My Panera Group has been together now for 2 years. What a blessing it has been for all of us!! We gather, rain or shine, at Panera nearly every Thursday night to discuss a book, pray, catch up on life, visit, and laugh. Our group read Spirit Rising by Jim Cymbala last fall and joked about how neat it would be for all of us to go to a Tues night prayer meeting at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. It didn't take long for Melissa to get the trip planned! Originally, all 10 of us bought tickets. In the end half the group couldn't come, mostly due to personal or family health. It was disappointing, but 5 of us were still up for it and we had an amazing time!
Debbie, Cindi, and Mary -
Me & Melissa -
First view of NYC! I was amazed. One of my absolute favorite things in life is seeing a fabulous place for the first time. I've wanted to go to NY for a long time, and it was so neat to see the city sprawled beneath us as we flew in.
Ah, what a relief to finally be in NY! It took months (!) to get this trip coordinated, determine who was really going to go, how we'd get to Dallas, how the rooms would be divided, etc. We were giddy to finally BE there and ready for 2 1/2 days of adventure.
It was pretty evident that no one else in the group cares about good food as much as I do. For me, travel is at least 50% about food, so I was chomping at the bit for some real NY fare for dinner. We ate at a little local Italian place. My group was unfamiliar with pancetta.. and arugala, but I was delighted!
The night tour was a fabulous way to start our visit. It was pretty chilly, but there were hardly any tourists. I'd much rather be cold than crowded, so it suited me just fine -
Melissa and I shared a room, which was fun. This was my hotel breakfast. Ah. real croissants and greek yogurt. Heavenly.
On Tuesday (Day 1), we road the bus around town again. I loved the Empire State building! Again, part of the delight was that we were almost the only people there. I loved seeing and being on top of this iconic building. The view was amazing.
Tuesday was a pretty awesome day. After the Empire State Building, we headed to Angelo's, a place in Little Italy that the Russo's love and recommended. It was so neat to make our way there, and again, my group was patient and sweet about my desire to experience great food.
Although it's more of a dinner place, we enjoyed a quiet lunch. We had calamari, pasta, eggplant parmesan, and great bread. AND we ran into Tony Danza, which was an unexpected treat!
After Angelo's, we stopped in at Fararra's for a pastry and coffee to go. Such a beautiful little place!
Next stop, the 9/11 Memorial. Really incredible to be there and to see the names of the 1000's of people who lost their lives in such a sudden, tragic way. The memorial was very well done and powerful.
One of our friends was a feeling a bit apprehensive about riding the subway in the evening. God sent along a lovely Jewish man reading scripture to visit with us!
Such good food. Potato pancakes and incredible cheesecake. New York cheesecake. Truly the best I've ever had.
We finally made it to the main event and reason for our visit to NY - the Brooklyn Tabernacle Prayer service.
Pictures/video were not allowed in the sanctuary, but I snapped this one at the start. The message was to come in, refrain from speaking, pray and expect God to do great things that night. Our time at the Tabernacle was inspiring - to see so many people humbly dependent on God, believing He is real, expecting Him to act, crying out to Him in all things. It was a blessing to be part of it all and it was special for our group to share that time and lift up the needs of those who could not join us on the trip -
Wednesday included a very cold bus tour of the upper west side -
A hot dog in Central Park! My hand was freezing (!!) in this pic -
Touring more sites - Rockefeller plaza -
Times Square!
The last night was a perfect finale. We had dinner at a place on Broadway with singing wait staff. The staff all have Broadway-quality talent, so it was a really incredible experience! After dinner, we saw Wicked. What a fun show and so well done! I really enjoyed it. And so concluded our New York extravaganza. What a delightful and fun few days!!!
I LOVED returning to this crew. I struggle to leave them for days on end, and they had been shuffled between Luke, friends, and babysitters from Sunday evening to Thursday evening. They did great, though we were anxious to be back together! I returned home on my 36th birthday and couldn't have had any better gift than pulling up in the driveway to see these 3 playing outside and have them run to my arms, smiling and delighted in my return. Luke took us to BJ's for bbq chicken pizza and pazookies. The trip was my gift, and it was a great one!
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