Christmas Break: Day One

I'm doing the Christmas break in fragments, because we did A LOT in a little amount of time.

We left the island and flew straight to New York City. We originally had a 9 hour layover, so we decided to just spend the night there and see the sights the next day! It was SUPER fun! I can't believe how much we got done in one day. I didn't even take pictures of everything, so you'll just have to believe me :) Keep in mind, we did all of this with a stroller and a baby. We never took a taxi ONCE in the city. We walked or took the Subway. Let me tell you - the New York subway system is NOT stroller friendly!
Here we are just getting on the shuttle on our way to our hotel. It was fuh-reezing! Ella was nice and bundled up, though. She loves her little coat. She isn't too big of a fan of mittens, though. I think this picture is so cute. She is totally giggling! :)

The next morning, our first stop was the World Trade Center, Ground Zero. We walked around it, but it is all under construction so we couldn't see much. This is a Christmas Tree, though, by the memorial wall that had pictures of all the fireman and people who died on September 11th. It was pretty amazing to see. There was a little tourist center/museum thingie...but it was $10 a person to go in! Psh! Yeah right!

This is us in front of Ground Zero. Ella had just woken up from a nap on the Subway. She was an ANGEL all day!

After the WTC, we went on a 3 hour boat tour around Manhattan. It was REALLY fun! I totally recommend it! It was warm and toasty inside, too, so that was good. Ella started getting a little cranky at this point and did NOT want to take a nap...too much to look at. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Wall Street, etc. The only thing we didn't get to see was Yankee Stadium. Apparently it was high tide, and our boat couldn't fit under the bridges! We saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Little Italy, the old "castoff island" (where they sent orphans, homeless people, small pox people, people with leprosey, etc.) and lots more. It was very fun.

That's Ellis Island. Tom's ancestors went there. Originally, their last name was Pinetto (straight from Italy, can you tell?) but the people at Ellis Island couldn't spell/pronounce their name, so they changed it to Penrose! Crazy, huh?? I keep telling Tom he shoudl change it back. Then we can-a talk-a like an Italiana! Hehehe :)

This was my attempt at a self portrait for the three of us....it didn't really work. Poor Ella was just a little too short :)

Statue of Liberty - view from the Boat.

We found Tom's church! Haha! :) I told Tom that he should go in and demand alms from people. He didn't think it was such a good idea :)

This is a windowscape that I saw on one of the department stores. I just thought it was AMAZING! I told Mom that she should do her store windows like this ;)

This is our only picture at Central Park. The park itself was kinda ugly 'cause it was the middle of winter and there wasnt' really any snow. We saw the ice skaters, though, and where they filmed Home Alone 2. It was pretty cool :) The lady we asked to take the picture obviously didn't know what "auto-focus" was....unfortunately.

The Steinway and Sons Music Hall! WOOHOO!!! This was my favorite stop, by far! We found it totally by accident, too! We were on our way to Carnegie Hall, when I saw the sign! If you go inside, they let you try out all the pianos. It was pretty fabulous. They also have pictures of all the famous people that have performed there: Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Brahms, etc. It was pretty fabulous :)

Well, that's all the pictures I have. We went to lots more places though:

Carnegie Hall

Radio City Music Hall

The Carnegie Deli

Rockerfeller Center

Time Square (which was awesome)

T.G.I. Fridays (this was a big deal for us! Real American food!!!)

FAO Schwartz Toy Store (no, they don't have the big keyboard anymore :( *sniff*)

I think that's it....yeah, we did that all in one day! WITH A BABY IN A STROLLER! HA! :) We are pretty extreme.

More to come: the Utah and California part of our trip!