Start spreading the news...New York City

The last three days of the epic Benjamin Family Vacation took place in New York City.  I call it epic because we have never taken a family vacation like this before, and I am not sure we ever will again.  We left Palmyra early Thursday morning hoping to get to the city early afternoon.  That was not to be.  First of all we made a short stop in Pennsylvania to the the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration Site.  It was on the way so it didn't add too much to our time.  Then we hit road construction in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  We stopped for gas in New Jersey, managed to seriously offend the attendant there (that's a story for another time), and then spent 45 minutes going about 5 miles to get to the hotel in the city.  All in all we arrived at our hotel at about 5pm, and Tony still needed to return the rental car. We may have gotten a little stir crazy in the car, and I may have made the mistake of letting my children drink caffeinated soda since the KFC in Scranton didn't have other options, but we all arrived in one piece with only having to ask them to stop biting each other once or twice.

After Tony returned from dropping off the rental car, we explored Pier 17 and then we hopped on the subway for the ride to Brooklyn and Grimaldi's Pizza.  Best Pizza Ever!  Of course we had to stand in line for a little bit, but it wasn't awful and before long the nice man found a seat for the family of 7 who came all the way from Utah for their pizza.  The pizza really is good with it's homemade cheese and thin coal-oven browned crust.  We polished off three large pizzas, in part thanks to Jared.  Next we enjoyed the spectacular views across the water of the NY skyline and then we walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Beautiful bridge.  I love the look of the city all lit up at night, nothing like it in Utah, I think the kids were mesmerized.  Last stop for the evening was the Empire State Building.  It was a beautiful, clear night so we braved the crowds and made the trek to the 86th floor.  It took awhile, and we didn't get back to the hotel until a little after 1am, but this is the city that never sleeps so we shouldn't either right?

Friday we started the day in Central Park, it was another beautiful day, but a bit on the warm side.  I love how you can walk through Central Park, and forget that you are even in a big city.  The noise and everything seem to just disappear.  After the park we went to the Met for a mad dash tour of favorites and some air conditioning.  We checked out Egyptian scarcophagus and the Temple of Dendur, some ancient sculptures from Greece and Rome, some armor, and threw in a few famous paintings.  We bought hot dogs from a street vendor, and really they were quite tasty, and then we rushed on to do some shopping.  The girls checked out a jewelry store and the boys went to the Converse store.  Then we did some haggling for deals on Canal Street.  Honestly we probably could have gotten better deals, but I was so hot I just wanted to be done. Have I ever mentioned that I hate humidity?

 After cooling off a little, we went to dinner at Carmine's for delicious lasagna, and then walked around Times Square a little before our show.  We got caught in a downpour, but luckily we had brought our umbrellas.  We went to see Newsies.  We loved it.  I have always liked the movie, but I liked the play so much more!  The music and dancing were sooo good! My girls were drooling over Jack Kelly, but who cares what he looked like, his voice was amazing.  It was fun and energetic, just what a bunch of weary travelers needed to stay awake.  I am still humming or singing Santa Fe. Last stop of the night was Carnegie Deli for cheesecake.  (You know you could make a post about New York City just about the food-good thing you walk so much when you are there!)  If you like cheesecake you must try this place someday.