New York was more than a year in the making with so much time spent budgeting, planning and booking things. My sister hopped on board the NYC train a year ago when I told her that if she saved enough money she could come with.
New York costs a lot of money so I really didn't think she'd come, up until I bought the plane tickets in late February I kept thinking she'd bail. Instead that girl surprised me and with me being her savings account for the necessary stuff and her saving her own spending money she had more than enough money to come on an adventure of a life time. I am very proud of her.
I am so very glad she came with, as much as I love traveling with John it was so nice to share with one of my other best friends too.
Anyway on to New York. The day before we were to leave I took the dogs to the groomer so they'd be nice and clean for my parents. While picking them up the groomer said that Enna ruptured an anal gland, truthfully I think there was help in the rupturing since she was fine when I dropped her off. Of course most live sources and the internet told me to take her to the vet, only problem....we were GETTING READY TO LEAVE FOR NEW YORK!!!
If you know me at all you know that I'd do anything for that little dog which usually involves large amounts of money, but this time I went with my gut (and a holistic site that said that really only 25% of dogs need the antibiotics for a ruptured anal gland) and didn't take her to the vet. Of course my head usually disagrees with my gut so I still worried a ton when we left the Littles with my parents. I gave them a credit card and instructions to take her to the vet if she gets bad.
Our flight was at 8AM so we had to be at the airport early. While sitting at the terminal my sister nudged me and excitedly pointed out a lady who was Audra McDonald. Of course she got a blank stare from me while I sipped my Jamba Juice because I don't watch Private Practice, but it was the first of our celebrity sitings and Mary seemed pleased.
Once we were in New York we took a taxi to our home for the next 10 days. Taxis are just how they seem in movies, they don't care about basic traffic laws or lanes and if you get motion sickness easy I suggest taking a dramamine.
After we arrived and got settled in we tried to find a grocery store to buy our dinners for the next few days. Easier than it sounds, after a lot of walking we found a grocer and experienced New York shopping. It looked like the bottom floors of multiple buildings were converted into the store, but besides from breaking down connecting walls, they didn't change the layouts. Some of the food was stored in coat closet type locations. The aisle ways are so narrow that only one skinny person can make it down, good luck if you have a hand basket. Food prices really didn't seem anymore different than utah prices and I could have set up a cot and lived in their cheese aisle.
It was the cutest place ever, but I'm sure it would get old fast on busy days with lots of people shopping.
After putting away groceries we went out for dinner and thought with the name "Hot and Crusty" the pizza had to be good, um that was a no. More like warmed up Little Ceaser's. We then called it a night and went back to the apartment for some much needed sleep.
The next morning we started off at the Natural History Museum since it was close to our apartment. We had bought the New York Pass where you can get into 80+ attractions for a much cheaper price. With everything we did we saved over $200 a person, from now on if we used the pass to do the activity I'll write NYP next to it.
Well the Natural History Museum (NYP) web site said to plan an hour there, but when we got there the guy checking us in said it would take 3 days to see everything. We took our time for the first hour, but we were running out of time so we booked it through the rest of the museum. Oh and P.S. the museum looks nothing like it does in the movie Night At The Museum. Turns out that only the exterior was used for the movie, the rest was shot on a sound stage in LA.
This was what the lobby looks like, two dinosaurs across from each other, not just one big T-Rex and not round.
Out of everything different from the movie the jungle room is what upset me the most :( no Capuchin monkeys hanging from vines. The elephants were the closest thing to the movie, the rest of the animals were in glass displays around the elephants.
After the museum we walked through Central Park to the Central Park Zoo, which is also isn't like the movie. No lions, zebras or giraffes, but there were lemurs that sang, "We like to move it, move it!" every hour on the hour...okay I made that part up, but there were lemurs.
I'm sure this looks familiar to everyone. If you happen to be in New York and want to go to the zoo, to see this you have to go through the park to the entrance and not just around the park....I'm sure that made no sense, but it will if you go to the zoo.
The zoo had the coolest bird and small mammals house, it reminded me of the reptile house at Hoogle Zoo, but it didn't smell and was cooler. The center room, the bird enclosure, was huge and all the small mammals were around it under waterfalls and in dark caves. Every enclosure blended in seamlessly.
They even had my most favorite primate of all time, the cotton top tamarin! I adore these little creatures and was so happy to see them.
The zoo only took maybe an hour to get through and after we stayed for the sea lion feeding and show.
After the zoo it was time to find Tiffany's & Co. and spend some money! I bought some earrings and Mary bought a ring. It was a crazy building with 4 floors full of jewelry, china and purses!
We also saw the crazy apple store that's all underground.
We also walked down to time square, but with how many times we saw it I'll save that for another time.
We walked back up to our apartment after and had dinner so we could turn in for the night for our next busy day!
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