New York Day 2

 Our 2nd day in New York we woke up and decided that we wanted to go running in Central Park, so we headed there.

 Once in the park however, we decided that we wanted to see as much of it as we could, so we rented bikes and road around, stopping to see the things we wanted to.  It was so much fun!

 There is this random beautiful castle looking building.  I think it is an observatory now.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir right in the middle of the park.  It was so beautiful and had a great view of the skyline.

After our fun ride through Central Park where we rented bikes from some fly by night shop and I was convinced that if we didn't have the bikes back by the appointed hour we were going to be hunted down (we took to much time during the first half of our bike ride and were booking it back to be there on time...seriously), we headed to the Shake Shack for lunch.  Luckily Josh had his handy phone which told us where one was...unbeknownst to us there was one right by our hotel...

The Shake Shack was something that I was told over and over to try and I seriously couldn't see why people raved over it so much after all it is just a hamburger right?  Oh my goodness I can't even tell you how good it was.  It was definitely not just a hamburger and we lucked out, because right after we got ours, the line went around the building.

 Part of the reason that we went to the New York was so Josh could go to a conference for his job, so he wasn't going to have as much time sight seeing as I was.  He decided that The World Trade Center memorial was the main thing that he wanted to see on our visit, so we headed there after lunch and changing into non work out clothes.

The Memorial is close to Wall Street, and right after we got off the subway we were met with policemen EVERYWHERE.  Apparently it was the 1 year anniversary of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and it seemed that every policeman in the city was there!

 Right when we got there we walked into a huge riot where the police were getting a bit frisky with a crowd that was getting out of hand and there was a lot of pushing, screaming, news cameras and craziness.  I am sort of a chicken and was trying to not freak out, but Josh was thinking it was pretty cool.  We had no idea what was going on for a while and couldn't figure out all of the craziness!

 There were a million policemen around buildings, sculptures, anything that had to do with Wall Street.

This little area was sealed off and designated for all of the protesters.  It was actually pretty funny how crazy people were getting.

 After the craziness of Wall Street we found the Trinity Church, which is the one from National Treasure.  We thought it was pretty neat.  It has the coolest graveyard next to it.  I am a weirdo, but I totally like old stuff like this full of history.

 After that we headed to the memorial.  After walking through a ton of security we came to two of these beautiful fountains.  Honestly I can't even describe how I felt when we got there.  Everyone was whispering and reflective and I felt on the verge of tears the whole time.  I did however feel like it was such a fitting and beautiful tribute to these people who lost their lives in this horrible tragedy.  I loved that all of the victims names were around the fountain and I tried to read as many of them as I could.

The last time I was in New York I visited the Twin Towers and have pictures of myself standing in front of them.  It was strange for it to be so different this time.

 It was neat to see the construction going on for the new Trade Center.

 It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

 On our way home we headed to Bryant Park.  I am a fashion lover and NY fashion week had ended 3 days before we got to NY.  It was fun to see some of the things they used for the week still up.  They were having a square dance that night in the park, if we weren't both so exhausted from all of the walking we probably would have checked it out :)  A square dance in NY would definitely have been a unique experience.

 We spent the rest of that day walking around and checking more things out.  It was just such an awe inspiring place and we wanted to see as much as we could.

 For dinner that night we headed to Chevy's Mexican restaurant.  We were trying to go to all of the New York only places to eat, but Chevy's was a place that I loved in D.C. when I lived there and I didn't realized we even had one in Utah (we do...) so we headed there.

Our boys definitely would have loved the Hershey's store!

Honestly when I travel with Josh we try to do as much as we can, but we were both so exhausted from the day that we just went to Crumbs to pick up some delicious cupcakes and whoopi pies and headed back to the hotel to relax.  Seriously these were some of the best cupcakes I have ever had and that is saying something because I am a cupcake lover.  It was a lovely first day in the Big Apple