New York Day 1

We just got back from a trip to New York City, where Ryan, his brother Jason, and their friend Aaron ran in the ING New York City Marathon!  We had SUCH a great time, although I have to admit, I was SO READY to come home and see Brynn!  We were there for four days, and spent the first three sight-seeing, and the last day watching the boys run the race.  I promise I really did have different clothes on everyday, but since it was chilly I have on the same jacket in almost every picture! 

The very first subway stop we came out of was near Columbus Circle.  They must have been doing some type of marathon promo event because these people were wanting us to pretend like we had just finished the race...running across this "fake" finish line and everything!  It was so funny!  They even gave us special marathon glasses and medals! 

Then we took a tour of Central Park...they were having a kids "marathon race" inside Central Park.  It was so cute watching all these kids finish their race.

We got to see lots of the famous parts of Central Park.

Me and Ryan on the bridge in Central Park

This was my fourth trip to NYC, but I had never eaten at the Boat House restaurant in Central Park.  It has been in a bunch of movies and everytime I would see it I would think "I want to eat there someday."  So...we took the plunge and made reservations!  It was the neatest place!  Here I am showing off my shrimp with pumpkin risotto...seriously soooo good (I had to make Ryan take a picture of it!)

Here is what it looks like inside the restaurant...yes we looked like total tourists taking pictures inside, but oh well.

Outside the Boat House restaurant.

Then we headed to the September 11 Memorial.  Even though it is hard to be there and think about what happened there, I am really glad we went.   It really took me back to where I was when it happened. 

Then we headed even further downtown to Battery Park...we didn't ride the ferry all the way to the Statue of Liberty, but you can see it in the background.

We walked up Wall Street and the financial district (and we actually saw the place where all those people who are protesting Wall Street are "living/camping out".  WOW...what a trip...that was a bit crazy!)  Then we headed to Rockefeller Center and watched people ice skating.   

My sister in law Sarah took a couple of laps around the rink...she used to ice-skate and she was REALLY good!

The Christmas tree wasn't up yet, but I was pretending that the lights in these trees were my Christmas decorations!  HAHA!

Then it was time to catch the train back to our hotel.  We stayed in Westfield, New Jersey (about 45 minutes outside the city).  We stayed there for 2 reasons...one being that it was at least $300 cheaper a night than if we stayed in Manhattan, and the second was that it was about 5 minutes from Aaron and Marissa Shoaf, who are close family friends.  Aaron is an FBI agent and works in Manhattan (his parents and Ryan's parents have been friends FOREVER, and we haven't seen Aaron and Marissa and their kids since last Christmas).  We had a lot of fun hanging out with them during the trip!