4-10-08

wow was I tired from yesterday! We got up early again this morning. After eating the continental breakfast we got on the bus and rode over to the city again. We walked by Madison Square Gardens and I took a picture. we walked over to the Empire State Building. We had to stand in line. Once we got up to the top we went on the NY Skyride first. It was a virtual ride from the sky over the city showing us all the main points about the city. Then we rode the elevator on up to the 86th floor and walked around the observatory. Most of my pictures today was from the top of the Empire State Bldg. We walked down the stairs back to the 80th floor. On the last set of stairs, Drew fell down the stairs. He is fine, but his elbow was bleeding a little bit and he hurt the heel of his left foot. But was a trooper he was! He got right up and he walked the rest of the day (that happened around 11:00!) and never once complained that it was hurting! I got to walk by the Flat Iron Building which is probably my favorite building here in NY. It was bueatiful.
After that we rode the subway, which is very clean and looks just like MARTA, to The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was amazing!! After that we walked over to Ground Zero and saw the construction and clean up where the Twin Towers once stood. there we saw the fire station across the street. There were memorials there and at the corner. In the firehouse there was signs that had melted from the attack. it was very moving. And the firefighters we standing outside and talking to the passersby! It was moving!! We rode the subway back to Times Square and ate at the McDonald's there. It was so glitzy inside the McDonalds! After that Drew and Ashley got caricatures of them both. They are adorable! We didn't tell the man anything and he drew Ashley with a mic singing and Drew with a baseball bat swinging! It was so cool!!! Enough for today....i am exhausted! And there is so much more to see tomorrow!!!!!

4-9-08

today was a wonderful day. We started out very early. We rode a bus to the city. After getting off at the stop we walked and walked and walked! we went to Rockefeller Center and we got our tickets to the tour. Then we walked down to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) we were actually shocked at some of the content called art there. Then we walked back to NBC to go on the tour. Our tour was cut short, but it was so cool. We saw a working studio. We stood on the set of the Nightly News with Brian Williams. We saw all the lights and the cameras. While we were at Times Square we walked over to the Museum of TV & Radio. We thought it would be a true museum, but it turned out to be more like a library. So we left and went back to Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skaters and got Subway to eat. Then we walked all the way across the City to the United Nations Building and took the tour. We then took pictures inside the Daily News Building of the large globe rotating in the lobby. then it was off to Grand Central Station! It was so beautiful! We shopped inside Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and inside M&M World! We ate supper at a local pizza place called Ray's Pizza. The pizza was delicious! We ended the night at Madame Tousseau's wax museum. Drew was so funny because when we first got there he wanted his picture taken with Will Smith. Sitting right beside where Will Smith was standing was the Osborne's. Drew was very freaked out by the Osbornes and wanted me to take the picture really fast. My camera was acting up and taking a really long time to take the picture because my card was almost full. Well, he kept stepping out of the frame because he was terified that the Osborne's would suddenly be alive instead of just wax!!!! Finally after I walked over and put my hands on them and showed him that they really were wax, then he was cool the rest of the night! We got home really late and crashed into the bed!

4-11-08

4-11-08
I believe that today was our best day in NY! I don’t know if it was because we knew we were at the end of our adventure, or if it was just the things that we were able to see. We started out our morning a little later (that could have justified the better day too!!) and rode the bus into the City. We walked to a subway and rode the subway all the way to the Bronx! Now, let me explain something. The first 2 days that we were in NY, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about…lack of safety. While in the City there were very few times that we felt unsafe. But our trip out to the Bronx Zoo was a little unnerving. Once at the Zoo however, the Zoo was wonderful! The layout was incredible. They had the animals in large areas that resembled their native surroundings. The tigers were out doing their training for the day so they were very close to us! The best things we saw were regular animals throughout the zoo. The picture at the top is of a regular duck that kept going under to find food. Once he put his head under the water his bottom stuck straight up!! We breezed through the Zoo in record time. We could have spent half a day there but we ended up only spending 2 hours there. We jumped back on the subway and headed to NY Yankees Stadium. We were able to walk around the stadium and take pictures. That stadium is going to be torn down after this year, they are building a brand new stadium right beside the old one, so we were able to see the new stadium too! We then got back on the subway and rode all the way back to Central Park where we got a hotdog from the street vendor. It was okay….but the wiener was really small and only ketchup and mustard?? It was purely for the experience! Then we went inside The American Museum of Natural History. IT WAS AMAZING! Again, we could have stayed in this place for a complete whole day, but we only had about 3 ½ hours there. We saw all the things we wanted to see from the movie, Night at the Museum like Gum Gum Head and Rex the Dinosaur. There was so much to see in there, I started to feel like I had information overload!
We then rode the subway down to the Port, where we saw the Statue of Liberty so that we could see the BODIES the exhibition. OKAY, well, I was anticipating this as being incredible. After having seen the exhibit, I actually think it was better than incredible, but I can’t come up with a word that is good enough to describe it. Unfortunately, it was the only place on the whole adventure that we were not able to take pictures or video. But it was unbelievable. They had human cadavers all over the place pristinely preserved. We were able to view the systems of the body. See the skeletal…how the bones were put together to function. Then we saw the muscular section and saw the different types of muscle. It made us all want to skip out on meat for awhile J They had some of the bodies set up like they were throwing a football, a discus, a baseball to show how the body moves. Then we saw the fat. It is so gross to think that that is what we look like inside. Then we saw the lungs and the heart. We saw healthy lungs and then lungs with diseases like Tuberculosis and cancer and people who smoke. It also showed us what happens when you breathe in pollutants! There was a case where they encouraged people to throw away their cigarettes! It was about ½ full!! Then we walked into the section about reproduction. It had several fetuses that had died in utero from natural causes. It was so cool to be able to show Drew and Ashley what the baby looks like even at 4-6 weeks. How it has tiny fingers and toes and a nose J it was so cool to show them the things that I had seen in school. To show them how the fallopian tubes were not connected to the ovaries. So when an egg is released only God can maneuver it into the fallopian tube. Drew, Ashley and Griffin were so in awe of how God created our body with such intricate detail, so that the body would function as He designed it to. There was one section where they put a plastic molding agent into the blood vessels, then used a chemical to burn off the muscle and skin so that only the vessels were left. It was so beautiful! I can’t say enough about the Bodies….go see it if you ever get the chance…it tours around the country.
Then on the walk back to find somewhere to eat we were caught in between 2 feuding teenage groups. We quickly found the subway and headed back to Times Square so that we could catch the bus and go back to the hotel. Once we got back to Times Square, Drew was approached by a man that said he was robbing him, and that Griffin would be his daddy now. So after that little experience we decided to head back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel rather late, but found a menu in the room for a Chinese. They delivered and it was so delicious!! We fell into our bed and slept!

