August 5-11
We are still in New York. Monday we went to Columbus Circle and the Southwest corner of Central Park. We then walked up and saw the Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is right across the street from Julliard and the Lincoln Center, so we went to see those too.
After exploring that area, we made our way over to High-Line Park, which is an old railway that has been up-cycled into a park that walks through that area. It was very beautiful.
We went out for pizza in Brooklyn for lunch. After pizza we walked down to the pier and looked at Manhattan from the other side of the island.
We then made our way back to Midtown to see some skyscrapers we had missed. We saw the Flatiron (the first skyscraper in NYC), the Empire State Building (up close this time), and then we explored the NY Public Library where they have the original Winnie-the-Pooh! After that we went to Madison Square Garden, which is the arena that the NBA teams play in when they come to NY, because Paul is a huge basketball fan. It was so fun for him to see it.
We then hopped over to the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station (see the constellation mural! It is so cool!) before burning out and sitting out on the dock to end the night after walking 11.05 miles.
Tuesday, for our last full day in NYC we headed to the World Trade Center stop. We started the day by going to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I had gotten a cold the day before and was still sniffly. That turned out to be a good thing because I was crying throughout the museum and could hide it under my congestion. We saw the beam that was hit directly by the planes. This iron beam was shredded from the impact. We saw a stairway that helped many people escape the towers. We also saw a mural of individual paintings that tried to depict what the sky looked like the morning of 9/11/2001.
After the museum we spent the rest of the day in Lower Manhattan again. We looked at more buildings then went over to Chinatown and Little Italy to look around for longer and get our souvenirs.
We then made our way back to our pier in Jersey City and spent the rest of the evening there. We got some beautiful pictures of the skyline at night before walking the board walk and heading home. We walked 9 miles.
Another drama story to end the trip. We headed to Laguardia Airport. We got there a couple hours early so we just hung out in the food court and let our phones charge while we waited to be able to check in. We finally are able to go through security and head to our gate. We sit down, it is 3:00 PM and we are going to board in 20 minutes when I get the worst text I could have anticipated. Our flight is cancelled.
The whole airport is shut down. All flights are grounded. There was a flight that left earlier for Chicago that had to turn around and come back to Laguardia because of a huge rain storm that was headed into the area. I could not believe our luck! So we, with everyone else, get in line to see how we can get home. They gave us a helpline to call while we were in line. I called and was able to get our flight switched around for that night. The catch was we had to go to Newark to catch it.
So, we got going! We went to claim our luggage and bought two coach tickets to take us from Laguardia to Newark. It had already started to rain. This trip is supposed to take an hour but because of the weather and worse traffic than normal, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get there. We would have missed our new flight but it was delayed from 7:55 PM to 10:30 PM. I was okay with delayed, I was crossing my fingers that this flight would not be cancelled. We anxiously waited those 3 hours in Newark and were able to take off and go home that night. After that experience, we were so happy to be home!
I went from the Big Apple to wide open roads in a matter of hours. We got back from New York at 3 AM on Thursday morning. At 6:30 AM I got up and packed to drive up to Glacier National Park. Paul went back to our home in Logan so he could study for the GRE that he is taking in a couple of weeks. Andrew, Sierra, Liza, and I were able to make it to Montana by 7 PM. We made some little pizzas for dinner when we got to the cabin. After dinner I went straight to sleep (since I only had 3.5 hours the night before) while everyone else stayed up and watched the Twilight zone until the other car came home. I woke up at midnight to talk to Ben about my trip to NYC before falling back asleep.
Friday, we went to Missoula. We made our way up to Windmill Village Bakery. They are on the side of the highway next to a lake and windmill. They are only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until 3 PM. We went out of our way to come to this bakery because they apparently have the best donuts in the world. They only serve glazed donuts and if you want any of their other baked goods you have to ask for them the day before so they can make it for you fresh. They cook their donuts to order so when we got ours they were piping hot and, oh my gosh, they were amazing! We also got a cookie and sticky bun from them. My dad wanted to get a huckleberry pie from them but that is when we found out you have to ask in advance.
