Harry Potter

I finally just saw the last Harry Potter movie. It was good, but it was kind of a bittersweet thing to see the end. I've been reading those books and watching those movies for forever. When I was in first grade, my Grandma sent me a paperback copy of the first book. This was before the books were really popular; I think she just said that she'd heard that it was a good book. It took me a while to read it, until right after the third book came out. I read those quickly as well, and then the waiting began. I had to wait for the fourth book, the fifth book, then the sixth, and finally the seventh. I was really sad to see the books end. But at least there were still the movies. The first movie came out when I was in fifth grade, right before I turned eleven, the same age that Harry is at the beginning of the series. I watched all of the movies, and it was always my job to answer whatever questions anyone else had, since I'd read the books so many times. But I guess that this is the end of the Harry Potter series. So all I can say is, "Mischief managed!"

New York

A few weeks ago I got to go to New York with my family. It was awesome. Our parents have been to New York several times before, but for Savannah, Zachary, and me, it was the first time. I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated by the idea of going to a huge city that seemed so rushed, but I loved New York. It was so much fun.
One of the first things we did was go to Gray's Papaya. I now fully sympathize with the guy from "Fools Rush In." He obsesses over Gray's Papaya, and I always wondered why. Well, now I know why. It is amazing. I usually don't like hot dogs, but I liked Gray's Papaya.

We also got to take the Staten Island Ferry, which went right by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Then we went to see Trinity Church and Wall Street, and the spot where the World Trade Centers were.
Then there was Times Square. We got to see the M&M Store, which was amazing. With the way that I love chocolate, being in a store with that much chocolate was awesome.

We also went to a Yankees game. Of course, the Yankees lost 1-0, but it was still fun to get to go.
We also went to the Top of the Rock. With my fear of heights, that was kind of scary, but it had a really good view of the city. On one side, there was Central Park, and on the other side, there was the Empire State Building. It was really cool, despite the heights involved.


We also got to go see where the Temple is, and that was kind of cool.

Then we went to some of the sites from "You've Got Mail." There was Cafe Lalo, and then we went and saw where they say "Hello New Jersey," and then we went into Riverside Park and found the place where they meet at the end of the movie.


Then we went to Central Park. We got to see Bethesda Fountain, where it started to rain on us.

Then there's a section of Central Park called Shakespeare Garden, which was really cool for me. There were lots of plaques with quotes from Shakespeare, surrounded by the flowers and plants mentioned in the quote. It was really neat, at least for me.

Anyways, it was a really fun trip. I loved getting to take the subway and go see some of the stuff that's in New York. It was lots of fun.