NYC and New Jersey

We just returned from a FANTASTIC weekend in New Jersey

and New York City!

This trip was made possible by three special groups of people:

1. My WONDERFUL sister, Ann, had extra airline miles that were going to expire, so she shared them with us.  We were able to fly to New Jersey for FREE. 

THANK YOU, Ann!

2. Our DEAR FRIENDS, Kim and Chad, live in New Jersey, and we were blessed by their hospitality.  We stayed in their beautiful home and created many special memories over the weekend.

THANK YOU, Kim and Chad!

3. My GENEROUS parents who stayed back in Florida with our little munchkins.  Our getaway weekend was free from worry knowing that our littlest loves were in good hands...GREAT hands!

THANK YOU, Mom and Dad!

We spent all of Thursday in New York City.

 One of our first stops was to see The Today Show being filmed in Rockefeller Center.  You can faintly see Kathy Lee and Hoda behind the screen.

 We went on a mad search for a salt bagel.
Who knew they were such a rare commodity?!

 LOVE in NYC!

 Central Park Zoo

 I don't think we'll ever visit a new city without also visiting its zoo.

 Chillin' in Central Park

 It was amazing to find such a beautiful park (6.2 miles long)
in the heart of such a booming city!

 This is one of the new towers being built to replace the Trade Center towers.

 This video shows the 9/11 Memorial

 "Remembering Absence" is the name of the 9/11 Memorial area, and there are two enormous fountains that are on the exact footprint of where the Twin Towers used to stand.  It was incredibly powerful seeing the 2,997 names that surrounded the fountains.  If you're ever in NYC, you need to visit this site!

 A glimpse of the Statue of Liberty

 We didn't make it to the ferry in time to ride over to Ellis Island,
but we were able to see the Statue of Liberty from afar.

 Battery Park

 The BUZZ of Grand Central Station

 Dessert...ahhh...sweet dessert!  :)

 My cousin, Danny, lives in NYC.  He joined us for dinner, and it was wonderful connecting with family in the midst of such a busy place. 

 Phil and Danny enjoyed some gourmet oysters.

 In the middle of Times Square = CRAZY!

The majority of our trip was spent in New Jersey...with the DeJagers!

 We went hiking with Kim and Kassidy.

 Phil's highlight of the hike, and perhaps the entire trip,
was seeing some snakes during our hike.

 As you can imagine, Phil doesn't have a normal person's response to snakes.  He gets right in their space and pokes, prods, and photographs while the rest of us stand back.

 The "Hi-Point" of our hike provided a beautiful view of New Jersey 

and New York City from a distance.

We had New York style pizza at a tasty place called Grimaldi's.

 We spent Saturday evening in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Carlo's Bakery, from The Cake Boss, is in Hoboken...

but we didn't want to wait in the extremely long line, so we got ice cream instead.

 This is a view of NYC from Hoboken.

We had a wonderful weekend...one of our all-time favorite getaways.

Thank you to all of the people who made it possible.