At the bakery they had the Phantom of the Opera monkey music box on the window sill. I was so excited because I just saw the Broadway play with Paul the week before. We grabbed some fresh cherries at the fruit stand adjacent to the bakery on our way out to balance out the treats we got.
After our indulgence we went to the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas and walked around these beautiful gardens that were designed for quiet meditation and peace. It was very beautiful.
Then we went to the Garnet Ghost Town and learned about the history of mining there and why the town did not thrive after the 1930's. The town became abandoned for the second time after World War Two and was not inhabited again after that.
Saturday, we went up to Glacier National Park with everyone. We hiked to Avalanche Lake, which had all these waterfalls flowing into it. It was a beautiful 5 mile hike. After that we drove the Road to the Sun and stopped to look at the view from so high up. The clouds were so cool as well because they just rested on the Mountains like blankets.
We then did a hike in the clouds. We were hiking to a viewpoint to see over Hidden Lake. It was 1.4 miles to the viewpoint but it was so foggy that we all think that we passed it. We weren't too worried about it though because we came across a grizzly bear on the trail. There were about 40 people there taking pictures. The bear then started walking toward us and a couple hikers started running (you are not supposed to do that) and the bear then started running towards them (super scary!). The rest of the hikers (including us) started yelling, clapping, and blowing whistles to stop the bear. It worked and it stopped chasing those hikers. Then it started wandering up the trail and we started yelling again to warn the hikers up the trail of the bear. They heard us and started yelling too. The bear came back down the trail and wandered into the trees. Then the whole group of hikers were like...Let's get out of here! And we all headed down the mountain.
The center at the trail head had some information about an animal called a marmot that lives in the Rocky Mountains. They sleep for 80% of their lives and the other 20% is spent preparing for hibernation by eating a lot. Along the trail to Hidden lake I thought I saw a couple marmots but apparently they were just chubby squirrels and a couple of birds. It was super foggy though! We are pretty certain we did see 2 marmots on our way up the hill though.
Sunday, we went to church with some friends of my parents in Missoula. They had a beautiful guitar collection. We drove home in a huge rain and lightening storm. We saw about 6 deer and had to be very cautious driving home.
After exploring that area, we made our way over to High-Line Park, which is an old railway that has been up-cycled into a park that walks through that area. It was very beautiful.
We went out for pizza in Brooklyn for lunch. After pizza we walked down to the pier and looked at Manhattan from the other side of the island.
We then made our way back to Midtown to see some skyscrapers we had missed. We saw the Flatiron (the first skyscraper in NYC), the Empire State Building (up close this time), and then we explored the NY Public Library where they have the original Winnie-the-Pooh! After that we went to Madison Square Garden, which is the arena that the NBA teams play in when they come to NY, because Paul is a huge basketball fan. It was so fun for him to see it.
We then hopped over to the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station (see the constellation mural! It is so cool!) before burning out and sitting out on the dock to end the night after walking 11.05 miles.
Tuesday, for our last full day in NYC we headed to the World Trade Center stop. We started the day by going to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I had gotten a cold the day before and was still sniffly. That turned out to be a good thing because I was crying throughout the museum and could hide it under my congestion. We saw the beam that was hit directly by the planes. This iron beam was shredded from the impact. We saw a stairway that helped many people escape the towers. We also saw a mural of individual paintings that tried to depict what the sky looked like the morning of 9/11/2001.
After the museum we spent the rest of the day in Lower Manhattan again. We looked at more buildings then went over to Chinatown and Little Italy to look around for longer and get our souvenirs.
We then made our way back to our pier in Jersey City and spent the rest of the evening there. We got some beautiful pictures of the skyline at night before walking the board walk and heading home. We walked 9 miles.
Another drama story to end the trip. We headed to Laguardia Airport. We got there a couple hours early so we just hung out in the food court and let our phones charge while we waited to be able to check in. We finally are able to go through security and head to our gate. We sit down, it is 3:00 PM and we are going to board in 20 minutes when I get the worst text I could have anticipated. Our flight is cancelled.
