This is New YORK

Here we are back at the JFK international airport waiting to board our flight to Iceland than connecting onto Paris. In lieu of such an occasion I decided to indulge in one last ultra American deed…the McDonald’s cheeseburger.

Yes I know there are Mcdonald’s virtually everywhere in the world, but I have the goal of refraining from American eateries while in Europe.

So how did we get here, you ask? Well let me tell you!

These past four days have been quite an interesting experience. First off I want to thank Google maps for making the New York Metro quite easily navigable, especially once we first arrived in New York.

While we were in New York we lodged in the historical site called House of the Redeemer in the Upper West Side. This place was awesome! Built in the early 1900’s for the lodging of a Vanderbilt family member, it was quite the experience. They still have the original elevator and we had to take three different flights of stairs which mazes around the house in order to reach our fourth floor residence. My favorite room in this place was probably the library, as you can see it is quite a beautiful room and even equipped with a secret passageway.

The first day (September 10) we visited a lot of the iconic New York sites such as:

Grand Central Station

Times Square

Staten Island

Ferry ride back to Manhattan

The Staten Island ferry ride was probably my favorite part of the day; it provided sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. On the way back from Staten Island we saw this set up:

It was preparation for the September 11 remembrance service the following day. Standing at this park looking at the park than raising my eyes towards the sky and seeing the nearly completed Freedom Tower and one of the remaining light beams shoot into the sky, really made this tragedy hit home for me. It is one thing watching the footage on television, but when I was walking in the footsteps others had walked when this occurred, it made an impact.

As for the next day, we woke up early in order to get to ground zero by 8:46 am, the time the first plane hit the tower. Unfortunately the remembrance service was closed to the public at ground zero that day. However, on our way to go get breakfast, Lexi overheard this conversation a man was having with a group of girls and said we should stop. Thankfully she did because we were able to hear the account of how this man worked in the second twin tower on the 77th floor. The plane hit this building between floors 78 and 84, and this man was able to make it all the way down before the collapse. 

Can you imagine that? A plane hits your work place, the safe haven that you regularly go to everyday. Now imagine that the plane not only hits your workplace but a portion of it takes out the floor directly above you, then having to descend 77 stories in an environment of chaos and confusion. Hearing this story gave me chills, reminding how precious is this gift of life that we have.

C.S. Lewis once spoke the words “this moment contains all moments”, and his words never wrung truer than they did in that moment, and what a gift it was to hear his story first hand, and the only thing I could do afterward was praise God for this miracle.

Brooklyn Bridge

Soho, a.k.a "South of Houston"

Wednesday September 12

Alexi and I got a late start to the morning and headed for the New York Botanical Gardens

The New York Botanical Gardens i.e. "Where the White People Go".
We took the subway to harlem then took a train to the gardens located in the
Bronx. There was sadly quite a stark difference between the economic status of the two places.

After the gardens we went to Phatom of the Opera! We bought tickets in the very last row for under 30 bucks then the  usher  felt bad for us moved us to the next section, and we sat in nearly $100 seats...so awesome! Thank you Lord!

After the show we walked around time square

Look who we ran into (hint: ice ice baby)

On the way to the hotel after the opera, some people we struck up a conversation with gave us their tickets to  the live with Kelly and Michael show for the next morning. This is us at the show (Sept 13)

Thank you all for following our adventures. We are onto Paris, France.

See you next time!