heads. (ps, mark makes fun of this hat.)

then we walked over to ground zero. it is amazing how big of a hole there is and what a huge construction site it is. it was surreal to see.

then we went to china town and little italy. holy hannah, there are so many people in new york. it is crazy. of course we bought some knockoffs and of course we had yummy italian food.
then we went to central park and looked around for awhile and we rested on this bench. here we are, me, marilyn, steve, ben, chris and daniel.

next we went to rockefeller center. again, so many people. i really wanted to see the ice skating ring but there were too many people crowding around so i saw the ice but there were no good photo ops. boo. the tree was fun to see though.

also there was a huge lake of pennies by the tree, so many pennies. i hate pennies when they are in my pocket or wallet or purse but they looked cool here. i read in the paper that there were over 10,000,000 pennies collected for charity.
then we went to times square and looked around. there is much to see and such good people watching.
then we headed back to jersey. while we were waiting for the shuttle from the hotel, ben decided he wanted to look like an old russian woman. endearing.
after a nice night's sleep, we rode the train in to the city again and we went to see cirque du soleil at madison square garden. here is mark sitting dejectedly on the stairs of the garden.

here is the smith family
i waited here for a miracle, none occurred.
and here we are so happy that we came to NYC. what a fun trip.