DARIN and HAYLEE GUNNERSON: NYC Day 2

Friday, April 8, 2022

NYC Day 2

New York was a wonderful whirl wind!

We walked 50,000 steps in 36 hours (22 miles). Thinks I wanted to remember about NYC.

It was much cleaner than I was expecting.

People were more friendly that I was expecting.

We saw way more dogs than I was expecting, but hardly any kids….until we went by the History museum.

There was a new smell every ten steps. WHen we went to japan, there was a distinct “smell” but not here. Most of the smells were good, but occasionally bad.

I love that you can walk EVERYWHERE. And when you don’t want to walk, public transportation can get you anywhere!

I loved that famous spots would unexpectedly creep up on you. I was so giddy when we took a wrong turn and ended up at Macys right where the parade passes by! (But let’s be honest, I was pretty giddy the whole time).

When we went to the charging bull, I offered to take a picture of two girls. They were very appreciated and asked me to please get the flag in their picture. When I asked them where they were from, they said ukrain. When I looked back at the flag, I noticed there were two, USA and Ukraine. Then I cried for a block and a half.

Another fun surprise was seeing the beautiful Trynity church and Alexander Hamilton grave!

The 9-11 memorial and museum was incredible but very emotional. I don’t know how people kept it together! I was a mess. We did that museum pretty fast. It was a little too emotional for me.

Juniors was a fun restaurant. A lady started dancing in our background when we were videoing.

The rain came down hard and fast. The rain doesn’t stop anyone.

Our hotel was amazing. I loved the elevators. You would type on a key pad where you wanted to go, scan your room card, and the it would assign you an elevator. There were no buttons in any of the elevators.

Magnolia bakery and Levain Bakery were both delicious!! But both were way smaller than I was originally expecting.

Serendipity was also not wag at I was expecting at all, but I loved it! And I’m excited to recreate the frozen hot chocolate for my kids.

I loved that the minskoff theater was right across the street from our hotel. Probably 20 steps!

Street bagels are amazing. Toasted makes them even better!

The Empire State Building was one of my very favorites. Everyone else said top of the rock is better, but I am soooo glad we did ESB!! We got the earliest ticket, and we lined up 20 minutes early, with maybe 50 people ahead of us.

When we went in, lots of people lingered in the two museum areas. We bypassed alll the photo ops and went straight for the 86th floor. We’re we’re the second elevator up there. When we got to the top, we nearly had the place to ourselves. By the time we walked around one time, and we made it to the other side, it was PACKED! As we went back down, the lines were already. CRAZY long!! We timed that soooo perfect!!

The NYC public library was BEAUTIFUL!! I loved it!

We ran into Barrie at the park, and he gave us a list of reasons we should hike him to take us on his bike (Tesla). I told Darin it was up to him (hoping he’d say no), but he said yes, and it was the best money (besides Darin’s shoes), that we spent. He got us too all the best spots and was our personal photographer!! It was amazing!!

My favorite part of Central Park was seeing my favorite places from movies. The snowball fight from elf was a top for some reason.

I felt like I was living in some of my favorite movies: sleepless in Seattle, you’ve got mail, an affair to remember, elf, home alone, enchanted, Maid in Manhattan, hitch, ghost busters, teenage mutant ninja turtles, spider man, serendipity, Annie, miracle on 34th street, night at the museum, and probably more.

When we were riding with Barrie, we spotted the Temple. We told him a little about our church, and that we were going to the temple next, and he dropped us off right at the front door!