neeeeeew yoooooooork: day dos

  so.

 said friend christine came in early saturday morning from new jersey and i braved the subway (it is much more stressful than the boston subway system in my opinion) to meet at penn station. 

we had her very thought out map of all the things we wanted to do and our unplanned match team shoes. (i think it is unnecessary to say we were ready to take on nyc)

first stop was the ny public library. i'm a little obsessed with boston's public library so i made sure this was on our agenda 

highlights would be taking mock childhood lion fountain hogle zoo pictures and of course the beautiful details of the architecture

 next up was chelsea market. i don't think we realized it was kind of far away? so we had a lovely walk in between. 

i really enjoyed walking past all the buildings i've always seen in movies or on tv and seeing them in real life

and seeing buildings that were just as great but didn't know existed

 and it is weird when two bloggers get together because neither of you are used to having pictures taken of you so you just end up looking uncomfortable haha

(ps thank you new york for being so warm on this day! we didn't even need coats until night time which just felt like a miracle to me)

we finally arrived at chelsea market and that was fun to walk through and see the different indoor shops and food and other things

then headed over to high line park
(but first took a detour at this nice waterfront) 

everyone said it is better in the summertime but we really liked it anyway! i have never seen a parking garage like the one above and i felt stressed just looking at it

 we saw a cool bird feeder 

and pretty winter time shrubbery 

 and had a picture taken together for the first time in like 7 years. maybe this is a good time to include the fact that perhaps we took a fairly long friendship hiatus because sometimes that happens when you like the same boys? so we were secretly not nice to each other for a few years, then had a pretend friendship for another few years. but recently thanks to blogs and a few other events we realized some things. 1. we aren't in high school anymore 2. we have grown up a lot since then and are adults 3. because of that we actually have a lot in common these days! so BLAM. just like that a real life really nice friendship was born! with the most unlikely person and in the most unlikely circumstance. isn't it fun how life works out? there is no doubt in my mind that God has a sense of humor. 

anyway. after high line we spent quite some time trying to find a good restaurant within walking distance, found one, walked to it, it wasn't there (what?), and were just really hungry so we settled on a nearby chipotle. we had a lovely time eating tacos and drinking rootbeer and were thrilled (seriously) to see these really cute puppies playing in a window. 

the nice thing about becoming real friends with "the other girl" is that you just know lots of things about them (why do we creep those we like least, most?) so we had many years worth of things to talk about. 

 so when we finally took the subway for the first time that day we were just talking and weren't really paying attention until we realized everyone got off and it wasn't moving anymore haha. i think christine's face accurately portrays the stress we felt when we thought maybe we were stuck because the doors wouldn't open. 

since we didn't get a picture of our next subway experience i'll just tell you now how a man was being way creepy so we decided to get off and switch cars. apparently we didn't do it fast enough because the doors shut behind christine and i was still on the platform. i think the above face happened again as we realized we were being separated haha. subway adventures are fun!

 next up was the 9/11 memorial. this could easily be my favorite thing i saw in new york

  (and i'm so glad christine knew we had to get tickets to it or else i would have just gone and not got in which would have been very sad)

when i lived in utah i didn't feel a huge connection with 9/11 because i had never been there or known anyone affected by it. i'm very grateful for the time and effort and money put into memorials because it allows so many of us who weren't directly affected to feel more deeply about what happened. seeing all the names of those who died and what department they had worked in made it so real to me and i had to hold back tears as i walked through the memorial and thought about these victims who had had a name and real lives and real families they left behind. 

 i was also touched to know that there is this "survivor tree" which has been nursed back to health and still stands where it originally was before the attacks. 

 our friend val came and met us there which made the whole experience extra special. she is living in new york right now and we were so happy she made the time to be with us for a little bit!

after the memorial the three of us caught up on each other's lives and headed to battery park

then watched the sunset and talked some more.

(ps what is not to love about that giant asian bag i used the whole trip? big thanks to shayla for letting me borrow it and i'm very sad i never saw it in taiwan to buy for myself)

 after saying goodbye to val so she could go to some ward speed dating activity (don't worry. i told her about the episode of law and order i saw on speed dating and how she needed to be careful and make sure no one followed her home to rape her) and we got on the staten island ferry. i was a bit over prepared and christine was a bit underprepared for the wind so that is why we are both wearing my winter accessories. i say this because at one point i looked up and seriously thought she was me from behind haha. 

afterwards we took the subway back to time square because both of us rather like that place.

i hoped so hard that the blue m&m would be dancing again but he/she? wasn't so we just walked through and made our way to h&m instead but it was closed! double fail.

 ps  does this picture not look fake? it looks like i'm in front of a green screen or something haha

 after our h&m fail we walked to christine's favorite magnolia bakery and she bought some cake for her and a sugar cookie for me. nicest friend!

then we saw my favorite thing which = asian stores. there were so many stores that looked like this in taiwan and whenever i see them i just feel like it is preparation day and i'm buying really unnecessary taiwanese dongxi (things) with my companion all over again.

 ben and shayla were so nice to bring my stuff down to penn station so in trying to find them i found a pizza hut instead. i think if you read my blog you know what i had to do. i think sharing a personal pan pizza was the perfect way to end a very nice day!

after saying goodbye to frandsen friends (did you know they share the same last name?) i met up with some boston ward friends (pictured (kind of) in the bathroom mirror above) and we boarded the megabus and even took the risk of riding on the top!

 thanks for being such a nice place to meet up with friends and only being four hours away and having buses go there daily so i can go back again and again. oh and thanks for having nice weather last weekend, that was a definite plus.

 and frandsen friends! sorry we felt stressed i would miss my bus so this picture is blurry and sad but thanks for such a nice weekend! i really liked it a whole lot.