New York- What a Blast

Day One- We took the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan and spent the day being regular tourists. We started out at Grand Central Station and took pictures of the huge building. Next we found our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral and walked in on the end of noon mass. It was an amazing experience, the building is massive on the inside, bigger than any church I've been to, and the service was pretty cool. We then wandered along 5th ave. and went shopping in H&M! omg I love that store! We went to Saks and then headed towards Carnegie Hall. I sang out front and had mom take my picture, so I could say I sang at Carnegie Hall too (like my friends in choir are going to do this spring). We then hopped back on a train to Brooklyn and went to find dinner, we walked the Brooklyn Promenade, which is like a walkway on the river with great views of downtown Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. We found a great little place called Grimaldi's Pizza and I had the best piece of pizza in my life! I love new york style pizza! It was even better than Celestino's in Chico!

Day Two- We went to Macy's department store! It is huge! I got a new purse, two shirts, and very lost. Then we went to the Empire State Building, up to the top, and took a bunch of pictures! Mom and I then headed downtown to The World Trade Center site, it was very sad to see the huge hole left from the attacks. We wandered around and found Wall street, saw the stock exchange and some interesting characters around in the street. One was a street evangelist, who we talked to for a minute and got a picture with, he was pretty cool, and the other weird thing was this lady standing in front of the statue of George Washington wearing a white mask, black shirt with words "arrest bush" and a white sign stating "GREED KILLS". We then met Bob at the subway station and headed to the water front for dinner, I had a Nathan's hot dog. We also went to Times Square at night.

Day Three- Today we went to the Statue of Liberty! I memorized the sonnet about it for my english class, the sonnet is...
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazurus
Not like the brazen giant of greek fame
with conquering limbs astride from land to land
here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightening, and her name
Mother of Exiles. from her beacon hand glows
world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command the
air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp" cries she
with silent lips, "Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

After that we went to Central Park! It was so beautiful! I can't even describe it, so many different paths and lawns covered with people. We walked to get some food, and I had pizza again and then we sat on a bench just outside of the park and ate. It was very fun to see even just the small part of the park that we did!