Over the summer I got a call from American Airlines to notify me that my frequent flyer miles were about to expire. They gave me three choices: let them expire, pay $100 to keep them another 18 months or use them to fly somewhere like NY. I asked the girl if I could really get to NY because there are so many restrictions. She told me to just check the routes and see. I mentioned to Mike that I should take one of the girls to go see my sister Tahni who had been living in the city for almost 2 years now. I checked with her to find a weekend when she wasn’t too booked out with her photography business and I redeemed my miles. We decided that I should take Dani since she was “all mommy all the time” still and the two big girls can keep each other entertained.
We woke up super early on a Wednesday morning to catch our 7 am flight. I knew I would be a dream if Dani slept so I packed snacks, coloring books and a DVD player to keep her busy on the flight. After an adventure getting through security that involved 5 TSA agents and tears from Dani we were ready to board. I think it was the metal in her hip and femur and once it was over they gave her a “Junior TSA” sticker that looked like a badge and that calmed her down. We arrived in NY and Tahni was ready for us at the airport. I had found a car seat, pack n play and high chair on craigslist so she had it all in the car. Once I had the car seat installed and Dani buckled in we headed for Brooklyn. Dani feel asleep for about 10 minutes and I knew there was no way she would take a real nap, so I told Tahni we should just get a move on. The main thing I will say about this day is that we packed it in and Dani was amazing.
After dropping our luggage off at Tahni’s we started walking to the subway station so we could have pizza at Grimaldi’s. As we were walking I started to feel so exhausted that Tahni had to push the stroller. When we arrived at Grimaldi’s I perked up because of the delicious smell and how entertained I was with the New Yorkers who were working there. We split a tasty pizza and I am pretty sure that Dani ate twice as much as I did. After lunch we walked over to the pier and looked around so I could take some photos. The weather was wonderful!
We watched out for wild cyclists on the Brooklyn bridge as I stopped to take photos along the way. We had a funny incident with a dude who didn’t know he was wearing a bag that said, “I Want Candy” and who ended up being really embarrassed when he found out. Then there was a man with a giant snake offering to let people hold the snake and take a photo. We got to the end of the bridge and there were some dudes setting up to do a street performer show. We watched for a while and Dani continued to sleep as we made our way into Manhattan. We walked up 5th avenue and I enjoyed taking in all the sights of so many movies and TV shows that I have seen. We came across this cute little area called City Hall Park that Tahni had never seen before. It was in the middle of all the hustle and bustle and quite a few people were just relaxing on park benches.
At the end of our walk we arrived out our goal which was the 9/11 memorial. I had never been to NYC before, but I did fly into Newark in August of 2011 just a few weeks before and have a photo of the twin towers from the window. We didn’t go into the museum part because I knew Dani wouldn’t make it through all the stopping to read and those sorts of things, but I will be back in the future I am sure. We walked all around and took some photos, but it’s totally overwhelming. I know it’s been said a million times before, but it’s hard to believe there could have been so much hate directed at our country that people would sacrifice themselves to kill people they don’t even know.
After seeing the 9/11 memorial we worked our way back to the Subway station and headed back to Tahni’s apartment. Dani had been such a trooper that we decided to order take out for dinner so she would hopefully get a good nights sleep. Tahni suggested we ordered Shrimp n Grits with cornbread from a place called Peaches. It was amazing! Melt in your mouth amazing southern style food. We visited for a while after that over a cup of tea and then it was time for me to sleep. It was a wonderful first day in the city with Tahni.