My time State-side

As you may or may not have know, last Wednesday through yesterday (Monday) I was in New Jersey part as a visa run (the tourist  visa for Costa Rica expires after 90 days, I had to leave the country for at least three days in order to come back and get a new tourist visa, thus another 90 days here) and part to see some of my friends that live there (Lonzell and Judy Wilson, and Kelly Mac Donald, old roommate).

While there, I had an AWESOME time.  I wouldn't say it was relaxing, necessarily, but it was still awesome.
Here's a more or less chronological list of events as best I can remember them:

Wednesday was a day of traveling, but there are still some cool things that happened.  For one, I flew over Cuba, and that was pretty cool.  Here's the northwestern coast (and trust me, I have pictures of the whole time we were flying over it...but I figured that might not be as interesting to everyone else as it was to me...so I limited myself to just one).  The bummer was that there were clouds covering the island, the whole island, and nothing but the island.  Seriously.  So all my other pictures are kind of a "magic eye" photo where you have to stare at it for a while before you can see the hidden picture.  Oh well, I'll take what I can get!








The next day we went to Carlo's Bakery--SO AWESOME!! I'm a HUGE Cake Boss fan, so it was super awesome to get to go to the bakery and  actually be there, and eat some of the deliciousness they have to offer.  I bought a cannoli--best decision ever!--and a bag of assorted cookies, also an excellent decision.  I think that's more or less what we did Thursday (there was some sleeping in and taking our time getting ready that may have cut into our sight-seeing time.....); we also were able to plan out a little more of how to spend our time for the following few days.

Super pumped to be there!

Kelly and me outside

STILL enjoying my cookies (in CR)

The Prudential Center, filling up

The big thing happening Friday was the Casting Crowns concert that Kelly and I had tickets for.  It was SO great!  The music was awesome, the crowd was great, it was a stellar event, and really powerful for both Kelly and me.  So glad we got to go!

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We were SO EXCITED!!

I think it was also that day that we went to the mall to do a little shopping.  Ana let me know what color the bridesmaid dresses had to be, and so I wanted to take advantage of my time in the U.S. and get a nice dress before I get back at the end of May--plus I'm always down for some dress shopping!  Turns out the first one I tried on was a winner, and with approval from the bride (and Kelly and Judy, the ever-essential dress-shopping-opinion-givers) I bought this one! 

Yay awesome dress!

Hershey Factory.  Just...enjoy it.

Saturday was PACKED with things to do!  After a delicious home-made breakfast from Lonzell (I ate it all before I thought to take a picture...but I think you can all imagine the whole eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, grits, deal) we got ready and headed to NYC for a day on the town.  We walked around in Times Square a bit, got some fancy coffee drinks at Starbucks, bought tickets to see musicals after lunch, and then it was just about time to actually eat lunch.  Kelly remembered a place she'd been to for her birthday called Ellen's StarDust Diner, it just so happened to be right next to the theater our musical was playing in (which happened to be right next to the theater Lonzell and Judy needed to go to!)--it was pretty much a no-brainer.  

Waiter and waitress entertaining at Ellen's

Now, Ellen's StarDust Diner is known for their singing waitstaff.  All the waiters and waitresses have big dreams of going to Broadway, but in the meantime, they work and perform every day at Ellen's--much to the amusement of all their patrons.  And these people are singing oftentimes while entering things into the computer or fulfilling some of the less talkative duties of being a waiter/waitress.  It was a blast to be there--and well worth the 40 minute wait.  

Waiting at the theater

The woods for Cinderella

After lunch, Kelly and I headed to see Cinderella with Carly Rae Jepsen (most well-know for her song "Call Me Maybe") as Cinderella and Fran Drescher (most well-know (to me, at least) for her role as the Nanny in the show "The Nanny") as the evil step-mother.  Judy went with Lonzell (who didn't really want to see Cinderella for some reason) to see Jersey Boys.  Cinderella was awesome, and it was SO COOL to Carly Rae Jepsen and Fran Drescher in real life on the stage.  Seriously, super cool.

The city through Central Park's trees

After the shows, we drove around through Central Park, and then headed over to Staten Island to see Judy's play "Scenes from the Staten Island Ferry".  It was a series of six 20-minute one-acts, all taking place on the Staten Island Ferry (because it's a twenty minute ride on the actual ferry).  They weren't related to one another, so six separate acts, and they all had an alternate ending that the audience got to choose.  Judy's was seriously one of the best--and was at least the funniest!  It was super fun to see her up on stage and to be able to support one of my dear friends in something she loves doing.

Freedom Tower. Over the old WTC. Favorite.

A lovely sunset

Sunday brought us to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  It was really cool to see the museum they had at Ellis Island of Immigration and the U.S., and they have a really cool resource http://www.ellisisland.org/ that lets you search their databases for free! At the island they have a computer room for people to use it there, but it's available from any computer--if your ancestors came through Ellis Island, it's a pretty neat resource!

I'm not 100% sure if I found my actual ancestors or not, but based on the information I gathered before going I have some pretty close contenders. Here's what I found, and he had a son of the same name who was 8 when he came over (which fits with the information my Uncle gave me about our ancestors), so...maybe this guy was related to me?

After Ellis Island, we headed over to eh Statue of Liberty.  We got to go up to the pedestal she stands on, and there are tickets that let you go all the way up to the crown...but we didn't get those ones.  Perhaps another time.  It was really cool to be in the places so many immigrants had been in before me, and to imagine what they must have been feeling to finally be in New York, and to see it all for the first time.  I imagine it was a pretty powerful (and crowded) experience.

Group Shot

From the Pedestal

Looking up the statue from the inside

Inside the pedestal they have the original torch that was used--which has been replaced by one presumably bigger--and so we got a picture next to it (right).  It was such a cool view from just there, I would love to see it from more than twice as high!

































Like I said, it wasn't necessarily relaxing, but it WAS awesome, and I am so glad that I got to spend time with some of my really good friends.  We got to make some awesome memories during this time, and I will surely cherish them forever!  Thank you so much to Lonzell and Judy who were so willing to drive me around everywhere I wanted to go, and who let me stay with them for almost a whole week! And thank you to Kelly, also, who had the idea of going to the Casting Crowns concert, and who learned a new bus/train system just to hang out!  It was such a great time, and I can't wait to visit again!

All the tickets I used!

Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the pictures (and video)--leave me a comment to let me know just how much you enjoyed them ;)

Miss you all, and I'll be home sooner than I know! (Seriously, time is flying by TOO quickly here!  But more on that next week!)

Peace and Blessings,
Kiki