This crew accomplished more in 3.5 days than some do in a month. They visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Little Italy, Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the New York Public Library, and Union Square. Throw in a Broadway play (Wicked), a bus tour, shopping in Soho and Chelsea, and a thwarted attempt to visit the Met (it's closed on Mondays, they found out the hard way), and you can understand why they were exhausted when they left! Below are some photo highlights.
Us at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. They enjoyed it as much as we thought they would. I think they even got some ideas for their own gardens.
The bonsai collection fascinated us.
Maren found a secret entrance to this tree (sounds weird, but it makes sense, trust me) and we enjoyed the shade. 
Shopping in Soho with these girly girls was an adventure that often left Bryan out on the sidewalk, playing games on his cell phone (rarely). He was around long enough to snap this photo of us in the Prada elevator.
Maleah surprised me when she requested to go to Marc Jacobs. What a fashionista! Though it was closed when we got there, she passed for a true New Yorker.
While we were shopping in Soho, Sheila and Stacie were on the bus tour of a lifetime! One of their tour guides kept saying, "And that's the difference," even when there was nothing to compare, which became the running joke of the weekend. It's so funny, I may just start using it in my day-t0-day conversations. "I would like to order a grande mocha. And that's the difference." The bus also pulled over to a "scenic" location (below) and tried to convince tourists this was a huge photo op!
We ate dinner in Little Italy in perfect weather. What fun! We felt like world-travelers - that is, until I ordered fettuccine alfredo. I probably should have been more adventurous.
The girls were always up for a treat - the best quality a visitor can have! We sampled the peanut butter and jelly gelato, but ended up getting lemon-lime gelato. In case you didn't know, second to Bryan's attempt to find a good malt, he's always on the hunt for lemon gelato (not to be confused with lemon sorbet - they are totally different, according to Bryan). We still haven't found the real deal, but the lemon-lime gelato was close.
The group wanted to try some New York deli pastrami. Artie's came through for us!
How can you go wrong with pastrami? Add cheese, sauerkraut and dressing - how is this legal?!
Umm....oops. Another treat stop. This time it was Rita's. Maren enjoyed her Italian Ice/Custard combo, but the real hit was the lemon "Blendini" with pretzel pieces my aunts ordered.
Some of our best times were the random moments, of course. Check out Maleah's new pal to the left. It doesn't get much more random than this.
When the conversation slowed (okay, actually, it never did), the only obvious distraction was to figure out how to get Maren and Bryan in the same photo as Maleah's reflection in the mirror. Mission accomplished!
It was so great having this cheerful group out to visit. It was like a big slumber party. We heard talking and laughing well past midnight - always a sign of a good time! Thanks for visiting and you're always welcome back!
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