New York, NY

This morning we woke up early to a nice american cup of coffee!  We ate breakfast in the hotel then took the metro to the church near where the World Trade Center used to be.  We walked around the memorial and the new construction site for awhile before going down to Wall Street.  The site had an ominous feel even with all of the new construction going on.  Wall Street just looked like money.  The Trump Tower is right there among many other fancy high rise buildings.  The New York stock exchange was roped off so we weren't able to see what exactly happens inside but on the front of the building was the largest american flag that I have ever seen.  We walked from Wall Street down to Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan island.  There we saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Cheryl's mom asked us if we wanted to go and see the statue but Cheryl and I were a little tired of waiting in lines for tourist attractions.  I'm glad we decided not to buy tickets after seeing that line, it would have been an all day event.  We were all getting hungry so we decided to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop we passed by.  A "euro" sandwich shop if you can believe it!  Lunch was great and afterward we took the metro up to Carnegie Hall.  I wanted to see the inside and the only way to do it besides a concert was to get a tour.  Cheryl and Tena were nice and came with me, though I don't think it was something that either of them were really excited about.  It was cool to see the hall but would be much better in concert.  The guide was an interesting lady and kept us somewhat entertained throughout the tour with her crazy antics.  Afterward we walked into Central Park and had an ice cream.  It was a beautiful day out and we just sat and talked for awhile.  We went by the Rockefeller Center on our way back to the hotel and walked in the NBC studios down into the center.  It was basically one big shopping mall with famous studios everywhere.  The ice rink was turned into a cafe for the summer.  By the time we left there we were all a little tired from such a long day and decided to go back for a nap before going to dinner with Cheryl's uncle in Long Island.  We got off to a little bit of a late start for our train to Long Island but we mad it just in time!  It took about 30 minutes or so to get to her uncle's.  He picked us up at the train station and when we arrived at his house Cheryl and I played soccer with the kids while the "grown ups" talked.  Then we sat down over a nice dinner and talked for a long while with her aunt and uncle.  We were all tired on the train back home but we had decided earlier to check out the rooftop lounge of the hotel.  It was beautiful on top of the huge building but Cheryl and I felt a little underdressed and tired so we just went back down to the room to call it a night.  We were both excited to fly back to Colorado the next day!