My sister, Lyla, came to visit me over the 4th of July weekend! I had a loooong weekend so it worked out really great! She came Tuesday, 7/2, and left the following Monday. Boy, did we do A LOT. And because we did so much, we had our cameras with us. And because we had our cameras with us, we took a humongous amount of pictures. And because I now have exactly 999 pictures of her trip here (yes, 999, between the two of us), I shall be summarizing what we did WITH PICTURES! Yay!
Tuesday, July 2:
I had class all day, and I was going to head STRAIGHT to the airport as soon as I got done...but my flip flop decided to break! :( So I had to go back home to get wearable shoes, and
then I headed to La Guardia, with the name-sign that I made for Lyla's arrival! She got in around 4pm.
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This is the sign I made for her for when she got off the plane!
Unfortunately I was a little late because of a flip-flop malfunction :(
but I still had the sign anyway and held it up as soon as
I saw her at Baggage Claim! |
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| Lyla's first ride in a New York taxi! Yayayayyyy! |
We got back to the apartment around 5 where Lyla unloaded the big suitcase full of things for me, which included this cute little gift from Mom and Dad! It's a penguin sunglasses holder!
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| That penguin got STYLE. Bucky Badger sunglasses! |
It being only 7ish pm by this point, we decided to take the train downtown!
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| She's so touristy, it was fun to watch! |
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| Lyla's first subway ride! |
We went to Times Square first.
She was in awe.
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| I bet she had 100 pictures by this point already |
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| Lyla LOVES the minions! |
We checked out some stores first, including a couple of the touristy shops, Forever 21, and the Disney Store!
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| "And at last I see the light!"~Tangled |
And by this point we were finally hungry, which brought us to...
Ellen's Stardust Diner.
This restaurant is very cool and very unique. The waitstaff consists of all people with musical theater background, trying to make it on Broadway. I came here with my mom, my friend Lisa, and her mom and grandma back in 2009. It was the cooooolest thing ever. While you are at the restaurant, the waitstaff take turns performing throughout the night! As you enter, get your seat, wait for your order, eat, and pay for your bill, someone is singing and performing, and while it's a bit on the expensive side, it's totally worth the dinner-and-a-show!
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| Three of the performers! |
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| Lyla and her fave performer! |
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| Times Square at night |
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| We had such a fun time! |
And then we went back and crashed.
Wednesday, July 3:
Well I had class again all day, so Lyla stayed back to unpack. She then went to the Museum to hang out and see everything before I got out of class. Here, let me share some of her pictures with you without her permission!
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| It's the Hall of Biodiversity! |
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| Dum dum, me want gum gum! |
After class, I met up with Lyla and we went to one of the special exhibits called "Our Global Kitchen".
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| "That's a BIG fish!" |
We ventured back to Times Square, to peruse around some more. We found the NY Times building!
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| Lyla was pretty stoked! |
And we looked at other shops and stuffs, and decided later that evening to see the show "Potted Potter", an off-Broadway comedy show where only two actors re-enact parody all 7 Harry Potter books in 75 minutes! It was HILARIOUS!!
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| The stage! |
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| We had a blast!! |
And then we went back and crashed.
Thursday, July 4:
INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Happy Birthday, 'Murica!
We set aside this day to go to the 9/11 Memorial. I don't think I have any words that can do justice to the awe, inspiration, and humbleness I felt while walking around. You know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words.
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| One of the Infinity Pools |
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| Names of the victims. Flags of support. |
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| Freedom Tower. 1776 feet of beauty, honor, and glory. |
Following the majesty of the 9/11 memorial, Lyla and I went to go see the decided to venture to Staten Island! We took the free ferry across the Hudson River. There were some great views of the skyline of Manhattan!
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| Battery Park and Manhattan Skyline |
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| Lady Liberty |
There wasn't much on Staten Island, but they had a 9/11 memorial as well. It had the names and facial profiles of the victims who were from SI.
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| You can see the Manhattan Skyline in between the "wings" |
After venturing around Staten Island for a bit, we went back to Manhattan to see the "FRIENDS" apartment in Greenwich Village!
