NY The City (Day 1) Times Square and Empire State

I am definitely fascinated with the city

I couldn't live there very long but I am amazed at how everything looks and works

so I took pictures of it all wherever we went

Being in New York, we had to have some pizza

These next few pics crack me up
my mom trying to get the "pose but don't pose" look down
While Kylie and I try to explain
then lose interest
and become simply entertained and slightly embarrassed

great facial expressions

she can't do it

I didn't think we would be seeing any characters

(that's what I expect at theme parks and on Sunset or Hollywood Blvd)

 but we did see a few

it also was neat to see the city versions of stores I normally see everywhere
like Walgreens, Office Depot, Target, McDonald's
(I also saw some of that when we went to Seattle earlier this summer )

 Madame Tussauds is a wax museum

 I spy a Coldstones
(in picture below)

(we got ice cream there after, it melted faster than any ice cream I have ever seen)

for those of you who barely know me, or simply just don't know 

I take pictures of where I am/feet pictures kind of a lot

The wax museum was pretty cool but also really freaky

yes, I suck at being in pictures
I am just awkward
Kylie is pretty good
probably because I am old, married and boring now

Kylie went through a spooky alley they had in the middle of the museum
She made friends with the father and son behind her
since my mom and I wouldn't go in
(another sign of my old and boring)
you know, what you normally do to strangers,
hang on to them and squeeze their arms
The guy at the entrance really liked Kylie too
hmmm, what a surprise

Most of the pictures I took were for Taylor
since I am boring and have no passions in life
(Taylor fact: Baseball fan)

(Taylor fact: John Wayne fan)
I have become a fan of this man too
but it has been a work in progress

My grandpa Owens loved John Wayne
I used to watch some of the old westerns with him
but I struggled with interest for old movies
eventually, I realized I always had a place in my heart for John Wayne
Grandpa would be so proud

Only complaint is Taylor disapproves the hat
and once pointed out to me, it is a ridiculous one

The Spice Girls...

made me miss the Spice World movie 

and watching it over and over again with Hannah when we were young

Hulk smashed my camera after this

Just kidding, it died.

 We did sooo much in a day my camera couldn't take it!

so I had to use my mom's and my cell phone the rest of the night

Times Square 

another thing I was amazed with was the subway
oh
my
gosh
 you walk down the stairs to it and immediately your sweating triples
I never really use public transportation
and the whole subway thing was soooo interesting
underground? under all that city?
the people, the smells, the sights
it was all so unreal to me

this guy was banging on some buckets making a pretty sweet beat

and you can't be in a subway like this and not think of the movie Ghost

(and probably a billion other movies, half of them being action)

I thought it was such a neat thing

and was so proud of myself for getting the system down

 of how to take which one where

This is where we climbed up a bunch of stairs

 and ate our Coldstones super quickly

while my feet throbbed 

with still more to do

The Empire State building
(Buddy the Elf's dad works here)

We went all the way up to the top for the night view
and it was super crowded up there

sorry about the quality,
phone pictures

It was pretty cool seeing North South East and West of it
and kind of knowing the area and what we were looking at

That ended Day 1 

(including The Rock and The MET from before)

Day 2 still to come...