Year: 2016

Hello bucket list friends! I recently returned from an amazing trip to New York . I had never been to the east coast before and I’m glad that I was able to experience it.  The fist night that my mom, sister and I arrived in New York we decided to walk to Times Square after dinner and if I had to describe it with one word it would be crazy! It was amazing to see a place that I had seen on TV many times before but it was so hard to walk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people in one place at once. It was worth seeing once but we didn’t want to go back there after we left. The next day we had a full day of activities ahead of us. We rode the subway for the first time it was fun except for it being so hot inside the stations.  We also went on a hop on hop off bus tour that came with free ear phones! After the bus tour we went on a walking tour of Wall Street. The tour was full of Historical facts and interesting information. We also got to see a lot of amazing things on the tour including the famous bull statue. The tour ended right by the 9/11 memorial. After exploring the outside of the memorial we decided to get some lunch before going into the museum.  For lunch we found a food court in a nearby mall. All three of us chose something different. That’s the best thing about food courts there is so many options. My favorite thing about lunch was this awesome cupcake I had. After lunch we went to the 9/11 museum. Going to the 9/11 museum was a very emotional experience.  Walking through the museum took me right back to that day, I was eleven years old when it happened. The museum was like a time portal taking you back to 2001. Everything was very well put together in the museum. After the museum we got to go to the top of the One world trade center.  The views of the city from the tower were simply amazing!  The second day was very busy and I was looking forward to more busy days ahead. On the third day went to Columbia University because my sister is interested in going there. The campus is so beautiful it was a fun place to explore. Next we went to the central park zoo. I love animals and I was very excited to go. We had a hard time finding the zoo but once we did I was not disappointed. First we ate lunch at the zoo restaurant before exploring the zoo.  The first thing was saw at the zoo was some colorful birds; then we explored the rainforest area. I loved seeing all the rainforest animals but it was even more humid in that area than it already was outside so after a while I was ready to explore other parts of the zoo.  I really enjoyed watching the bears; there was one bear that was trying to avoid the water. It was interesting to watcher her climb around the water areas. My favorite animals that I saw were the penguins they were so fun to watch. They were very active swimming and jumping into the water. The air conditioned viewing area was also a great place to relax and cool down.  On our way out of the zoo we saw a seal it jumped up on the edge of the pool; it was awesome being that close to a seal. I stopped by the gift shop and got some fun souvenirs. I had a great time at the zoo. That night we went to Rockefeller center and we got some amazing Ben and Jerrys ice cream before going to the top of the Rock. It was a great day and the next day also had a lot of fun to offer.  The next day started off with a bus tour call the Ride. The Ride is a really fun tour where there are performers on the sidewalk waiting for the bus to come by. It is a very entertaining tour and I would do it again. After the Ride it was time for some fancy New York food. Then came time for something that I was very excited about, The Lion King on Broadway! When I was a kid I became a big fan of the Lion King and I still love the movie today.  The Musical version was simply amazing! It the whole play was put together wonderfully and it was everything I thought it would be and more. I highly recommend this play.  We went on a very informative tour of Rockefeller Center to finish our day.  The next day we set off to see the statue of liberty. We decided to take a subway but because it was the weekend the schedules were different so we ended up in Brooklyn but after we called an Uber car we were on our way.  We took a ferry then after a short ride we were there. It was pretty amazing to see something in person that I had seen so many pictures of before. We did not have to special tickets so we could not go inside but we got a really good look at the statue. I got some really great pictures and I had a really great time there. We also went to Ellis Island and we explored the museum of immigration.   We took the ferry back then we went to explore Madame Tussauds wax museum.  I had a good time taking pictures with wax figures of celebrities. All the areas were fun to walk though we had a fun time there.  Our next stop was John’s pizzeria for some amazing New York pizza! We had one more thing to do before heading back to the hotel. We went to go explore the famous Empire state building! I just couldn’t get enough views of the beautiful city!   The next day was our last day in New York.  First we decided to get breakfast at  Ess-A-Bagel The line was out the door ! It was a long wait but the food was pretty great! After our breakfast we went to explore the metropolitan museum of art. It was so huge and there was so much to see . It was hard to get in at first because there were so many people but once we were able to walk around it was simply beautiful . We were not able to see everything because we did not have time but I’m glad we got to go see some of it .  After the museum we went on a tour of radio city music hall . Radio City music hall was so beautiful and it has so much history I highly recommend taking the tour.  After the tour it was time for some yummy ice cream and visit to ST. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful inside and out. We finished our last day with dinner at T.G.I Fridays. My trip to New York was amazing! I hope I can go back someday.

Rock on – Christina Epperly