New York snuck up on us quick. Garrett helped me pack. Of course he insulted my wardrobe as he helped. I need new clothes. I still have so many clothes from high school. Anyway… I packed light. Turns out my style is not the New York sleek style you should have. But Joanna’s is! So, once we got to Joanna’s she basically gave me a complete makeover for the Big Apple.

It was a long day of travel, but once we got into the city we were like deer in headlights. The huge city and lights, not to mention our taxi driver was absolutely INSANE. I had told Garrett how crazy drivers in NYC are, but he saw first hand when our driver was backing up over 200 yards on a bridge and when he almost killed a guy on a scooter.

I hate to even write about this night, because I really do just want to forget it, but I’ll write it anyway. We tried to find the cheapest hotel in NY. Done. We paid $120 for one night. But we definitely got what we paid for. It was a super sketchy place. A shared bathroom with 12 other rooms that were nastier than anything I ever saw in DT Freshman year or the MTC. We hardly slept all night with the crazy creaking sounds form the heater, the tapping of the fan and then the sirens and people running up and down the hallway in the middle of the night.

Anyway… the night ended fine and we went straight to Church. We went to the church that is right beneath the Manhattan Temple. Again, it ma

kes me so grateful for the Gospel in our lives and it is the same everywhere we go. We spent the rest of the day exploring Soho and shopping.

We stayed with some family friends of Mel’s that live out in Connecticut in the most beautiful town ever, Bridgewater. I think they convinced us to move there when we are older. Fun place, but a LONG commute there and back everyday on the train. Luz made an amazing dinner for us on Sunday night and we were exhausted from a day of walking and the night’s previous terrible sleep.

Monday Garrett went to his conference. He LOVED the conference. He loved the people there and learned a lot about mobile. He mostly learned that he is really behind and BYU isn’t teaching him anything.

Monday I bought a bus tour pass to go uptown and downtown. First, I got on the downtown bus tour. It started off in Time Square and took me everywhere. It was cool that I got to see EVERYTHING. I saw Wall Street, The Bull, China Town, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower, Rockefeller Center, Madison Ave,

Trump Tower, the UN, Central Park and the best part… The 9-11 Memorial. It was so cool to see where it was and the new memorial that they are building. The Spirit there was incredible. Everyone was very respectful. They had a really cool sound booth where you can record your story of where you were on 9-11. So, I recorded my story of sophomore year in Chemistry class.

I was nervous that I’d be lonely all day, but the tours made the day go by quickly and very entertaining. I met Garrett for lunch and in the afternoon went off to see the Uptown tour. Uptown, I got to see some beautiful churches, central park where they were filming a movie, The Natural History Museum, The Apollo, Harlem, Museum Mile, etc. It is an incredible city that is anything but dull. There is so much to look at all the time.

At night, Garrett and I walked on over to see Time Square at night. Garrett had never seen it and was blown away at all the lights and things to look at.

Tuesday, my feet were killing me. I was already dying by how much I walked. Tuesday I went to the Manhattan temple. It is a beautiful place where I got to see what it is like to truly be in the world but not of the world. I also went over to the Museum of Natural History and walked around there for a while. I walked around a bit and shopped. I enjoyed my time in the 4-level Forever 21. That evening, Garrett and I went and had some frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. Mmmmmm.

Wednesday I slept in a little bit while Garrett went in to town and shopped the day away. He literally walked all around town from Soho to Chinatown back up to Time Square. Wednesday was my favorite because I saw Wicked. LOVED IT! Its such a fun musical. The plot is fun, the music is incredible, the scenery and costumes were great. That night, Garrett and I grabbed a bite to eat and then headed home because… we decided to leave a day early and go to…. FLORIDA. What???