My mom and I are headed to Portugal to teach at a scrapbooking event. This is my mom's 4th time teaching there, but my first time out of the country. We had to choose between a short layover in Dallas or a long layover in New York. We chose the big city since neither of us had either been there. We headed to the airport at 10:00pm on my mom's birthday, took a red eye, and woke up in NYC on my birthday. We had 14 hours to roam the city before our next flight. We certainly didn't want to lug our bags all over the city, and we didn't know where to store them, so we did something...creative. Our flight to New York was packed, so they asked for volunteers to check their carry-on luggage. We were first in line. We asked an employee what would happen if we didn't pick up our bags from the carousel. She said they would be taken to a storage room until we came back for them. When we got to New York, we sat by the carousel until they took our bags and then we were off to explore.
The Airtrain at the airport connects right into the NYC subway. We downloaded a nifty app to navigate the trains and then headed for Rockefeller Center. Finley begged us to find the Today Show so she could see us before she went to school. If you've never been to the outdoor standing area of the Today Show, know that it is tiny! I don't know how they fit concerts or ski slopes in that thing.
L: I navigated the subway like a boss // R: See how tiny the plaza is?!?
L: The Today Show on my birthday // R: My birthday is 4/24 and that building number is 424
L: Rockefeller Center // R: The Lego Store model of Rockefeller Center
While in Rockefeller Center, we went to the Lego Store, the American Girl Doll Store, an underground mall, and Anthropologie. While we were in Anthro, I was looking at my Facebook feed and my cousin from California had posted a picture captioned "good morning nyc." When we got to New York, we were surprised at how small the city really was, how close everything was, and how little time it took to walk somewhere. The city really isn't that big, so we called my cousin to see where she was. She is touring with a band all over the country and they were preparing to perform for MTV in Times Square. We were able to meet up with her, see the green room, and explore the tour bus.
L: Times Square // R: Random characters in Times Square make me even more excited for Disneyland
We had a few more hours to walk around the city, but we were super tired at this point. We wandered for a little bit and then decided to take the subway back to the airport a little early. Good thing we did. The weather drastically changed while we were on the subway. We got to our terminal with the perfect amount of time before our plane to Madrid left.
Finley's Flat Stanley came with us. Here he is in Rockefeller Center and Times Square.