Just Kidding New York is in this post...

 On Tuesday night Mark and I said farewell and hit up our red eye flight to New York City.  Yep, we went to NYC together and I cried as our flight took off.  I HATE leaving my kids.  It is so so hard for me to fly thousands of miles away from them.  Mark just patiently let me cry on his shoulder and squeezed my hand.  He's a good man. :)  He also very tactfully tried to tell me that the trip would be lots more fun if I just let it go and enjoyed the time. :)

SO the reason for flying to NYC was to get a rental car and drive to Springfield MA where Mark was interviewing at Baystate Medical Center.  It was my first time in NYC and let me tell you this was the country mouse visits the city mouse reincarnate.  I was WIDE EYED all the while trying not to be wide eyed because I was terrified of all the angry looking people on the subway.  Seriously everyone looks mad or sad and no one makes eye contact.  Strange.  NYC subway impressions: stinky, cold, dripping water, rats, an amazing underground world.  How can that whole city be built on top of such a massive system of trains and people coming and going.  It is amazing.  Our rental car (for some unknown reason Mark?!!) was in Harlem.  So we go from the airport to the subway to emerge in Harlem which I was ALSO terrified of.  I mean if our looks don't give us away as tourists our rolling carry-on's behind us surely will right?! So we walk a couple of blocks amidst garbage and people and brick and concrete to the car rental place.  Phew.  I felt much safer in a car than walking the streets of Harlem.  So maybe I have been unduly influenced by the media to fear the streets of New York....? Maybe. Maybe not.

(oh ya and I am KICKING myself for not taking my camera instead of Mark's Iphone.gah)

We successfully maneuvered the streets of New York, drove through Connecticut until we found ourselves in Springfield Massachusetts.  The only reason we picked Springfield to apply to was because my brother just spent 6mths or so of his mission there and it became a nothing dot on the map to a "hey Adam lived there" dot on the map and then a "hey we have an interview there" dot on the map.  We enjoyed the residents dinner and then the next day while Mark interviewed from 8-3

(yes, you read that right a 7hr interview!! i think they should scrap the hospital tours.  Aren't all hospitals the same??!)

anyways, while he interviewed I drove around to the places where the residents said most of them lived. It was fun to drive around rural Connecticut and see old houses and old barns and just get a feel for the place.  I really liked it.  And I think it will make our rank list - just not sure where.  After I picked Mark up from his interview we drove the 2 1/2hrs back to NY dropped off our rental car and walked back through the streets of Harlem (this time in the dark.  we are smart tourists. no?) to the subway which took us to Lower Manhattan where Noah and Allison live.

Meet Noah and Allison. 

(and Grand Central Station)

(I need to take picture taking lessons from Allison.  

And yes, she is as fun and beautiful and chic as her picture depicts :)

They win the prize for being THE best host/hostess on the planet.  They both had to work the next day but dropped everything to show us the city that they love.  6:30 found us at Crisps eating their favorite Mediterranean dishes (so good) then the tour began.  We hit up the Brooklyn bridge, Rockefeller Center (with tree still up!), Times Square, Grand Central Station (complete with Juniors Cheesecake), 5th Ave, The Manhattan Temple, Central Park, some big deal church's (insert ignorance here) seriously I can't even remember what else we saw that night.  I can remember that I loved walking everywhere.  I felt like I was in college again.  No vehicle, crisp winter air, hustle and bustle of the city, no kids.  It was really fun.

 Next day we woke up and made it on the ferry for Liberty & Ellis Islands.  Per our host/hostess' advice we skipped getting off on Liberty island (just waved our hello's to lady Liberty from the ferry) and only got off on Ellis Island.  Good thing too.  We spent 3+ hours perusing the immigration hall of the early 1900's.  This was my favorite part of the trip - being a recent immigrant myself. :)  It was fascinating.  I love places where you can feel it's history - same thing with Grand Central Station. Oh and the cemetery where Alexander Hamilton is buried.  That was also a favorite - no surprise there.  I love love love cemeteries. All of them.

 Why hello George Washington!

This was Mark's favorite part. 9/11 Memorial. 

Lots of construction still going on there as they finish the memorial and the new 

World Trade Centers.

We met Noah for lunch and enjoyed us some NYC pizza and then he took us on a little detour home through Wall St and the financial district.  We were planning on heading back to central park for a mid-afternoon run but zonked on the couch for 2+hrs instead.  Bummer.  Noah woke us up when he got in from work at 5:30. yep.  We barely made our plane home. Phew.  We got home at 12:30am.  My family left at 5:40am that morning and my 3 munchkins came and climbed into bed with us when they woke up.  Nothing better than being home.  Loved the trip.  Love being home.