July "Goals:" New York City!

This year, my usual travelling buddies were unavailable. Henry didn't have any extra time off left over to travel after all his family trips and obligations were accounted for, and Steamboat Willie didn't feel comfortable making travel plans while she was also planning on making a big move. So I had to get a little more creative, rather than just moving on to the next item on my travel list with one of those two, and asked my sister and brother-in-law (who live in upstate New York) if they'd be willing to meet me in New York City for a long weekend. They were on board so last weekend we spent a few hectic days running around and trying to cram as much as possible into two and a half days.

I took far less photos than I normally do, since my family is not nearly as big into photo taking as Steamboat Willie or Henry, but I still have a nice collection.

Our hotel was only a few blocks from Times Square. I still haven't figured out why it's so famous, but all the lights are pretty at night if you can avoid getting run over by all the people!

One item on my bucket list has always been to see a show on Broadway--accomplished! We saw Porgy and Bess. It was a great show, but more of a tear jerker than I was expecting.

We took the ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty. It was cool to really see the Statue of Liberty, but I have to say I appreciated the view all the way along the ride!

We also went to see Cirque du Soleil--something I had always thought about doing but just never done when I had the chance. Some of the acrobats were really amazing, although there were other parts that I got a little bored during. By far, I think my favorite thing about the show was that it was held in Radio City Music Hall--it was an AMAZING venue. I really wish I had taken a few more photos of the interior of this place--it is absolutely stunning.

We spent quite a bit of time testing out some of NYC's famous bakeries and cafes. I had never heard of Roccos before, but my sister recommended it as her favorite bakery and it was absolutely worth stopping in it! I think their dessert menu was around 4 pages long--it had everything from standard cakes and pies to things I had heard about but never seen anyone make (Minnesota doesn't have quite so many bakeries...) and things I had never even heard of. They also had amazing coffee. 

After spending the morning in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which I think I could have stayed in for a week and still not seen everything), we took a walk back through Central Park, stopping for a little bit to listen to a jazz band that was playing.