Central Park

To say goodbye to New York we stopped off at Central Park before we headed back to the airport.  

Central Park is gorgeous with many different trails and hidden gems.  It was a beautiful day to just explore and meander around.

Love this beautiful tribute to John Lennon.

 Fall was just starting to hit NYC.  Just wish I could've seen it at its height!

 oh and we found the other side of the Harry Potter theater and had to take a shot at the cool entrance.

It was a perfect girls weekend.  Just the right amount of time to be in this city I think.  Got to see all the highlights and experience the best of Broadway.  I'll have to come back and take Carson with me next time.  He'd love it!

Harry Potter and the High Line

Our Harry Potter play was almost a full day event, because it really is two full plays with intermission and a two hour break in between the two plays.  Making it a 4 hour play plus 2 hour break for a total of 6 hours!

So before we had to make it to our play we decided to get our exercise in by walking the High Line.  The high line used to be an old railway line that the neighborhood had converted to a park/walkway.  It was so cool!  Yeah to the neighborhood activist who pulled this off, because it really is now a wonderful addition to New York.

Afterwords we stopped off at Chelsea Market to do some window shopping.

 Now onto the main event!!

I must say it truly was magical!  I could not believe all the special effects and magic that they used in this show.  It was like nothing I'd ever seen.

 Dinner break between shows.  We found this cool hot spot which had a few different restaurants.  We went here a couple times we loved it so much.  This time I got the lobster roll and lobster bisque.  A lot of lobster I know, but the both sounded so good and was amazing!

 It really was amazing to see how they redesigned this theater just for Harry Potter.  The lights were pheonix's, wall paper and carpets with the letter H.  But the most coolest thing happened in the play (spoiler for those who may want to skip this part) at one point they turned on a black light and the whole theater lit up in hidden words.  But my favorite part was when the dementors (death ghosts who suck your soul) just dropped from the ceiling and flew over the audience.  We had front row mezzanine seats and the dementor flew right at me I could almost touch it.  I about near had a heart attack!

We did the sorting hat quiz to see what houses we'd be put into.  I'm Hufflepuff and Talyn is Ravenclaw

 The play was way better then I ever could have imagined!  Truly one of the coolest plays I have ever seen.  It was so worth coming to New York to see.  I may have to bring Carson here in future.  He'd love it.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

What better way to round out our sightseeing day in New York than to see the most iconic New York monument; the Statue of Liberty.

There she is!  She is just as grand as I always thought she would be.  Loved knowing that this was the sight that greeted so many to America.  Even my own great-grandparents.

 The view Lady Liberty has of  New York.

 Cute little museum of the statue of liberty.  Loved watching the video that they had that explains the history and making of the statue.

It was nice to walk around the little island and bask in the views!

 We then took the ferry to Ellis Island.

 I will admit I was really disappointed in the museum, not sure what I was expecting, but it was better then this.

 Knowing that my grandma's parents came through here I was really hoping to find their names, unfortunately you had to pay $$ to just use the computer to look it up and I decided it wasn't worth it.

 Probably my favorite part was looking at these old passports.

After we finished we were about to catch the ferry when we felt last minute decided to catch the next one and just walk around the grounds, and I'm so glad we did.

 because we then came across this monument:  A list of all the immigrants that came through.  Now this is what I was hoping to find on the inside of the museum!  And it ended up being right here outside on the side of the building.

 Looking for my grandma's parents, and I found her dad.  It was a touching moment.  He and my great-grandmother (who I do remember, she passed away when I was 8) immigrated from Germany as the Nazi power began to rise.  How grateful I am for their sacrifice.

 This find was a highlight of the day!

Herman Bender:

After our ferry ride back, we ended up back at the 9/11 memorial to see it at night.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.

To cap off our long day we ate at one of the most yummiest burger places, that also had this amazing milkshake.  It tasted just as wonderful as it looks. It was a good day in NYC.