The whole airport is shut down. All flights are grounded. There was a flight that left earlier for Chicago that had to turn around and come back to Laguardia because of a huge rain storm that was headed into the area. I could not believe our luck! So we, with everyone else, get in line to see how we can get home. They gave us a helpline to call while we were in line. I called and was able to get our flight switched around for that night. The catch was we had to go to Newark to catch it.
So, we got going! We went to claim our luggage and bought two coach tickets to take us from Laguardia to Newark. It had already started to rain. This trip is supposed to take an hour but because of the weather and worse traffic than normal, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get there. We would have missed our new flight but it was delayed from 7:55 PM to 10:30 PM. I was okay with delayed, I was crossing my fingers that this flight would not be cancelled. We anxiously waited those 3 hours in Newark and were able to take off and go home that night. After that experience, we were so happy to be home!
I went from the Big Apple to wide open roads in a matter of hours. We got back from New York at 3 AM on Thursday morning. At 6:30 AM I got up and packed to drive up to Glacier National Park. Paul went back to our home in Logan so he could study for the GRE that he is taking in a couple of weeks. Andrew, Sierra, Liza, and I were able to make it to Montana by 7 PM. We made some little pizzas for dinner when we got to the cabin. After dinner I went straight to sleep (since I only had 3.5 hours the night before) while everyone else stayed up and watched the Twilight zone until the other car came home. I woke up at midnight to talk to Ben about my trip to NYC before falling back asleep.
Friday, we went to Missoula. We made our way up to Windmill Village Bakery. They are on the side of the highway next to a lake and windmill. They are only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until 3 PM. We went out of our way to come to this bakery because they apparently have the best donuts in the world. They only serve glazed donuts and if you want any of their other baked goods you have to ask for them the day before so they can make it for you fresh. They cook their donuts to order so when we got ours they were piping hot and, oh my gosh, they were amazing! We also got a cookie and sticky bun from them. My dad wanted to get a huckleberry pie from them but that is when we found out you have to ask in advance.
At the bakery they had the Phantom of the Opera monkey music box on the window sill. I was so excited because I just saw the Broadway play with Paul the week before. We grabbed some fresh cherries at the fruit stand adjacent to the bakery on our way out to balance out the treats we got.
After our indulgence we went to the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas and walked around these beautiful gardens that were designed for quiet meditation and peace. It was very beautiful.
Then we went to the Garnet Ghost Town and learned about the history of mining there and why the town did not thrive after the 1930's. The town became abandoned for the second time after World War Two and was not inhabited again after that.
Saturday, we went up to Glacier National Park with everyone. We hiked to Avalanche Lake, which had all these waterfalls flowing into it. It was a beautiful 5 mile hike. After that we drove the Road to the Sun and stopped to look at the view from so high up. The clouds were so cool as well because they just rested on the Mountains like blankets.
We then did a hike in the clouds. We were hiking to a viewpoint to see over Hidden Lake. It was 1.4 miles to the viewpoint but it was so foggy that we all think that we passed it. We weren't too worried about it though because we came across a grizzly bear on the trail. There were about 40 people there taking pictures. The bear then started walking toward us and a couple hikers started running (you are not supposed to do that) and the bear then started running towards them (super scary!). The rest of the hikers (including us) started yelling, clapping, and blowing whistles to stop the bear. It worked and it stopped chasing those hikers. Then it started wandering up the trail and we started yelling again to warn the hikers up the trail of the bear. They heard us and started yelling too. The bear came back down the trail and wandered into the trees. Then the whole group of hikers were like...Let's get out of here! And we all headed down the mountain.
The center at the trail head had some information about an animal called a marmot that lives in the Rocky Mountains. They sleep for 80% of their lives and the other 20% is spent preparing for hibernation by eating a lot. Along the trail to Hidden lake I thought I saw a couple marmots but apparently they were just chubby squirrels and a couple of birds. It was super foggy though! We are pretty certain we did see 2 marmots on our way up the hill though.
Sunday, we went to church with some friends of my parents in Missoula. They had a beautiful guitar collection. We drove home in a huge rain and lightening storm. We saw about 6 deer and had to be very cautious driving home.
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