The fun not Ireland, but New York trip :)

We have been planning what to do in Ireland for 9 months. We have an agreed upon, detailed itinerary that includes pretty much everything there is to do in the whole country. It represents hours and hours (probably hundreds between all of us) of preparation, decision and research.

We had less than 12 hours notice we'd be spending 3-5 hours in New York City. And most of that time was spent sleeping. So, we tried out a few possibilities, but "just" ended up wandering the city.

It was awesome!

Nicole bought some purses from a street vendor.

A few blocks later we ran across Madison Square Gardens, and of course took pictures. :)

Brent got a manly picture next to this giant sword/ axe thing. And we decided that we would stop and eat at the first Irish Pub that we came across. It didn't take long to find one.

Fish and "chips." We also had "bangers and mash" which is sausages with mashed potatoes. It was actually not that good. Which, Brent says, was the most authentically Irish thing about the experience!

As we wandered through New York, we found the flower street, where every shop sells flowers. There are thousands of fresh flowers, amazingly gorgeous silk flowers, potted flowers, cut flowers, anything your flower-loving heart could desire. It reminded me a little of the opening scenes of "My Fair Lady."

After the flower streets came the jewelry streets. Nicole does not consider herself a jewelry person. She doesn't even have pierced ears. She has just started wearing a few necklaces and clip-on earings she's gotten in the last couple of years as gifts. But, Nicole and Marie and even Mom were enchanted by the beautifully creative designs and unbelievably low prices in these stores. We became slightly less enchanted when we found out there was a "wholesale minimum purchase of $50. However, it wasn't long before it was clear it would be no problem meeting that minimum.

While we played with jewelry, Brent went on an adventure of his own. He visited the Empire State Building, saw Broadway, and found directions for us to get back to the subway line we needed. Then, he picked us up back at the jewelry store, and we headed out to grab a bite and get back to the airport.

As we hunted for the subway entrance we needed and for lunch, we ran across Brent's alternative to the jewelry store fun site! A Comic Book Extravaganza! Unfortunately, by then time was very limited.

Finding the subway proved much more difficult than we expected for a couple of reasons. The main subway maps were skewed so that all the routes fit onto one map. We were trying to walk to the next station and what looked like 4 blocks was about 20. Also, the line we were going to take was closed for construction, so we had to figure that out. (We also jumped on the wrong train at one point because we were in a rush... but, I won't bring THAT up again...).

But, we tried to be cool.

We also had wrong information about what station our hotel was at. On the air train it was called the Jamaica Station, but from the subway it was called the Suthton (or something like that) station, and the Jamaica Center Station was one station away from there. So, we got off at the Jamaica Center Station and wandered around a very scary area of town (we thought OUR hotel neighborhood was bad), until a very nice business owner came out from his building and across the street to tell us we looked lost and did we need some help.

(He probably figured it wasn't good for business to have pathetic looking Utahns getting shot or mugged in front of the store... )

He was VERY nice and directed us. We ran about half a mile to the right station and split up. Brent and I grabbed the luggage from the hotel while Mom & Marie got the flight check-in details sorted out. They also got yelled at for being so late, and they had them bypass the line. It took about 15 minutes to work out why our boarding passes weren't printing, and by that time we'd caught up with them with the luggage.

And, we did in fact make it to our flight home on time, barely, with some awesome team work.

Go Team, Go!!