Day one of anything is always the most exciting. As we walked into the airport expectations of the cool places I will see and the way i’d feel being in the city of dreams filled my head. Salt Lake City airport is full of anxiety. I looked at each person running to make a flight and thought, each one of these people are going somewhere, making memories. We stayed in Philadelphia that night. As we drove to get our Philly cheese steak sandwich I kept my eyes peeled for Pattys pub from “its always sunny in Philadelphia” unfortunately I later found out that its filmed on a set.

As I visited places like where Betsy Ross sewed the flag, the liberty bell, Independence hall, and walked the cobblestone street from the later 1700s on a tour of the history behind Philadelphia, the thought I had while learning about our country is first, how we take it for granted. It has taken a lot to get to where we are now. I also wish I would’ve paid more attention in history so I could understand what the tour guide was saying.

Before we left to our next destination my mom couldn’t leave without running the art museums 72 steps like Rocky Balboa did. The hardness level was equivalent to the Davis High staircase, i was not impressed.

We were staying in Bucks County Pennsylvania for the night while Chad the dad attended a business meeting. Pennsylvania made us feel like home due to waking up to a blizzard. I was amused to see that the whole town just shut down. All the shops closed, school was canceled, and no cars were on the streets. If you think Kaysville has some bad winter driver then you haven’t seen these people.

My heart was beating as we boarded our train from Newark to New York. Its much more lively than the front-runner.  A homeless women called my pretty but followed up with a “can I have some money”, I still don’t know if it was genuine. The first thing I saw as we got off of the train was Madison Square Garden, the concert venue bands dream of playing in.

As I walked into Times Square i felt that magical feeling like walking into Disneyland and seeing all the movies come to life. It brought to life all the movies I’ve seen filmed in New York. I paid 50$ to ride up an elevator and walk around to see the view from 102 stories up, worth it.

To be able to see Anastasia on Broadway was another dream come true. It was so impressive to see these people be so passionate about acting and seeing. It was like being on set of movie being filmed. I also loved to see all the fancy people that were there to see it.

When I rode the subway I felt like I was in a movie. The people on the subway are so intriguing, I wish I had more time to sit and meet a few new people and maybe hear about their life. To find the right subway was a long and confusing process. We saw the infamous Flatiron building.

I could’ve spent a week at the Met. I want to be inside the mind of all the painters. It makes me so happy to be surrounded by people that took time out of there life to enjoy art. To be honest the New York hot dogs taste the same as here but the fact that I’m eating a famous NYC hot dog made it better. You don’t realize how big central park is until you walk through it to get to the Zoo. Elf made the ice skating rink at Rockefeller look much more glamorous  than it is. The man dressed in a one piece skin tight outfit doing twirls made the ice skating rink more fun though.

Trying to get place to place is such a challenge with all the people. Every block we would wait, gather, and continue to go forward. Traffic laws don’t apply to New Yorkers.

The worn down steps show the large amount of people that has passed through those doors on Ellis island. The statue of liberty was so cool to see. Its amazing to see the large amount of tourists there to visit the statue symbolizing our country’s freedom. Its such a surreal feeling being in places that you’ve learned about in your history class it makes me think how much everyone could learn if they could see hands on the places I’ve seen.

New York is such an iconic place. Being there made you feel like you could do or be anything. On the other hand I’ve missed the nicer drivers, the feeling of safety, cleaner streets, and silence.