Rachel Johnson: October 2011

Thanks to Jeff and Ariel my family and myself got to go to New York. J & A got married in the Palmyra Temple on September 29. So that week we headed out there and saw all the sights. It was a really exciting trip for many reasons. For one it was most of us kids first flight. I must say I was terrified. I wasn't scared of being up in the air and crashing or anything I was just scared that I would get way claustrophobic. Well I got on the plane and it wasn't bad at all. So my worst fear ever turned into something I really love to do. How grand! This trip was also one of the very first REAL vacations my family has ever taken. Yes we are very deprived.
So we took a red eye flight out on Sunday night. We got there early Monday morning. When we flew in it was really foggy and I was excited because I thought it would be nice and cool. Once we walked outside it most definitely was not cool. It was hot, humid and it smelled very strongly of cigarette smoke. It was horrible. I hate humidity. I didn't even think that New York would be humid but clearly I was wrong. We flew into JFK and our hotel was about five minutes away in Queens. Queens is a lovely place. So lovely that I will never live there. Having lived in Utah all my life I'm not used to places like Queens at all so it was quite a wake up call. Our hotel was very intimidating from the outside. But luckily the inside wasn't so bad.
Having had no sleep that night we took an hour nap then headed into the Big Apple. We took our first ever taxi ride which really isn't that cool at all. The taxi man turned on the radio and a horrible song that swore horrible words every other word was on. But the man wasn't that bad just his choice in music. He then took us to the subway station. I was way excited to ride the subway. Why? Because of Madigascgar. It just seemed like such an adventure on that movie. Well it's not that way. At least in Queens it's not. It is so muggy down there and (suprisingly) smells of cigarette smoke. Then once we got on the subway it was so hot. And we had to stand. And I was scared of everyone around me. (Not very shocking if you know me).
Well we finally made it to NYC and we walked out anticipating this wonderful place that we've always dreamed of seeing but we got off the subway and we all felt like puking. And it was so hot. So we got some Diet Cokes to get rid of our headaches and to calm our troubled stomachs. We also got a pretzel from a street vendor to help with our wanting to vomit. But we still walked around and saw all the sights. We walked down some street that the Trump Tower is on that led us to Central Park. Central Park is huge and so cool. After there we headed to The Ed Sullivan Theater (naturally) we got in trouble for trying to take pictures of the front lobby of the theater. Cause apparently it's super secret in there!? After there we headed toward Time Square and on the way we saw Carnigie Hall. Then we made it to Time Square. I thought it was so fun there. There was a band playing this amazing music that just made you want to dance and everywhere you look there is something to see. It was so cool.
Wow this is turning into a play-by-play. Oh well. I'll find it fascinating in the future. After time square we dreaded the subway again to get to lower Manhattan. This time it wasn't that bad because we had seats and it was air conditioned. When we got to lower Manhattan we had tickets to see the 9/11 memorial. We got there a little early so we went to a Cathedral across the street that survived the 9/11 attacks and it was SOOO close. It was a cool place because it was surrounded by all these ancient head stones. Also I thought it was cool because on the 9/11 anniversary this year I watched this thing that I believe was called 9/11: Ten Years Later and it talked about how one of the very first firefighters to die that was also like a preacher for the fire department was carried over there and laid under a statue. So I don't know why but I thought it was cool to be there. Then we got to actually see the memorial which was so cool. Definitely and experience I will never forget.
After the memorial we took the Staten Island Ferry to see the lovely Statue of Liberty. Then we saw Wall Street and had to get some authentic New York pizza which was delicious. After that we were exhausted and we didn't want to be around when it got dark because of all the CSI shows we've seen. So we hustled to the blasted subway again and headed back to lovely Queens. It was scary trying to get on the subway this time because all us kids got through but for some reason the metro card wasn't working for our parents so we were seperated for a while. But needless to say we got back and we didn't get lost. But once in queens we had to wait for our taxi and it was so scary being out and about in Queens at night. I thought I would surly die. Thankfully none of us did.
The next day Jeff, Russell and Leigh Ann flew in and we drove in the amazing 12 seater van to Palmyra. The drive was like 5 stinking hours long. But we made it. Palmyra was my favorite. It is so incredibly beautiful there. It's just beautiful country surrounded by trees. (I couldn't believe how many trees there are in New York) We got there late so we didn't get to see any of the church history sights. So we checked into our awesome hotel. I really loved that hotel. The next morning we went to the Sacred Grove. That place was so amazing. I could have just sat in there all day everyday. I wish I lived closer so I could go more often. We also checked out the Smith Family farm. The next day was Jeff and Ariel's wedding which was so neat. The Palmyra temple was so beautiful. After the festivities we went to the Sacred Grove again, then the Hill Cumorah, and Peter Whitmere's Farm. That night we went to Albany because the reception was the next night. On Saturday we headed back to JFK so we could fly home.
The trip was so amazing and fun and I want to go back any chance I can. I have pictures but this post is already way to long because I had to give every little detail so I'll have to do pictures on another post.

Rachel Johnson

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Pictures from New York

New York!!