It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and Evan and I were enjoying lunch with Evan's parents after church. Evan's parents were flying back to Texas the next day and we got to talking about the upcoming week and what everyone had planned. Then Evan says "Well, what would you think about driving to NYC for the Christmas tree lighting?" I was SHOCKED and even started to cry a little. I WOULD LOVE TO GO!! And that is how we decided to be spontaneous and drive to NYC (about 8 hours from here) to see the Christmas tree lighting. Evan knows how much I like Christmas and Christmas Trees. He also knows that I have been wanting to go to NYC with him since we were married because he had never been and I loved it when my family went there on a vacation years ago. He has always been good at surprising me, but this took it to a new level! Especially since we both knew that Evan might not like New York since he is not a big fan of crowds. He thought it up as something we could do to celebrate my birthday that was the following week. I'm pretty sure it was the best birthday present ever!
Thankfully we were able to stay with my Uncle Michael and Aunt Caitlin at their apartment in Brooklyn. They have a beautiful apartment! It was obviously cheaper than paying for a hotel but it was also great to get a chance to hang out with them and their daughter Kasia since we haven't seen them since last year at my brother's wedding. It was also really nice to have a "home-base" to come back to during the day that was so welcoming. We were able to go to dinner with them a few times and see some sights, including the Christmas Tree.
Unfortunately, even though we left Charleston at 6:30 AM the day of the tree lighting and made it to Brooklyn by about 3 PM, we didn't make it to Rockefeller Center in time to witness the tree being lit. The festivities started at 7 PM and the tree was going to be lit just before 9. We got down to the area a little before 6 thinking we had plenty of time. We waited (about 30 minutes) in line just to cross the street when we first got there. Once across, we followed the crowd around what felt like a circle for another 45 minutes. We finally found out from an NYPD officer that they had blocked off Rockefeller Center around 5 that afternoon and that we would have had to be there at that time to witness the tree lighting. So after over an hour of walking in circles in the cold and rain we gave up and went to Times Square to do a little more sightseeing. We then went back to the apartment and made it just in time to see them light the tree on TV. We went back on Friday night with Michael, Caitlin, and Kasia and got some great pictures. The tree was BEAUTIFUL and was well worth the trip :)
While there, we also saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Financial District, NYSE, the Twin Towers site, the Chrysler Building, the UN, Grand Central, Times Square, Central Park, and the Cloisters. We went to Central Park with Kasia and had fun watching the horses go by and riding the carousel. We drove to the Cloisters Saturday afternoon with M, C, and K. The Cloisters is a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art but is a separate location dedicated to Medieval Art. One of the coolest features is that while the building is new, portions of it, doorways, walls, pillars, etc. are pieces that were originally parts of old monasteries that were then incorporated into the new building. Also, the museum’s size was more manageable than the MET for the amount of time we had. It was also interesting to basically drive from one end of Manhattan to the other since the museum is on the end opposite of where we crossed over from Brooklyn. On our way back, we went to a very interesting Chinese Department Store and drove through Times Square. Evan drove and did a fabulous job of navigating through all the traffic while it was snowing!
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