This was our day to run wild in the city on our own. Our tour guide taught us well so we ventured out alone to ride the subway and see the sites on our list! We headed to Liberty Island. Lots of history here....since 9/11, we have airport security just to get on the ferry. What I scheduled for a short "run over here to see this" turned into an entire afternoon and lunch on the Island! We enjoyed every minute of it though. Of course, every experience we shared became memories that will last a lifetime! We had a man in front of us that needed a little extra security check. He had some liquid in a bottle they were concerned about. I am 99.9% he told them it was used to make meth. He told them more than once and I really think he thought he was going to be arrested, but they let him go through. They did not take the liquid from him either. Hmmm. Is all the security really necessary when they take your word for it that it's not an explosive liquid, just chemicals for meth? Bless his heart. He was just being honest. So, he made the prayer list immediately.
We rode to the Island and Cole chose the seats in front of the fire hose. Coincidence? I think not. There was some concern about an explosion. JK! We did joke about having to be the fireman and saving the day if necessary. It was amazing to ride up to the Statue and ponder on the thought of the immigrants that came to America settling here with hopes for a brighter future. I teared up thinking about how grateful they must have felt. I don't know if my gratitude compares, but just sharing this with my boys overwhelms my spirit. We spent the afternoon walking around the Island and headed back to the city after we ate.
We took a cab to the hotel because we just had to experience driving in this city. Our taxi driver gave me his cell in case we needed him again and we had a great time talking to him! He has been here from Pakistan for 20 years and has started drinking and smoking again because NY is too stressful. The way we got around in that car was stressful enough for me to rethink sobriety. he was next on the prayer list!
Our hotel was amazing and we had a perfect view of the empire state building! We just dropped our heavy backpack off and headed to the city to see more sites. We went to see Madison Square Garden because Dayne and Cole watched the Justin Beiber movie the night before and wanted to see what all of the hype was about...we ended up going into Borders to shop for Dayne's summer book he has to read. We ended up meeting two guys that loved comics and skateboarding. We talked about Carnage and his origin and bought Dayne a book. We stopped and grabbed dinner before heading to see the Empire State Building. We enjoyed the Skyride and then enjoyed the observation deck. I started tearing up in the ride and Cole looked over at me and said, "are you crying"? I was like, no, no.....something's in my eye! But really I was again overwhelmed with gratitude to the God that loves us so much He gives us the desires of our hearts. I really wanted to see the lights in NYC. I know this sounds silly, but without doing anything else, I just wanted to stand in the middle of Times Square at night and see the lights surrounding me! The reality that I would actually see them from the top of the ESB WITH DAYNE AND COLE was sinking in. Every part of this vacation has been a dream come true. EVERY PART. I just kept wondering if we would really get to do the next thing on the list!
One more prayer request....the sales people for the Skyride were also Comic fans (Cole carried his spidey action figures everywhere) and so we ended up giving them tracts.
We finished off the night in Times Square at the M&M's Store, eating Hershey candy, and closed it down by watching the end of SNL at the hotel. Thank God it wasn't wildly inappropriate! For some reason, watching it in NY feels completely different knowing it's happening LIVE right down the street!
Great day for the blessed and highly favored family! Pray for Sophia!
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