Three Sisters and Mimi in NYC

So Jenny has been in NYC for the last 5 months finishing up her internship getting ready to move back home.  Well, I decided I couldn't just let a free place to stay and a local tour guide in New York go to waste. I called Megan and told her to pack her bags, that it was going to be a sister weekend in New York. As we were making our plans, we unanimously decided we just couldn't leave Mimi home.  We told her to pack her wheelchair and her best meds, we were going to run her wheels off for a 3 day sprint thru New York.  And that is exactly what we did...

And we were off...

After a long day of travelling for all of us, we finally all met up with Jenny and all our luggage and headed back to her apartment on the subway.  It took us half the night to get back to the apartment, but we were laughing and talking the whole time and hardly noticed.  Although we were introduced to some interesting people on the subway after midnight!

The next morning turned out to be a gray rainy day, but that didn't slow us down. We started out at Central Park on our way down to Times Square.

We made a quick stop here

before we made it to here:

Times Square 

We stopped in St. Patrick's Cathedral and lit a candle for world peace.  It was truly a place of contrast as we stepped into the hushed cathedral amid the crazy, honking loudness that was happening outside.

After mom's handicap card got us a free pass to the front of the line at the discount ticket booth to buy our tickets to Newsies, we were off to see Grand Central Station and get some dinner.

Then we were off to...

 What a difference a day will make. We woke up to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and warm. It was going to be a good day.

We started off at Megan's pick,  Mood Fabrics. This is where all the designers on Project Runway pick their fabrics.  It was FABRIC NIRVANA!

Mimi was in button heaven... we had to drag her away before she started sorting them by color!

 Next lunch...

We then trekked over to the High Line, which is a park 30 feet above street level on an old rail line, with a great view of the city where you can sit and watch traffic - very popular!

The skyline looked like something off of a movie set, it was a very cool corner of New York.

A view from the tracks looking out onto a little Statue of Liberty in the bay.

And just a quick peek at the Empire State Building...

After a short subway ride, we were at the main attraction of the day.  The 911 Memorial.

Freedom Tower

 Reflection Pool - South Tower

 It was truly sacred ground.  There was a peace there that I never expected.  The sound of the water, and all the trees, and it seemed as though everyone spoke in hushed tones. Hallowed ground for sure.

Never Forget.

We walked right past FDNY Station #10 and saw the bronze memorial of the 6 that were lost during 911.  I have to say, it was a sobering experience to walk past that firehouse with a wife of a firefighter.  It was sort of this unspoken awful pit in your stomach experience.  Erick you were in our thoughts, thank you for all you do!

Our next stop... 

Battery Park and Lady Liberty

Now you just can't go to NYC and come home without something fake from Canal St. So we got our shopping on... and by that I mean we were accosted by all the little Asian ladies trying to sell us Louis Viotton and Prada bags out of their apartments somewhere.  Talk about high pressure sales. 

We bought our share of bags,  watches, perfume, jewelry and souvenirs for our kids and Jenny took us to her favorite Italian restaurant in Little Italy.  We were hungry and it was delicious!!

 The last stop of the day was the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. Jenny had seen that you could hang a Lock of Love on the cabling of the bridge and we wanted to leave our mark on the bridge too.  We all put our name on it and hung it exactly in the middle of the bridge.  We hope to be able to come back soon and check on it.

After several jokes about just letting Mimi zoom by herself down the bridge to the bottom, we found a park bench and  divided out our cannolis and laughed as we watched the lights of the city skyline.  It was a perfect day in the city.

And one last shot of the day with all our Canal St. purchases.

As all good things must come to an end, Megan had to get up early to trek back across the continent to her awaiting family. That left just the 3 of us.  We found ourselves a yummy breakfast buffet and ate al fresco.

Mom and Jenny headed back to the apartment to pack the last of Jenny's things and I wondered up to the Cloisters Museum and walked the grounds.

It was am amazing trip - it was full of laughs and memories that we will all never forget.  Truly a once in a lifetime.  I'm so lucky to be able to have such great sisters, and a wonderful mom that would make this trip happen. I know how rare it is to have the relationship I do with these girls I love.  So excited to plan our next trip!

Bonus Material

Because it was hard to hail a cab that could accommodate Mimi and her wheelchair, we spend A LOT of time on the subway.

Here's us deciding if Megan and Jenny had the same profile, Megan and I as the schlepping Sherpas, and Jenny eating fresh mangos waiting for the train 

And subway art that I found kinda fascinating.  Beautiful mosaics.

And some of the food we ate...

What I learned in New York

I could seriously write a book on the kind people we met while we were there. There was the wheelchair escort that helped us a soon as we landed at JFK that sang as he pushed mom to baggage claim. And then he continued on to help us find what train we needed to be on, spending more than an hour making sure we got to where we needed to go.  He told us stories of coming to New York from the Caribbean to live the American dream and to make money and have nice clothes and a nice apartment.  He told us that he was a national team volleyball player, but his country did not have the money to send their team to the Olympics. He knew there was no job for volleyball players on his island, so he came to America to follow his dream, working 2-3 jobs at a time. He was so generous with his time, and went above and beyond to make sure we didn't get lost. 

There was the nice man from India who helped us find a place to eat, but discouraged us from eating his favorite Indian food so that we would not get a big belly like him.  He walked us into Grand Central station holding doors for us and making sure we found our way down the right corridor to the best food.

And the man from Haiti on the subway who moved here with his family.  He had 11 brothers and sisters that were, what he called, his parent's retirement plan.  They all worked and sent money home to their mother. As soon as we told him we were from Idaho, he said oh the blue turf! I guess even in Haiti our blue smurf turf is famous.

And our all-time favorite was Abdul our airport shuttle driver. He was from the Ivory Coast, where he too came from a family of 11 brothers and sisters.  Including his twin, and 2 other sets of twins and his mother and his father were a twin also.  He told us his philosophies on love and finding the woman who will love you when you have money and when the money is gone. He told us of his love for his mother as she cared for all her children when they were sick and sat up with them thru the night and all the sacrifices a mother makes for her children.  He told us that if you treat your mother with love, your life will be good. He showed us pictures of him and his brother in nice clothes that he had bought with his hard-earned money. And then there was his dream Maserati that he hoped to soon buy as soon as he could get a $10,000 down payment! He loved New York, and America and knew that nothing came without hard work.

There were many more that we met and that were so helpful to us and helped my mom get in and out of elevators and held doors for us.  There were times when we couldn't find an elevator and mom would have to walk up the stairs of the subway while Megan and I carried the wheelchair up.  There was never a time that someone didn't stop to ask us if we needed help.

It was unexpected kindness. I hope that I can seek out those who could use some unexpected kindness. And I also hope that I recognize how lucky I am to live in the country I do and have the things I have.  I have a very good life.

And here's one more for laughs.  There's a reason people stopped to ask us if they could help...