Right now I'm wicked frustrated because I spent about an hour this morning typing out everything, and when I went to save, I copied what I'd written in case it wouldn't save, but forgot to pasteit somewhere, and when I tried to save my entry, the site went down. Arghhhh. Anyway, here it is again. Saturday dad got here (Uncle Pete's)and Lauren & Steven came over for Lobster. Sunday I went to New Jersey with mom to visit Uncle Torrey and Aunt Judy. David & Laurie came over with my little cousin Cameron (soooo cute) and Beth & her fiance Dustin came over too, and we all had dinner, and it was nice. Monday, Uncle Torrey & Aunt Judy & Mom & Dad & I all drove to almost New York and got on a ferry to Ellis Island. I hated it there. Ellis Island was an immigration station; a place where people who'd come from their countries on boats and gotten sick and suffered went to be tested for their so-called "worthiness" of being allowed into New York. It was a place where people had bad experiences, and not meant to be "a fun experience for the whole family". I hate how it's been commercialized. The station now has a food court, exploitation of the immigrants' belongings, a gift shop, and an ehffing fudge factory. The fact that people think it's okay to bring their kids there to run around and have no respect for any of the stuff that went on there is disgusting. It really made me mad. I cried. Then I felt stupid for crying. And I waited outside for an hour for my family to come out for the ferry to Battery Park. They came out, we got on the ferry, we walked around New York a bit, took the Path Train to the connection for the Light Train, and took that plus a bus back to where we were parked. Then we drove back to New Jersey, except for Dad, who drove back to Uncle Pete's, and back home yesterday. Yesterday was the absolute best day of my life, not even exaggerating. I had so much fun. Mom & I drove into New York City to visit Lauren yesterday. The Lincoln Tunnel was dark and creepy and I liked it. We stopped at a gas station along the way, and mom called Lauren to tell her that we were close. Lauren said we couldn't park on her street, because they were filming a movie on the street for the day. We ended up parking really close to her street (parked illegally, but I'll discuss that later) and walked to her stoop. We almost couldn't get to it, because yeah, they were filming a movie on her street, but we did get there eventually. As we were walking, there was a black guy in front of us, and the camera was following him as he was walking, and I thought it was kind of interesting, but didn't really pay attention to it much. We got buzzed up by Lauren into apartment, said hello, and then I asked her what movie they were filming. "Oh, I don't know, something with Love in the title...but Will Smith's been walking up and down the street all day." We went up onto her roof to check everything out, and sure enough, the guy Mom & I had walked approximately five feet behind was Will Smith. So that was cool. Also while on the roof, Lauren pointed out to me the homes of Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick, Hugh Jackman, Liv Tyler (more on her later), Liz Taylor, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Monica Lewinsky. So that was cool too, in a kind of creepy stalkerish way... Mom then mentioned to Lauren that she didn't know if she was parked legally or not, so we all went to check. On the way, we were standing on the corner opposite Will Smith, and Lauren took a picture of me with him in the background, which I'll post as soona s we get the pictures. Anyway, back to the car...sure enough, she was parked illegally, so we all got in to move it, but ended up driving around all of New York City. We went to Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, NoHo, Tribeca, the East Village, Times Square (yeah, I checked out the TRL studio...), and went through Central Park, past the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I really wanted to go in, but no time), and past the Dakota, where John Lennon was shot. During this, we stopped at Ray's for the best pizza in NYC, Ray's world-famous Pesto Pizza. When Mom and I went inside for the slices, Lauren stayed outside, and Tyra Banks walked into the bistro across the street. We ate our pizza, which was amazing, and then got back into the car and drove around more. We also stopped at Rice, this really cool little place that makes the best Rice Krispy Treats in the world (yes, I brought some back, Hampden Academy-ers), and at a street vendor's place in Chinatwon, because I saw this really cool horse toy and bought one. It gallops and actually moves on its own. It's so cool. I don't even like horses. But this horse toy is awesome. We also stopped to see this fake cat that I spotted on a window sill. This was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Someone had taken this fake robotic cat that moved and meowed, and stuck it on a window sill and spray painted it. So people would see it, say Whoa, is that a spray-painted cat?, then go to look closer, and the cat would turn its head and meow at you. It was awesome. I got pictures with the cat as well, and taped it. It made me laugh so hard. Bahahaha. For dinner, we went to the best sushi place in NYC, called Sushi on Hudson. I got a Maki Combo (one tuna roll, one cucumber roll, and one california roll), Mom had a Rainbow roll (it was salmon & tuna and a bunch of other fish, really good) and I can't remember what Lauren had. About halfway through our dinner, someone came in, and Lauren sort of signalled to me to look. But I didn't want to make it overly obvious, so I figured I'd just wait until we got up to leave, and look then. But before that, Lauren took out a pen, and wrote something on a napkin, and then passed it to me. Liv Tyler, Lord of the Rings So yeah. I ate sushi one table away from Liv Tyler in New York City. And no, I didn't get to be her new friend, but still, it was very cool. She sounded kind of weird though during dinner...she has a really airy voice. Maybe she was high. Bahaha. About 2/3 through dinner, lauren's husband Steven came. He's really cool. He's really good at frisbee, and I think it's neat. After dinner, Mom and I took a cab to do what I'd wanted to do so badly for the whole day. We went and saw Chicago on Broadway. It was so amazing. Ohmygod. In the words of Teen Girl Squad, it was "soooo good!" Seeing it made me so happy, even moreso thatn I was already, which is very close to impossible. After the show, we cabbed back to Lauren's, took a walk with Lauren & Steven to the world-famous Magnolia bakery that's on the corner of their street, bought some of the best cupcakes in the world, and made fun of the scray window displays at Marc Jacobs. It was then time to go, and Mom & I went to our car, said our goodbyes, and drove back to Connecticut, where I am now. Today we went to Chili's for lunch and Marshall's and Strawberries to shop, and I had fun. This vacation is absolutely amazing. How is yours, friends? Out: Gretchen