New York! New York!

Where do I start? First, there's no describing the overwhelming feeling I had when I stepped out of my Super Shuttle onto the streets of Times Square. Completely amazing and really quite intimidating. Second, I think NY has to be one of the coolest places to visit, I can't believe it took me so long to finally get there.
So, here's a run down of the trip. We went to a show the first night we were there, Thursday night. We saw Little Mermaid (mostly because we got discount tickets) and it was okay. Our seats were crappy (almost at the top) and we thought it was a little too kid-ish. I would recommend it to anyone with a daughter, but other than that, I would say skip it. I wish we had seen West Side Story or even Lion King. I would've totally seen Wicked but my sister has already seen it twice so that was out. But that's ok, there's always next time. On Friday we went down to Battery Park to do the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island thing. We were told to get there early, which we didn't and told to dress warm, which we kinda did, so we were a little cold and had to wait in a long line for tickets and a long line for the ferry. We employed the divide & conquer trick, and that worked great. My sister stood in the ticket line while I stood in the ferry line. It was a lot of fun and cool to learn all about Ellis Island & immigration. I didn't realize that Ellis Island was for "steerage class" immigrants only, and that the first class immigrants were able to be processed for entry into the US on the ships they came in on. For me, it was a very poignant illustration of the class system that existed back then and made me really understand so much more what these people were seeking in America. Then we went over to the financial district and ground zero. Ground Zero is now a construction zone as they are building the new (sure to be breathtaking) memorial. We stopped at a discount store (Daffy's) and did some shopping and by the time we got over to St. Paul's chapel it was closed. So we headed up to Soho/Nolita and found this great Mexican restaurant (El Portal) a friend recommended. It was great!!! This lady next to us was impressed that tourist were able to find the "best mexican in the city". We felt cool! Haha! After dinner we wandered around SoHo but I think we were a little confused because we found Little Italy but couldn't really find the heart of SoHo. It was dark and we were getting tired so we took a cab back to the hotel. It's so funny to go from SoHo to Times Square, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT feel! I swear you need sunglasses even at night in Times Square, so bright & so many people. On Saturday we headed up to Rockefeller Center, did the top of the Rock which was great & went to Magnolia Bakery for yummy cupcakes (the red velvet was one of the best things I have ever eaten!). Then we walked up to Central Park and wandered around there for a while enjoying the gorgeous weather and beautiful flowers (the weather was great the whole time). At first I was bummed that there wasn't more green on the trees but the tulips, lilies & dafadills were so pretty & those are only in the Spring so I was happy I got to see all those. And the cherry blossoms, so pretty! Then we headed back down to St. Paul's chapel and up to another discount store called Century 21. It was this huge store with people & handbags everywhere! We were in there for hours and completely lost track of time! Then we headed back up to SoHo again and found this cool Italian restaurant (I can't remember the name) with yummy pizza & bread. I was so starving by the time we sat down to eat I don't think I hardly taked the whole meal, just shoved food in my mouth as fast as I could. I loved the whole area of Soho, and wish we could have had more time to explore the area more. I think I could spend days there just exploring. After dinner we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and then went to Serendipity for dessert and loved it. We got back at like 2 am and were exhausted!My sister left Sunday at noon so I spent the afternoon doing last minute gift shopping & wandered around some street market. Then walked over to Bryant Park, got lunch and hung out for a bit before my shuttle picked me up. Although I was anxious to get home to my family, I really did not want to leave. I actually really enjoyed just wandering around by myself watching all the people & stuff. It was so awesome. I am already planning my next trip!It is definately one of the coolest places I have ever been. I was amazed at all the buildings, how tall and close they all are. When I was driving home from the Las Vegas airport I thought how small Las Vegas seems now compared to New York. It seems like this tiny little city and all the hotels seem so small compared to the huge skyscrapers in NY. I loved all the old buildings & architecture, you definately don't get that out West. And I was actually surprised at how friendly & helpful most people were. 3 1/2 days is definately not long enough to even scratch the surface. There were a bunch of things we just didn't have time for which just means I'll have to go back!
Finally, I just have to say that I had the most incredible time with my sister. She is so much fun to be around and is always making me laugh to the point of peeing my pants. I think part of the reason we didn't get to as many things as we could have was because we had so much fun talking and just hanging out. And really, I could've done that the whole time! Thanks sis, for being such an inspirational person to me. I love you!!