New York

The following Monday-Thursday, we laid low in preparation for our big excursion so New York and Washington, D.C. On Friday morning, we woke up with the birds and caught a 7 am bus from Boston heading to New York City. We arrived four hours later in the heart of the city and immediately set out to explore. First, we visited Ground Zero.

Ground Zero

It was incredibly intense to be at the site of such a tragic event, but it was also very educational as we toured a small museum that has been set up in its honor. After, we took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry which passed by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

on the ferry

Next we hit up Canal Street and scored ourselves some high-class knockoff sunglasses and jewelry. As evening approached, we toured Union Square and visited a restaurant specializing in chocolate delicacies (chocolate pizza?!).

Canal Street

big apple in the Big Apple!

That night, we met up with Kelly Lavin, a one of Summer's sorority sisters at DU, at one of her friend's apartments in Brooklyn. From there, we went to another friend's birthday party in the city and met tons of local New Yorkers. That night, we stayed at a friend's apartment in the Bronx.

Kelly (far right) and friends

The next day, we woke up and made our way to Central Park. We walked through the park to reach the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts (The MET), where Summer fell in love with the historical museum full of works from famous artists around the world and got to google over rooms full of her favorite- Monet, including the original “Water lilies.” We had never seen so much beautiful artwork in one place!

Central Park

The Met

Monet's Water lilies

After, took the subway through Grand Central Station to Times Square. We were overwhelmed by all the bright lights, vendors, and amazing shops! We stopped into M&M World and passed by dozens of enormous shops and elegant restaurants as well as The Broadway and Paramount Theaters.

Times Square

 Our next stop was the beautiful little Chelsea apartment of Summer's family friend, Matt, where we planned on crashing for the evening. He was so hospitable and kind to let us stay the night! After spritzing up a bit, we met two of Amos' friends from high school out for dinner and then spent the evening with some of their friends in Midtown.

in the cab driving down 5th Ave

 New York was big, bustling, and quite an experience- different than anything we could have expected- but we had fun and pride ourselves in hitting four of the five boroughs in just 48 hours, backpacks in tow!