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| Woot woot! So neat! |
After walking around the village a bit, we went to meet up with my buddy Ed (from my program) and his girlfriend Jasmine to get seats for the Macy's Fireworks. Ed knew one of the police officers working crowd control, soooo we pretty much got to go on a dock and get some pretty awesome seats.
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| Right on the water! |
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| Pretty fireworks! |
And then we went back and crashed.
Friday, July 5th:
So we did a LOT the first few days, and we decided to sleep in and make Friday a pretty simple day. Around noon we headed down to Central Park to go to the zoo and ride bikes! We went to Central Park zoo first...but let me just say, I was very unimpressed. The best part of the zoo was the penguin exhibit, and that's without me being biased! They had a cool red panda and cute lemurs, and the seals were kinda exciting, but no Marty the Zebra, no Melman the giraffe, no Gloria the Hippo, and certainly no Alex the Lion.
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| Red panda! |
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| PENGUIN |
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| I really do love penguins. |
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| "Now introducing...Ariel, the LION!" |
Lyla and I then rent bikes for THREE HOURS and rode all around Central Park! We stopped at the large Bethseda Fountain, the Balto statue, and lots of pretty lakes and bridges and scenery!
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| Swedish Marionette house |
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| Bike riding! |
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| Balto statue |
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| Bethesda Fountain |
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| Pretty scenery! |
Wow! After our bike ride, we were absolutely TIRED! (...so we took a nap at the museum in the student lounge! Shhh, don't tell anyone!)
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Lyla was really excited to be "behind-the-scenes"...so she took
a picture of the "Employees Only" sign! What a goof ;) |
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| T-rex has a rival....ME! |
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| Kiss the Candy Land King! |
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| NOM NOM NOM |
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| GULP GULP GULP |
After messing around, we went to a midnight comedy show which as absolutely hilarious! Well, at least some of the comics were. Some weren't so great...but we had a really fun time anyway! The show was at
Broadway Comedy Club, I would suggest checking them out if you come visit!
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| One of the comics |
And then we went back and crashed.
Saturday, July 6:
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| I love Johnny Depp |
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| Whack-A-Minion! |
After the movie, we went to the Top of the Rock to watch the sunset! It was beautiful!
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| Downtown Manhattan |
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| We witnessed a proposal! Here's the happy couple :) |
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| Beautiful sunset! |
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A really cool room that you walk around and
the lights follow you! |
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| Downtown Manhattan--night view |
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| Down in the gift shop. I'm flying! |
After the Rock we walked around downtown by Ten-House, one of the fire stations that was located right by the twin towers and lost many members of their squads. They have a beautiful memorial for those whose lives were lost and the families affected by the tragedies.
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| "Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on." |
And then we went back and crashed.
When Lyla and I got to Coney Island, we both were waiting in the line for the restroom at the beach. Seriously tho, it took like 20 minutes before we were allowed to enter the restroom by the bath attendant. Anyway, the attendant-lady ended up sending only me in and Lyla had to wait for someone else to exit before she could exit. Well as soon as I am at the sink washing my hands, the lady shouts to someone "Hey you, your mom came into the bathroom now." Not giving it any thought, I didn't turn around because I knew she wasn't talking to me. But as soon as I went to leave she caught my attention and said again, "Your mom came into the bathroom now."....I could barely contain my laughter!! I immediately replied, "Ummm that's my sister..." She then replied with, "Oh well you two look alike" but at this point I couldn't hold it in, so I just ran outside so that I could laugh not at her face!! It was soooo funny. I can't believe that lady thought Lyla was my MOM!! Ah, the downfalls of having a baby face! Lyla and I are still having a great laugh about it!
Anyway, as we exited Coney Island, we found the Zoltare like in the movie "Big".
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| "I wish I looked OLDER so that people don't think Lyla is my mom!" |
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| "I wish Ariel looked OLDER so that people don't think I'm her mom!" |
And then we went back and Lyla packed (oooh, a twist in events!) and we crashed.
Monday, July 8:
Lyla leaves! :( We had such a great time in NYC though. I'm super glad she got to spend time here with me!! I can't wait until my family comes to visit again!!!!
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