Girl's Trip to New York City Day 1

For Christmas last year, my sisters and I decided give my mom a trip to New York City with us. Before we revealed the big surprise, we each gave her little clues in our gifts to her. She didn't pick up on any of those. For her revealing gift, we had her open several bags which held clues to our destination. The last bag had a card which revealed our location.

Last Thursday began our girls trip to New York City.

My dad dropped my mom, Bec and myself off at the airport. My other sister would eventually meet up with us at LaGuardia Airport.

Once we landed, we met up with Jen and our driver who took us to the hotel. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park. It overlooked the Statue of Liberty. I thoroughly enjoyed this particular location because it was on the quieter and less chaotic side of town. We were within walking distance of the 9/11 Memorial, Wall St, local cafe's and restaurants.

Here is the view from our room. Of course, all the Liberty views were taken. We were not planning to spend our time in the room so the view didn't matter to us. I am sure this is what the views look like for a lot of the residences in NYC.

We had just a few moments to lay our belongings down and see the view before heading out to lunch. We ate a place across the street called Gigino. We could see the Statue of Liberty in the background while we ate.

We all got a different type of salad. They were really good! 

After lunch, we walked around downtown before heading to the 9/11 Memorial.

Trinity Church

Discussing our financial gains and losses over coffee.

When we were deciding on what to do while we were in NYC, the 9/11 Memorial was a must for all of us! The last time I was in NY the Twin Towers area was still roped off and under construction. I was excited to finally be able to visit this area. I will not go into detail about everything we saw or read.  Their website 911memorial.org explains everything better than I ever could.

The North and South 9/11 Memorial Fountains

The 9/11 Museum

The museum houses many of the remnants left from the towers. When designing the museum, they did a great job incorporating everything. Inside you can see what the Twin Towers were before 9/11, a timeline of 9/11 and the rebuilding. The names of all the victims are located at the fountains but their names, pictures and bios can be found inside the museum.  Also, a lot of what you see in the museum is located underneath the fountains.

If you ever make it to NYC, the 9/11 Memorial is a must see attraction. The only thing we did not do that I regret now was the One World Trade Center. I thought it was a building filled with offices. We did not realize there was an observation deck at the top. Our driver who took us to and from the airport failed to mention that piece of information until we were leaving NYC.

After the museum, we ate supper at Balthazar, a French brasserie restaurant. I had the COQ AU VIN(chicken....yes we had to look it up) with smocked bacon, pearl onions on top of truffled basmati rice. This dish tasted just as good as it sounds!

After supper, we headed back to the hotel. We had been up since 3:45 am so we were exhausted!

Next up, Day 2 of our girls trip.