Congratulations to Gina Johnson for winning the drawing for last weeks challenge and the Mini Super prize which is a $50 gift card to P.F. Changs! See it pays pays to join these challenges… Gina has one a several times… A couple movie passes, and coffee cards, I believe. Anyhow, I like Sushi Maru. Its a pretty cool experience and great for when your starving or just want a light lunch or dinner. The plates pass by the tables on a conveyor belt and you just take what you want. The plates are color coded to prices. You pay for what you take or you can order and they will make it fresh for you! Here is a picture and a link to Sushi Maru.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g58759-d1986789-Reviews-Sushi_Maru-Spokane_Washington.html
I had an amazing week in New York with David and Colten. We were gone for 5 days. With a day of flying there and a day of flying back, that only gave us three days there; but it was an amazing three days! We flew out of Spokane on Wednesday the 15th at 9 a.m. and landed at JFK International Airport in New York at 7:30 p.m. We got our rental car from the airport then went straight to Manhattan. Our first stop was the Empire State Building, after stopping for some great New York Pizza that we saw along the way, lol. We went up to the observation deck and saw some amazing views! After that we went to Times Square. It was better than I ever imagined. Sooo many people. Sooo many lights. It was so bright that it almost seemed like it was daylight out. We got some more food, walked around, checked out all the vendors and bought a few street paintings from a guy that painted the New York skyline, buildings and bridge in about 4 minutes using spray paint. Very cool paintings. We framed them and will hang them up this weekend. We finally decided to call it a night and headed to Staten Island where we were staying with David’s Aunt and Uncle.
The next day we got up a little late. We didn’t get to Manhattan until about noon. We took the ferry in to avoid trying to find a parking spot. Our fist stop this day was to the 9/11 memorial. Its so surreal walking up to it and imagining how that day was. The memorial is beautiful and the waterfalls with all of the victims names really made you reflect on that day and those that lost their lives. There was a tree in the memorial called the Survivor Tree. It was the last living thing to be pulled from the wreckage. I can’t believe it survived, but it did and it is there. We spent quite a bit of time there and then had to go get coffee as my lack of sleep was getting to me, lol. We decided to catch the Ferry back to Manhattan to get our car. We then drove to Brooklyn to visit Coney Island.
Coney Island was pretty cool. We met David’s other Aunt and cousins there. We ate White Castle and Nathan’s because we could and because we don’t have them here. We rode some rides and had some drinks. I even rode the Sling Shot which i said I would never do! It was definitely a rush! Of course we bought the Souvenir thumb drive bracelet so we could hold that memory on video 🙂 By the time we made it back to Staten Island it was 2 a.m. We passed out, lol
Day 2 we got up early. Up at 7 and drove back to Manhattan, parked the car in a parking garage and walked over to the Statue of Liberty Ferry. I can’t believe I was here at this point. You see it in pictures and movies all the time but to see it in person is such an experience. We took lots of pictures, ate some food of course, shopped the gift shop and then back to Manhattan. On our way to get the car we saw a guy drawing Charactertures… Of course we had to do this! And of course I’m the one that got the goofy rabbit teeth!! Oh well, the picture turned out pretty cool. We framed that one too and will hang it this weekend somewhere. After all that we drove to Jersey to see David’s Mom. this was my first time meeting her and David didn’t tell here we where there so she was surprised. She was so excited to see her son and to meet Colten and I. She is a very sweet lady… I wish we could have spent more time with her but she just had shoulder surgery and needed her rest, so David, Colten and David’s Sister Arlene went to a Yankees game. I’m not really a fan of Baseball and I wanted to see my friend Sara so I skipped out on the game and hung with Sara and her Boyfriend, Yuval, for the evening. We hung out on Yuval’s rooftop balcony which overlooked Manhattan, the Freedom Tower and the Empire State Building and has some drinks. What a beautiful view! Loved it. We then met David, Arlene and Colten for Dinner at a restaurant in Soho befor heading back to Staten Island at 2 a.m. again!
Day three we slept in! We didn’t get up till noon and didn’t get to the city till about 1:00. this was our last day in New York and we had to get up early the next day to catch our flight back to Spokane so this was a quick day to grab a couple sites we hadn’t yet seen. We went to Central Park this day and walked around. We saw the Building that Madonna lives in and the building that John Lennon lived in. We walked through Strawberry Fields and saw the Famous Bridge that is a scene of Home Alone, among other movies I’m sure. At this point we hopped on the Subway and headed to China Town and Little Italy where we grabbed some dinner and a couple more souvenirs. Back to Manhattan early, had some drinks and visited with David’s Aunt and Uncle who I absolutely adore. Very fun warm people. If your in a bad mood, 10 minutes with those two will cheer you right up! They even bought us a dozen New York bagels to bring home with us. You haven’t had a bagel if you haven’t had one from New York! Well that was our mini vacation. I hope you enjoyed this Blog and maybe it will give you some ideas for the next time your in New York. I’m sure I left a few things out but I’m not trying to write a novel, lol and we need to get on with this weeks challenge.
Ok, so after all of the New York recap I’m going to get right to the point here. I hope you read the blog because over the next several weeks I will be posting pictures for the coming challenges from our New York trip. Some of them will be very obvious, and others not so much. So lets get started with the first one. Guess the location of the picture in the comment section of my Facebook post that brought you to this blog. If you guess correctly then you will be entered into a drawing for a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Here’s the picture… Where are we?
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