4 years ago, I had a amazing day with my son in New York City. At the time I did a lot of traveling for my job. Sometimes my son would come met me and we would go on little adventures together. This particular time I was working in Connecticut about 45 minutes on the train to New York. One morning we decided to take our first trip to New York to explore.

We hoped on the train in Connecticut and rode 45 minutes to Grand Central Station. For us this was a sea of people and we both felt the excitement of the big as we arrived. The overwhelming beauty of Grand Central station can not even be described in words. There were stores everywhere and a whole floor of restaurants for us to explore. Being from a small town in Virginia, I don’t think we had ever seen that many people in one place before.

After leaving Grand Central station we set out on foot to find Time Square. According to our phone we were approximately 2 blocks away. Those were the longest 2 blocks we ever walked, but the excitement of the city kept us going until we arrived in the magical Time Square area. Here we found the lighted streets with billboards, broadway shows, street vendors, and resteraunts. Again there were more people than we had every seen in our lives, all in one place just like us exploring the big city for the first time.

While in Time Square, we explored the a 3 story M&M shop. Here you can Get any kind of M&M you could think of. There were bins of them in all colors that lined the walls and you could buy them by the pound in all your favorite colors.

After leaving the M&M store we had true New York Pizza at one of the local stores and then we headed out on a mission to ride on one of the double decker tour bus. We rode on the top of the bus and saw the city from a whole new perspective. As we returned to Time Square on the bus we got held up in traffic as protestors marched on Union Square. I had heard of the marches, but had never seen one. It stopped traffic for miles as they marched.

I again returned to the city a second time with a friend to explore more of the city and try to get the Statue of Liberty, but was unable to get there before the ferry closed. We got side tracked walking along the Hudson River. Again the beauty of this city was overwhelming.

I was able to capture a picture of Lady Liberty from across the River as the sun set over the city.

As we walked back to Grand Central station from the river we found something unbelievable that we had not even expected to find. The World Trade Center Memorials. It is hard to tell in the picture but the fountain is huge and the names of those lost are engraved all around the fountain. The small lights on the side of the fountain are candles that have been placed by love ones as they remember those they lost. Hard to believe such a beautiful thing can come from such a tragedy.

The second memorial we saw had amazing architecture and multiple purposes. It was not only a stop on the subway, but a huge shopping mall and designed in such a way to bring more beauty to the city.

Exploring New York was an adventure I will never forget. I can’t wait to go back again and see all the things that I missed on this adventure. I still have to actually visit the Statue of Liberty, the Empire States building and the World Trade Center Tower. Those are just my top 3.

Please like, follow, comment and share your adventures.

Welcome to freedom and Living the Dream!