4-12-08

We woke up this morning and none of us slept rather well. I believe the reason was because our bodies hurt so badly from the past 3 days. We left the hotel and drove over to near the airport. We found an IHOP. I don’t know if it was because we had not had breakfast and it was lunch time, or if it was really just that good. But, it was the best IHOP we had ever eaten. All four of us said that it was. It was even better than our IHOP at home. We got all the things that we usually do….i don’t know….it was just better.
Then we drove on over to the airport so that we could get everything all checked in. We got to the airport around 1:00 and turned in our car. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:55. We are told that it is delayed until 6:24. We are not sure. But the rest of our day will be spent here at the airport and in the air. We will get back to Atlanta late and then drive home. I look forward to seeing Josie and getting into my bed.

This trip has been amazing. We have had such a great time. Everyone has been so relaxed and eager to help the other person. Drew and Ashley have been so mature on this trip. Drew has been so compliant. He just goes where we tell him to go. He is kind and offers to help. Ashley has been eager to help with the navigating. She had some issues last night after seeing the fight between the teenagers, she was ready to go home. Other than that she is so into the city life. It was good for them to be around people who are so different from us. It taught them to be aware of differences, yet embrace those that may appear to be different, because we all are really just alike.

04-06-08 through 04-08-08

We had such a wonderful time with Nannie and Grandpa! We ate at some very delectable restaurants! We ate at Teddy's which has the best "riggies" in the area (also where Ashley hurt her foot and Griffin hit his head on the lamp shade!), Symeon's which is a greek restaurant, Panera Bread, La Roma which is Italian, Nickey Doodle's which had amazing sauerkraut on the hotdogs! We enjoyed our time hanging out with Nannie and Grandpa! We watched old Wings episodes and Drew and Ashley's most recent play, "Once upon a Mattress." We had a wonderful time at their church, New Beginnings. Griffin got up and shared about what God is opening up to him, which is about Grace. We also got to hear for the first time a sermon from Grandpa. It tied in so fittingly with what Griffin had said. It was wonderful! Also Griffin showed the amazing video that Sandy put together to show about The Awakening! (which you will be able to view at http://www.the-awakening.org/ very soon! God is really blessing Nannie and Grandpa in the mission to Rome, NY. It was nice to be able to see it first hand. They have such sweet people gathered around them at New Beginnings and an even sweeter pup named Niles to fill their day with love! God has blessed them with a wonderful home that is filled with peace! It was truely a blessing to be there with them. I pray that God will bless them 10 fold for our short little time with them!

Our trip will be continued in the next blog :-)

04-05-08

We had a wonderful plane ride to NY. We were delayed because of the storms moving across the southeast, but we finally arrived in Buffalo! We got our rental car, which was a huge blessing! We were slotted to get an impala. but after a little favor from God we got a Trail Blazer! We drove on up to Niagara. Our hotel had a Denney's restaurant in it, so that is what we ate for dinner. Our hotel had a heated indoor pool, but we were so tired we could not take advantage of it. We got up very early the next morning and drove across the Canada border and found a place to park. We walked all along the edge of the falls. It was extremely cold! The mist that was rising up from the falls felt as if it were freezing in the air. We then took the Behind the Falls tour and it was spectacular! We actually walked through tunnels underneath the river and came out behind the falls. The falls were falling right in front of us. You can literally feel the power of the falling water! After taking a TON of pictures we got in the Blazer and drove across the state to get to Rome. Mom and Dad Phillip were so excited to see us! I will continue our story in the next blog :-)