New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia

Gosh! How many states can a girl visit in one week??? In my last post, I had been in Mississippi for my niece's (and 2 cousins) baby baptisms. I flew from Mississippi to New Jersey for a work trip. Our mission was to see as much Snapple product in the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as possible. We not only saw a TON of Snapple, but also New York City! We had a lot of early mornings so that we could get to the city as soon as possible at night. We saw a lot of NYC in a very short amount of time! There is no way to share all of the pics with you, but trust me when I tell you that there was very little that we didn't view, experience, or drive by (ha!). We were only in NJ/NY for 3 nights...

Day 1: Times Square and Roof Top Bar
Tuesday was travel day. The 4 of us arrived at Newark, NJ by 3:00 and headed to the hotel to literally drop luggage and head to the city as quickly as possible. We were sitting on the Roof Top Bar at 230 Fifth in record time taking in the sights. Here is the view....


As we were walking back to the car, we passed a church that had a black iron gate around it. Tied on the iron were yellow ribbons...breathtaking. Each ribbon had 2-3 laminated cards with the name of a person serving overseas. Speechless.

As we were making our way to Times Square, we passed the Macy's Flagship store....it was like the Heaven's opened up and a light was beaconing us....too bad I was with 3 men who would not let me stop :(

Day 2: Ground Zero - The Freedom Towers

When we were talking about this trip, we all unanimously voiced that we could not leave NYC without visiting Ground Zero. We walked all around it for about 2.5 hours.

First sighting of Ground Zero...We were walking up to the area, but the barricades and fencing prohibited our view.

We found a raised crosswalk where we could peer down on where the action was happening...the area was HUGE! There really aren't any words to describe the emotions and realizations that we all experienced at this sight. I cannot imagine what it was like before construction started. I tried to imagine standing on a nearby sidewalk when the towers fell...there just are not words. We all were silent for most of the "tour" around the area. I believe that it is about 3 city blocks square (?)
We finally found the Fire Department across from Ground Zero. It has been nicely renovated and a bronze memorial on one full side of the building.

Here is a peep into the firehouse where the trucks are parked.

Part of the memorial along the side of the Firehouse

The other part of the memorial

Not exactly sure where this cross was located in relation to Ground Zero, but it did face the area on the side of the Federal Building. This gave me chills as it still had part of the debris on one side of the cross.

On our way home, we had to drive through the Financial District and see "The Bull." You'll notice that it seems to be "daylight." It was actually about 11:30 at night and the park right behind The Bull was host to a movie scene (The Scorcer, I think...) Really cool to see a 1920's Roadster parked nearby with all the movie equipment...

Day 3:

The last night of our NYC visit, we ate dinner at The Carnegie Deli. Afterward, we wanted to see our favorite TV networks since most all of them have street views into the studios. One wanted to see Fox, another wanted to see ESPN Sports News, and I wanted to see the Today Show. We had a great time trying to find all of the studios and really got to see a good piece of Manhattan on foot...ha!

PHILADELPHIA: Kenny Chesney Concert

Friday:

We worked our way down from New Jersey/New York to Philadelphia, PA. The reason for our trip was to go to the Kenny Chesney Stadium Concert. Can't really go into the Hows and Whys, but it was a work trip....I promise :)

On the recommendation of my good friend and neighbor, we had dinner on Sixth Street in downtown Philly. It is a very different sort of street. Kind of like Bourbon in NOLA, kind of grungy like Seattle, all sorts of cultures collide on this street. It goes without saying that we were a little surprised that Philly would have such a cross-cultural scene in it's downtown area...but we walked and walked taking it all in. We finally found our restaurant on the other end of the street (thank goodness!) and had a great experience! I am drawing a blank on the name of the restaurant, but it was some of the best Italian I've had in a while. It's in an old historic building and has a dinner theater in the basement. Very cool place...definitely not like the other end of Sixth...

Saturday:

If you have never been to a KC Stadium Concert, it is an experience that is unforgettable! People start showing up in the parking lot by early morning. They haul in sand, tiki torches, tents, more sand, grills, baby pools, and anything else that is not nailed or glued down! There is a competition for the best tailgate party as the winner wins front row tickets. For a lot of people, that is motivation enough to work very hard to create unique and interesting tailgate parties! I had NO idea that the state of PA had so much sand....ha!

There were people from everywhere! I even ran into some guys from MISSISSIPPI! They had driven up from Meridian and donned Mississippi State gear! (don't have a picture, though). They had a great tailgate...Mississippi style, of course. They had filled the bed of the truck with water and then spread sand all around the back and into their tent. They brought their own stereo equipment and had a DJ! They really went all out...

Here are a few pics that I can share from the concert:

An early shot of the stadium parking lot.

After we made the parking lot round and checked on a few things, we decided to go sight-seeing in the historical part of Philly (downtown). First thing on the agenda? You guessed it...the Rocky Steps. These are the steps leading up to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Sylvester Stallone made them famous in his training scenes in the Rocky movies.

The State House. Did any of you watch the John Adams Series on HBO? Well, if you did, this building should look familiar. Continental Congress met here (and a whole bunch of other historical stuff that I cannot seem to remember right now). There are 3 buildings on this site, but I couldn't fit them into one frame.

LUNCH!! Pat's Philly Cheese Steak. The best in town! In case you ever need to know, here's how you order...(cheese wit)

The Concert:

The order of the concert was Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland, and Kenny Chesney. Because we were doing other things, I did not get to see Lady A or Montgomery Gentry, but I could hear them. I did get to see Sugarland, Miranda Lambert, and Kenny. All were terrific. The energy in the stadium was electric...have not seen anytihng quite like it. Great fun!

Christian Bush from Sugarland. He's good at interacting with the crowd while he's performing.

Miranda Lambert. A really good pre-concert show!

In between performers, I found my friend, Megan! I directed her wedding reception last June! Small world! She lives in Baltimore and had come up with some girlfriends for the concert. They had sandbar tickets....lucky girls!

And last, but not least...the reason we all trekked to Philly....

As I look back over this post, I realize that there is a lot of "white space". I saw and did so many things that there is no way to document it all without it taking days to write. Hopefully these highlights help paint the picture that I had a blast and loved every minute of the trip! Each day was packed and I had very little sleep (early mornings...and very late nights). What an incredible experience and I cannot wait to go back to NYC!