New York City

On Friday, we rode a Greyhound bus to New York City. Getting to the bus station was quite a challenge. We had metro transfers, our metro tickets wouldn't even work at first, and it wasn't until Mom said, "We're dumb, we're from Utah," that the metro station guy was even nice to us, but then he did give us passes to get us from point A to point B.

I took tons of pictures on the way up, and hardly slept at all, which I was surprised at. The time change was weird and we were on the bus by 8:00 a.m., so I'd been up since 5:30 (3:30 our time).

This is Baltimore, MD

We got to New York City and met up with one of my best friends, Amy Nicholas, and her sister Kari. They came down from Boston. The first thing we did was eat at Chevy's. It was pretty good. After that we just walked around wanting to see the sights before our appointment to do a session at the Manhattan Temple at 8:30. Our first stop was Ground Zero. What a humbling, but beautiful experience! The devastation was horrific, but seeing the way the people were honored (Ladder 10 Fire department) and the way the development is coming along, to see that the New Yorkers, the Americans could overcome something like that was beautiful!

We went to see Rockefeller Center. We wanted to get to the ice skating rink, so we had to go through the building to get there. As we were walking through, we just happened to run into Amy's and Kari's cousin-in-law, Gil. He works there, but really what is the chance in a city of 9,000,000 people we would run into him. He was so funny, and so excited to see them. He took us up to the "Top of the Rock." It was amazing! I got some pretty cool pictures.

Central Park. Next time I go, I'm going to spend time here.

The four of us with the Empire State building behind us. Kari and I should've been in front, since we were shortest.

The City
Then we went to Times Square. It was so funny to be there in the place we see on tv and to really be there, was so fun. I couldn't live there, but it was a really fun place to visit. We went to a cute little cafe for dinner, and then headed to the temple, we missed our appointment, but still spent time there.

I borrowed this from the Church website, because when we got there it was way too dark for good pictures.

Then we spent $60+ on a taxi to our hotel, which cost us only $2.50 on the way back on a bus. Oh well, we didn't know what we were doing. It was so much fun! I absolutely loved it! The people were not like how they portray them on tv, yes they were walking swiftly from place to place, but everyone we talked to was so nice and helpful! It wouldn't have been the same had we not run into Gil. He and his wife were so welcoming!

Washington D.C.

Mom and I went to DC over UEA weekend, plus some. We arrived in DC on Wednesday, the 15th, around 11:00 p.m. there, which was only 9:00 for us, and there were no restaurants near our hotel, well within walking distance, so we ordered room service. The most expensive quesadilla I've ever had!

Our first real day we spent at the Natural History Museum.

We spent all day, nearly just in this one museum, and could have devoted probably another full day there, but there was so much to see. All the museums close around 5:30, which is so sad. While we were in the gem part, some Mongolian guy stopped me to ask if American's like a certain shape of stone. He's a jewelry maker, and has only been in the States for about 6 months. He then started talking to Mom and wouldn't let her end the conversation for over 15 minutes. It's so funny! People find her wherever we are and tell her their life story!

After we left the Natural History Museum, we walked around the Smithsonian over to the monuments.

It was beautiful! The Korean monument was my favorite, I'll post pictures on another post.

Sanford Ross Nicholes, Jr.

Today is my dad's 53rd birthday. It strange to think of him at that age, but I'm pretty sure I know what he would look like. To celebrate, we as a family always go to Sunday Brunch at Little America, the Sunday of General Conference (Good thing we can see the replay online, when we get home). He and Mom would go to Sunday brunch the weekend of our Snowbird week, but this is easier, so we don't have to miss out on our Sunday assignments.

I never enjoy working on Oct. 10 or Oct. 17, due to Dad days. However, I had to this year, at least today, but it wasn't that bad. I was sad that I didn't get to go to the temple with Mom, but from now on, I'll go with her.

I'm so grateful for my dad. I didn't have him here on this earth for very long, but I know he's watching out for me. I just have to ask Heavenly Father for him to be able to help me, and I can feel Dad with me. I'm so grateful that we have an eternal family. One day, we're going to spend eternity catching up and getting to know each other better.