New York

I recently took a little trip. Ok, a BIG trip. To New York! My sister moved there about 6 months ago and I was dying to see what her life was like there. We had never pinned down exactly when I might come and then it hit me...her birthday is in March. And, I should surprise her. So, I gathered a team of sneaky confidants (i.e. boyfriend and close friend) to help me make this happen. It was so much fun to plan and to dream about executing. I had a mini-panic moment when the plane took of from Wichita doubting the genius behind this plan.  What if she already made her own plans? What if barging in on someone for 4 days is incredibly rude...not surprisingly fun as I hoped? What if our plan for meeting failed and she found out before hand? But soon I settled in and realized that Kelsey is like the best host ever, that her closest friends all knew and wouldn't let her make plans on her own, and no matter how she found out it would be a surprise!

I got into town in the afternoon and made my way to her apartment to drop my bag off with the help of her boyfriend. Then, we went to the designated restaurant to wait for her to get off work and meet him there. The moment she came around the corner and saw me there (after a double take) was the best! To say she was surprised would be an understatement. We may have both teared up. It was fantastic. : )

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a cheese tray. Yum!

Excuse the blurry pictures. Everything happened so fast.

"You're in New York!!"

Once the stress of pulling off the biggest surprise I've ever been a part of was over, I was able to relax and had an amazing rest of the week catching up with Kels and seeing ALL of Manhattan.

This is the view from Kelsey's apartment. Those trees down the street are Central park.
It's easy to get sucked into staring out the window all day.

Of course we hit up Central Park. It was as wonderful as I thought it would be.
You know, from movies.

We did a run through the Museum of Natural History.

The ocean section was my favorite. There is something so mesmerizing about ocean life.

A subway ride. Yes, we have the same hat.

This is one of the several new World Trade Center towers going up.

This is one of the Memorial Pools. It sits exactly where the tower was and is the same exact size.
It was very emotional and moving. There is a lot of work left to do but it is clear that it will
be a very powerful tribute to those who lost their lives.

The second pool with my panoramic feature on my iphone. Hard to grasp how big and serene it really was.

The "Survivor Tree". You can see on the branches where it was broken off at and where new growth has taken place. Also powerful.

Here's the info on the tree.

On Friday Kels had to work so I took off on my own. I headed to some of the places that I wanted to see but figured Kelsey didn't really want to have to be drug to again.

Like...

A boat tour.

The governor's island.

The ol' Lady Liberty herself and me.

Brooklyn Bridge

The bull.

Trinity Church

New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street

World Financial Center

And that evening came my second favorite activity next to surprising Kelsey.....NEWSIES. On Broadway!!  It was all that I had hoped for and more. I seriously had sore cheeks from smiling. Loved it!

After the show we were in Times Square so we did that.

Then over to Rockefeller Plaza

And Grand Central Station

Have you heard of this arch in Grand Central? You stand on one side and someone on the other side talks into the wall. It travels across the arch and you can hear the person perfectly on your side. It was strange.

On my last day there we did a lot of shopping. Soho, China Town, Little Italy....
We even saw Meg Ryan when we were on a street that I couldn't afford a single thing on.

Teenie, tiny cupcakes you buy on the street. It's a good thing we don't have that here.
They're dangerous.

That evening was my last one. We had a bigger shin-dig with more of Kelsey's friends to celebrate her birthday. Dinner then off to a karaoke. We got a cozy little room to ourselves and had a blast spending a couple hours screaming all of our favorite songs at each other. It was a great time.

It was a wonderful trip. I love knowing more about the town my favorite sister has fallen for and, let's be honest, it was refreshing to have a few days break from my world here. There are certainly few comparisons! I'm so blessed to have such amazing family here who happily stepped in so I could have this adventure. It took a lot of people to pull this off and I couldn't say thank you enough!